Marc Summers "Unwraps" His New Podcast and Reveals His Dream Guests

The veteran host is going from Double Dare to deep dives in his newest interview show.

Over nearly 40 years, Marc Summers has seemed to do it all. He went from a fledgling stand-up career to becoming a household name as the face behind a slew of game shows, most prominently Double Dare and What Would You Do? He's brought his hosting skills outside Nickelodeon, helming several Food Network shows, most prominently Unwrapped. He has even made his way back to the stage, including putting up his own one-man show.

Yet for a man who is a master behind the microphone, he's now found one more new way to use it: As a podcast host. Launching on February 13, "Marc Summers Unwraps" features Summers interviewing his friends and other heavy hitters in the entertainment world, discussing their careers and various topics.

"I got approached by these folks that I'm working with now," Summers explains about the show's origin. "And they kind of talked me into it. They kept saying, "People want to hear what you have to say," and I'm thinking, 'Why does anybody care what I have to say?' And I said, 'Okay, well, let's try it. I'm not terribly optimistic about this whole process. But sure, let's stick our toe in the water.' And now I love it."

In his first episode, Summers speaks with Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, In the Heights). Later episodes will feature chats with such notables as Guy Fieri, Al Roker, Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, Lea DeLaria, and fellow former Nickelodeon host Mike O'Malley.

Read on for Parade.com's interview with Marc Summers. "Marc Summers Unwraps" is available wherever you get your podcasts, and new episodes will be released weekly.

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We have to start with how this entire process came together. You are a veteran television host, but podcasting is something new for you. Have you always wanted to get into it, or did the opportunity present itself?
I never wanted to do a podcast. During COVID, I was a guest on hundreds of them, and I realized after a while most people had no idea what they were doing. And I kept being asked the same seven questions over and over again. And I thought, "Well, I'm just not going to do this anymore." And then, I started to get approached by various people wanting me to host my own podcast. And I did some research and found out that there are literally 850,000 podcasts out there, and maybe 12 of them are good. But nonetheless, because you can do everything from your living room, your bedroom, your basement, everybody feels that they can do it.

It's interesting. I meet young kids who, because of growing up with phones and iPads, they've been "hosting" things since they were very young. But at the same token, there are many people who think they're good at it that really aren't. And so I kept saying, "No, no, no, no, no." And I got approached by these folks that I'm working with now. And they kind of talked me into it. They kept saying, "People want to hear what you have to say," and I'm thinking, "Why does anybody care what I have to say?" And I said, "Okay, well, let's try it. I'm not terribly optimistic about this whole process. But sure, let's stick our toe in the water." And now I love it.

And the people behind me are so spectacular. They know what they're doing. They have other podcasts on the air. They hired a publicist. And here's what I was somewhat concerned about.: Being 71 years old and a dinosaur in our industry. Unless you're a TikTok star or an influencer, why does anybody want to talk to you? And yet, well, we've stuck the cast out there to find out who wants to talk to me, and I'm absolutely shocked that the amount of TV shows, radio shows, and podcasts that are meaningful and actually want to have a discussion. So maybe I have a little more juice left in this body.

And the good thing about it is, I'm kind of my own boss—I kind of book most of this stuff. And I'm having conversations that I want to have as opposed to exec producers in my ears or producers tapping me on the shoulder and telling me what to ask. I prep these things on my own. I sit down the night before, do hours of research, and get into the direction I wanted to go in. And I'm beyond pleased with what we've gotten so far.

To that point, were you surprised how much work went into the process of thinking up guest ideas and booking them?
I've been a producer for so many years now. That was always part of my job. When I was exec producing Restaurant Impossible, I had to do so much of the research. And so it's just in my genes. Instead of doing it for somebody else, now, I'm just doing it for myself.

Let's talk about some of your guest list, which is as varied as the credits on your resume. How did you end up crossing paths with your first guest Anthony Ramos to be on your show?
I had been diagnosed with cancer and was in the middle of chemo. And then I was in a car accident where I broke every bone in my face. And I thought to myself, "Well, I have nine lives. I beat this thing twice so far. But I don't know how many more times I can do it. The one thing I've always wanted to do is Broadway." And I thought, Well, I'll never get on Broadway. But let me tap on some shoulders of people I know."

I met a guy who had just bought a theater for summer stock who cast me as Vince Fontaine in Grease. And every day, I got to rehearsal, and there was this young kid who was there before me, who stayed after everybody left. He was about 17 years old and was magical. And we all would sit backstage and go, "This kid's going to be a star someday." And I've also stayed very close with him. I'm very good. Once I meet somebody, you're kind of my friend for life. I'm a pest. I won't leave you alone. So, Anthony, he and I talk on a fairly regular basis. And I'm thrilled with his success.

