Home shopping host
Encyclopedia
A home shopping host is the on-air host that partners with guests on television
shopping channel
s, such as HSN, QVC
, and ShopNBC
. The job of a home shopping
host is to introduce new presenters and guests to the television audience, and help these guests explain the values and features of the product being showcased.
radio station owner Lowell 'Bud' Paxson was collecting money
from local companies that advertised on his station. One local company, a hardware store
owner, refused payment, insisting that not one single customer had heard the broadcast
of his radio advertisements. Paxson and the store owner argued back and forth, eventually coming to a compromise: Instead of a financial payment, the store owner gave Paxson a box filled with electric can opener
s. Paxson took the box, and returned to the radio station.
When the station's talk radio
host, Bob Circosta
, was on a newsbreak, Paxson asked Circosta to sell these can openers to his audience. Circosta initially objected, but soon complied with his Paxson's wishes. "I looked at him like he had three heads," Circosta said, recalling the moment. "I thought it would be unethical because I was trying to be a serious host." When Circosta returned to the airwaves, he began describing the can openers and asking listeners to buy them.
All 112 can openers were purchased in under an hour.
Sensing the vast profit
potential
of this concept, Paxson launched a shopping channel
on local Tampa
cable television
, later launching nationwide with the Home Shopping Network
. Bob Circosta
was the first ever home shopping host to appear on either radio, local television, and national television, eventually selling over 75,000 different products and inventions, netting over 20,000 hours of live airtime, and selling over one billion dollars worth of merchandise in the decades that followed.
In addition to Bob Circosta
, other early home shopping hosts were Alice Cleveland
, Bobbi Ray Carter
, Tina Berry, Dan Dennis, John Cremeans
, and Lisa Robertson.
shopping channels, the home shopping
host will stay on the air for three to five hours at a time, welcoming several new guests and demonstrating many new products. Since products and guests are often only given 10 or 15 minutes to sell their product in the world of home shopping
, it's not uncommon for a host to be required to introduce 20 or more different products and inventions during their shift. Being quick-witted, personable, and likeable is essential for a host, as well as being able to make quick transitions from one product to another. Additionally, with networks like HSN and QVC
routinely debuting brand new inventions and products, the host must also quickly articulate
to the audience why the item is worth purchasing.
home shopping channels are broadcast live, 24-hours a day, so mistakes and errors cannot be edited out. This has led to some memorable on-air home shopping
bloopers, such as a QVC
demonstrator falling from a ladder
and getting injured, or a Shop at Home host insisting that a moth
in a photograph is actually a horse
.
Many of the guests who accompany the home shopping
host on-air are not particularly TV-savvy or experienced, so the host must help guests better define the attributes and value of the items being showcased.
Because of the large influx of guests and products, hosts often lack the time
to study the product beforehand, which increases the need for an effective host to possess sufficient verbal skills to mask this lack of direct product knowledge.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
shopping channel
Shopping channel
Shopping channels are television specialty channels that present shopping related content, particularly for home shopping enthusiasts.-USA:* America's Store* Home Shopping Network* Jewelry Television* QVC* Shop at Home Network* ShopNBC...
s, such as HSN, QVC
QVC
QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...
, and ShopNBC
ShopNBC
ShopNBC is an American broadcast and cable home shopping network, owned and operated by ValueVision Media, which is in turn 30% owned by GE Equity and NBC Universal...
. The job of a home shopping
Home shopping
Home shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing/home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com, as well as traditional mail order and brick and mortar retailers as Hammacher...
host is to introduce new presenters and guests to the television audience, and help these guests explain the values and features of the product being showcased.
History
Back in 1977, Clearwater, FloridaClearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
radio station owner Lowell 'Bud' Paxson was collecting money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
from local companies that advertised on his station. One local company, a hardware store
Hardware store
Hardware stores, sometimes known as DIY stores, sell household hardware including: fasteners, hand tools, power tools, keys, locks, hinges, chains, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, cleaning products, housewares, tools, utensils, paint, and lawn and garden products directly to consumers for...
owner, refused payment, insisting that not one single customer had heard the broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
of his radio advertisements. Paxson and the store owner argued back and forth, eventually coming to a compromise: Instead of a financial payment, the store owner gave Paxson a box filled with electric can opener
Can opener
A can opener is a device used to open metal cans. Although preservation of food using tin cans had been practiced since at least 1772 in the Netherlands, the first can openers were patented only in 1855 in England and in 1858 in the United States. Those openers were basically variations of a...
s. Paxson took the box, and returned to the radio station.
When the station's talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
host, Bob Circosta
Bob Circosta
Bob Circosta is television's first ever home shopping host and has achieved over one billion dollars in personal product sales on live television. His offices are in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles from the Home Shopping Network's corporate building...
