Jerry O’Connell Joins ‘The Talk’ As Permanent Co-Host

UPDATE, with video announcement CBS’ daytime show The Talk announced that frequent guest host Jerry O’Connell is joining the show as a permanent co-host.

“It’s fun, and it works, and we’re going to have a lot of fun,” the actor said on today’s episode as the announcement was made. Watch the announcement below.

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O’Connell will appear on the show for the remainder of the week before taking a break until the end of the month to fulfill a previous film commitment. He’ll join full-time for Season 12.

His hiring follows the show’s firing in March of original cohost Sharon Osbourne after her controversial comments on race and her defense of friend Piers Morgan.

“It’s real exciting,” he said. “First of all, I want to say, you ladies have been so welcoming to me. I mean, I came here as a guest months ago, and just from the moment I walked in, you’re just gracious, you’re kind, you’re fun, and it worked. And here we are. We’re going to have a lot of fun, we really are.”

In a statement, executive producers Heather Gray and Kristin Matthews said, “We are beyond thrilled Jerry O’Connell is our new host. We loved his infectious enthusiasm, humor, openness and insights as a guest co-host and look forward to him now bringing those dynamic qualities to the show every day. As an accomplished actor, devoted husband and father, Jerry will bring a unique and entertaining perspective to the conversation.”

Entering the stage following a pre-taped bit in which the actor was training at a boxing gym to the tune “Eye of the Tiger,” O’Connell – the first male to serve as a permanent co-host on the previously all-female program modeled on ABC’s The View – joked that he was happy to join the line-up after a shutdown year spent in his underwear.

The announcement was teased on Twitter earlier today, with the series promising “Big News!” on today’s show. O’Connell joins co-hosts Sheryl Underwood, Carrie Ann Inaba, Amanda Kloots and Elaine Welteroth on the hour-long show’s panel. (Osbourne was fired from the show in March after her on-air argument with Underwood and her defense of Morgan’s comments about Meghan Markle.)

Dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, no tie and Converse high-top sneakers, O’Connell thanked the show for a video clip of his previous appearances on the show (he’s been a frequent guest host for a couple months). “That was so touching,” he said. “I feel like it was a retirement video.”

“We have all loved getting to know you the last couple of months,” said Kloots.

O’Connell found fame at age 11 in the hit film Stand By Me, and later starred in Sliders, Jerry Maguire and Crossing Jordan, among many other credits.

The announcement fell on O’Connell’s 14th wedding anniversary with wife Rebecca Romijn. The actor, who later taste-tested the mac-and-cheese ice cream that’s become a viral hit, good-naturedly promised viewers (and his wife) that he’d work on being less fidgety on screen.

“I’m excited to be a part of the family,” O’Connell said at the end of the episode.

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