You spoke about casting a line out to see who would bite. With your other guests, how did you end up landing the fish you did?
Well, Guy [Fieri] and I have been friends for 100 years. I was the host of Next Food Network Star when he won. And so we've been really close friends since that day. We stay in touch constantly. I did not know "Fluffy," Gabriel Iglesias. It took tons of persistence. It was really hard to book him; because of his people surrounding him, it was hard to get to him. I started off in stand-up; most people don't realize that. So I had a lot of things to talk to him about.

Lea DeLaria is just a talented woman. And then Al Roker, I've known forever. For a while, I was a regular on The Today Show back in the '90s, where I did a lot of my Unwrapped Stuff. And Al and I are connected via the Food Network as well. So some of these people are close friends. Mike O'Malley, of course, from the Nickelodeon days when he was doing Guts. And some of these people I've never met my entire life. And it almost doesn't make any difference because it's about the research. And here's the key about any good hosts: You have to listen. And if you keep your mouth shut and have those people talk, you're gonna have a very good show.

Well, you spoke about being a "dinosaur" and a veteran of the industry. I would imagine that comes in handy being a host. While you're obviously open to hearing about new things from both old and new friends, you have enough to keep pace with them rather than get thrown into a subject you know next to nothing about.
You're right about that. And also, I'm 71 going on 27. I have an eclectic group of friends. Alex Brightman, who's on Broadway, just closed [in Beetlejuice]. We are very good friends here. There's also a guy by the name of [Broadway composer] Drew Gasperini, who I was doing Grease with me when I was doing that with Anthony Ramos. So I have friends that are in their late 20s. And I have friends that are in their late 70s. And somehow, I'm able to connect to all of them.

I think I'm sort of childlike in many ways. I have the Peter Pan thing where I never kind of want to grow up. Ryan Seacrest, who I've known since he was 19 years old, always said that I tend to piss him off. He said, "Summers, your voice is exactly the same now as when I was growing up as a kid listening to you on Double Dare." Normally when you get to this age, you start to sound a little crackly and creaky. So I think I'm kind of fortunate about that. I know how to use my vocal cords. And I always exercise them. So maybe that's part of the reason. Or maybe I'm just lucky. I have no idea.

What surprised you the most about recording the first season of "Marc Summers Unwraps"?
There's a thing when I used to do warm-ups on shows like Our Magazine and Star Search. When somebody gets off stage, they generally walk to the executive producer and go, "How was that? Was I good?" And I tend to talk to the people behind the glass who were the exec producers of this program, and I always go, "Was that okay?" They go, "Oh my God, it's unbelievable." You always know when you do a good job; you actually know when you bomb. I was on Politically Incorrect one time. And to this day, I've never looked at the episode because I just know I didn't belong in that show, and I bombed my rear end off.

But these podcasts, I can't think of one, in my opinion, that didn't play into some direction that we weren't aware of, or that people opened up to me in some form that I was totally shocked about. So those are the good parts. And also, there's the magic of editing. Sometimes we talk to these people for an hour and 45 minutes. And I don't think anybody should be forced to listen to a podcast that long. So most of these interviews are 45 minutes to an hour, and we can certainly take the best of the best. Some of them, I would like to play almost the whole thing. We probably talk for two hours. And so I'm just having fun. I have no pressure at all to do this. I'm doing it because I love it. I'm passionate about it. And already since we started promoting this thing, people have been coming out of the woodwork who I kind of forgot that I know, saying, "Well, you've got to have me on as a guest." So I think the next round of these things is going to be a little bit easier than the first round has been.

To that point, is there a set of "pie in the sky" guests you would like to interview?
Wow. Yeah. I guess my first person would probably be Phil Donahue. I grew up watching Donahue, and I think he's probably in his 80s now. But he was such a smart broadcaster. I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. He started to show in Dayton, Ohio, and we used to get it in Indy. There was a company called Aapko Broadcasting. And they have five stations in the Midwest, so I grew up watching him. That would be one guest.