, was on a newsbreak, Paxson asked Circosta to sell these can openers to his audience. Circosta initially objected, but soon complied with his Paxson's wishes. "I looked at him like he had three heads," Circosta said, recalling the moment. "I thought it would be unethical because I was trying to be a serious host." When Circosta returned to the airwaves, he began describing the can openers and asking listeners to buy them.
All 112 can openers were purchased in under an hour.
Sensing the vast profit
Profit (economics)
In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...
potential
Potential
*In linguistics, the potential mood*The mathematical study of potentials is known as potential theory; it is the study of harmonic functions on manifolds...
of this concept, Paxson launched a shopping channel
Shopping channel
Shopping channels are television specialty channels that present shopping related content, particularly for home shopping enthusiasts.-USA:* America's Store* Home Shopping Network* Jewelry Television* QVC* Shop at Home Network* ShopNBC...
on local Tampa
Tâmpa
Tâmpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* Tâmpa, a village in Băcia Commune, Hunedoara County* Tâmpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mureş County* Tâmpa, a mountain in Braşov city...
cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, later launching nationwide with the Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...
. Bob Circosta
Bob Circosta
Bob Circosta is television's first ever home shopping host and has achieved over one billion dollars in personal product sales on live television. His offices are in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles from the Home Shopping Network's corporate building...
was the first ever home shopping host to appear on either radio, local television, and national television, eventually selling over 75,000 different products and inventions, netting over 20,000 hours of live airtime, and selling over one billion dollars worth of merchandise in the decades that followed.
In addition to Bob Circosta
Bob Circosta
Bob Circosta is television's first ever home shopping host and has achieved over one billion dollars in personal product sales on live television. His offices are in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles from the Home Shopping Network's corporate building...
, other early home shopping hosts were Alice Cleveland
Alice Cleveland
Alice Cleveland is a former television home shopping host on HSN and most recently an on-air vendor representative on QVC.She was fired from HSN shortly after being diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease; HSN maintained that her dismissal was based on the network's...
, Bobbi Ray Carter
Bobbi Ray Carter
Bobbi Ray Carter is a long-time home shopping host on HSN. Formerly nicknamed Bubblin' Bobbi Ray, her gregarious personality has rendered her one of the network's most popular hosts. She is primarily associated with fashion and beauty products....
, Tina Berry, Dan Dennis, John Cremeans
John Cremeans
John Cremeans is one of the first on-air home shopping hosts and is considered a pioneer in the home shopping industry. From 1985 to 2009, Cremeans's span of 24 years as a national television host is rivaled by only a few in electronic retailing with over 25,000 live television hours and over...
, and Lisa Robertson.
Job Requirements
On all the major televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
shopping channels, the home shopping
Home shopping
Home shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing/home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com, as well as traditional mail order and brick and mortar retailers as Hammacher...
host will stay on the air for three to five hours at a time, welcoming several new guests and demonstrating many new products. Since products and guests are often only given 10 or 15 minutes to sell their product in the world of home shopping
Home shopping
Home shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing/home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com, as well as traditional mail order and brick and mortar retailers as Hammacher...
, it's not uncommon for a host to be required to introduce 20 or more different products and inventions during their shift. Being quick-witted, personable, and likeable is essential for a host, as well as being able to make quick transitions from one product to another. Additionally, with networks like HSN and QVC
QVC
QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...
routinely debuting brand new inventions and products, the host must also quickly articulate
Articulate
Articulate may refer to:*Articulate *Articulate sign*Articulate sound*Joint, also known as articulation*Word modified by an article...
to the audience why the item is worth purchasing.
Job Difficulties
All the national AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
home shopping channels are broadcast live, 24-hours a day, so mistakes and errors cannot be edited out. This has led to some memorable on-air home shopping
Home shopping
Home shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing/home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com, as well as traditional mail order and brick and mortar retailers as Hammacher...
bloopers, such as a QVC
QVC
QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...
demonstrator falling from a ladder
Ladder
A ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps. There are two types: rigid ladders that can be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rope ladders that are hung from the top. The vertical members of a rigid ladder are called stringers or stiles . Rigid ladders are usually...
and getting injured, or a Shop at Home host insisting that a moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
in a photograph is actually a horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
.
Many of the guests who accompany the home shopping
Home shopping
Home shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing/home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com, as well as traditional mail order and brick and mortar retailers as Hammacher...
host on-air are not particularly TV-savvy or experienced, so the host must help guests better define the attributes and value of the items being showcased.
Because of the large influx of guests and products, hosts often lack the time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
to study the product beforehand, which increases the need for an effective host to possess sufficient verbal skills to mask this lack of direct product knowledge.