Today Weatherman Is Getting Larger!

Have you noticed that brother Al Roker has been putting back on those pounds? Maybe it's due to all that cheddar!

In addition to his daytime gig on The Today Show, Roker has been picked to host the new prime-time game show ‘Celebrity Family Feud’ on NBC. The gig will feature celebrity families and will mark one of the few times when an African American actually becomes the HNIC.

“Family Feud” debuted in 1976 on ABC with the suave Richard Dawson as host. It has been on and off the air several times since, and has been hosted by Louie Anderson, Ray Combs, Richard Karn and the host of the present syndicated series, John O’Hurley, best known from “Seinfeld” and “Dancing With the Stars.”

I'm particularly found of Family Fued, especially since my family appeared on the classic game show with Ray Combs. In fact, I announced my engagement to my wife on the show. Just hours earlier, I proposed in front of the locker we used to share in junior high. After getting some lunch, we met up with the others expecting to triumphantly ride off into the sunset. Well, we lost. Since someone from the audience yelled out an answer, however, we were brought back a second.

And we lost again!

The new show will consist of three rounds of competition, with teams being eliminated along the way until just two are left to “feud it out” to see which will win the big money. The celebrities appearing on “Celebrity Family Feud” will be announced at a later date by NBC.

The multitalented Roker, 53, has been TODAY’s weatherman since 1996, when he replaced Willard Scott, who went into semiretirement. In addition to his duties presenting the weather, he is also a reporter, interviewer and sometimes host on TODAY.

A native New Yorker, Roker was born in Queens and was the weatherman for WNBC-TV in New York before moving to TODAY in 1996. Congrats Al. Now, back to the gym.

MERV GRIFFIN TELEVISION HOST, HOTEL AND MEDIA TYCOON DIES

Merv Griffin, the big band-era crooner turned impresario who parlayed his "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire, died Sunday from prostate cancer. He was 82.

From his beginning as a $100-a-week San Francisco radio singer, Griffin moved on as vocalist for Freddy Martin's band, sometime film actor in films and TV game and talk show host, and made Forbes' list of richest Americans several times.

PIONEER OF TALK SHOWS
Merv Griffin had a series of overlapping careers. His stint as a television talk show host was associated from the beginning with that of Johnny Carson, the reigning "king of late night talk" from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Griffin's first daytime talk show on NBC began the same day as Carson's reign on the Tonight show, and if Carson was consistently rated number one as national talk show host, Griffin was for significant periods of time clearly number two.

SENORED FOR VIETNAM WAR STANCE
As the late night television talk show wars heated up between Carson, Joey Bishop, Dick Cavett, and David Frost, Griffin entered the fray in 1969 as CBS's candidate to take on Carson in his own time slot.

He immediately ran afoul of network censors with controversial guests and topics. Concerned with the number of statements being made against the War in Vietnam in 1969, CBS lawyers sent Griffin a memo: "In the past six weeks 34 antiwar statements have been made and only one pro-war statement, by John Wayne." Griffin shot back: "Find me someone as famous as Mr. Wayne to speak in favor the war and we'll book him."

KING OF SYNDICATION TELEVISION

By the beginning of 1972, Griffin had had enough. He secretly negotiated a new syndication deal with Metromedia which gave him a daytime talk show on the syndicated network the first Monday after any day he was fired. A penalty clause in his contract with CBS would give him a million 1971 dollars as well.

With his ratings sagging, CBS predictably lowered the boom and Griffin went immediately to Metromedia where his daytime talk show ran for another 13 years. In 1986 he retired from the show to devote full time to his highly profitable game shows.

But when it came to Black entertainers and news makers, we will remember Merv was the first to interview Black notables like Martin Luther King Jr., and start the careers of performers like young teenage Whitney Huston ...

'THE PRICE IS RIGHT' FOR COMEDIAN DREW CAREY

Genial comic Drew Carey was tapped to replace silver-haired legend Bob Barker on the CBS daytime game show The Price is Right.

The deal was set Monday before a taping of CBS' Late Show with David Letterman, where he confirmed it.

"I realize what a big responsibility this is," Carey said. "It's only a game show, but it's the longest-running game show in American television and I plan to keep it that way."

The selection attracted more attention than usual for a daytime show because of the prospect of replacing Barker, 83, who retired after 35 years in the job last month following the taping of his 6,586th episode.

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