I suppose Dave Letterman, who I've known forever. We started at the Comedy Store at about the same time. That would be interesting. I guess the ultimate person would be Tom Hanks. At one point, Spielberg had a TV production company. He produced one game show, and I was the host, called Majority Rules. And he used to call me the fake Tom Hanks because in his opinion--and I disagree with him--he says that we have the same voice. And I thought, "Well, my God, I don't sound anything like Tom Hanks." But when we opened up Nick Studios, down at Universal in Orlando, I got to spend a day with him. And I got to slime him and got to talk to him. And he's a really, really nice man. And I'm assuming he might remember who I am. I ran into him a couple of times afterward. And he was always nice. So you know, those would be sort of the "Gee, I wish I could get those guys."

Did you have a process you always used when assembling questions for your guests?
No. I would do the research and read about these people. I was a reporter on a show called The Home Show on ABC. And that went off the air. Then I did a show called Our Home on Lifetime, which is basically the same format. And I asked him why they hired me. And they said, "You tend to ask the questions that the people at home would ask if they had an opportunity to talk to these people. "So I think I still have that knack. And after reading biographies, you think you know about somebody. Then you go into a deep dive, and you learn things that you go, "Oh, my God, I had no idea." And it makes it to me pretty easy to figure out what that path is.

The other thing is, in a couple of these interviews, I've had three pages of questions and didn't get past question three because what they said was so interesting. You take your question based on what they said, as opposed to what's on the paper. There's a talk show host who I will not mention, but I was on this person's show, and they never looked at me once. It was a national show. And they just kept looking at the cue cards, and they weren't listening to me. I answered a question that this person asked. And then the next question on their card was not even a response. But I had already answered what the next question was. And I'm thinking to myself, "They're not even listening to what I'm saying." And so it's being a good host. If you do listen and come up with your next question based on the conversation you're having, it's gonna be great.

Your guests do extend outside of the entertainment world. For example, you got to interview Jessica Nabongo, author of the travelogue The Catch Me If You Can and only the second Black woman in history to visit every country. What made you decide to cast such a wide net in terms of fields for your guests?
Well, I'm curious about people. We had this woman on. She was home watching TV, had a master's degree, was teaching college was doing great. And she was watching CNN, and there was a segment on with this young Black girl who was buying a doll in a Toys R Us kind of store. And the mother said, "Which doll do you want: The black doll or the white doll?" And she said, "I want the white doll. Because the black doll was nasty." So this Black woman [at home] said, "Oh my God, I've got to change that."

Dr. Lisa Williams is her name. Now she is one of the top creators of ethnic dolls. She's got deals with Marvel and Nickelodeon, the NBA, all these kinds of stuff. And she took something that was needed that wasn't out there. And by watching something on television, she was inspired to dump everything she was doing so successfully, roll the dice, and take a chance. Well, my God!

I always feel bad for people who get up every day and hate their jobs. I've never felt like I've worked a day in my life. I've had the best time being on TV, giving people money and prizes, learning about them. And so she was able to take this knowledge that she learned through lots of investigating and turned it into this massive business. And I think to myself, "Wow, that took a lot of guts. How did you do that?" The whole point of my show is overcoming obstacles. Why were some people successful, they were able to jump over that wall and figure out a way to fix the problems, and other people retreat, go home and go, "I'm not doing that"? I don't know what makes people determined and other people scared to death. And that's what I'm trying to find in these podcasts. But positivity and passion are two things that are needed if you're going to be successful. 

Well, speaking towards that positivity and passion, being a podcast is yet another new bullet point in your already extensive resume. Is there anything else you want to do in the entertainment industry that you haven't done before?
Well, I'm actually trying to relax. I'm trying to retire. I'm not very good at it. I think theatre still is the one thing that I'd like to accomplish. And I did my first Broadway audition for Waitress right before COVID. They wanted me to play Old Joe, the diner owner. And they said no matter what I do, I look and play everything too young. I have a lilt in my voice that's too young. And I'm not believable as that character. So I'm open to another shot at some show down the road. I don't live on the east coast anymore. So it makes it a little bit more difficult. But I'm gonna get that wish fulfilled at some point.

I have a one-man show, which we did five years ago, called "The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers." We first did it in Bloomington, Indiana; then, we did it at the Adirondack Theatre Festival. And it's not officially signed yet, but it looks like this summer, I'm back doing it in Pennsylvania and in upstate New York. And so we're going to be close enough to people from New York where we can hopefully get them to the show and see if we can maybe do it off Broadway or something like that. So I kind of never stop when it's in the back of my head. I'm always saying I'm trying to stop. But I have 17 things on the calendar that are still happening. And once again, I'm having fun. This isn't work to me. Whether I get paid or not is irrelevant.

Next, find out everything you need to know about Joanna Gaines' new podcast.