Hosting Background:

Todd has hosted everything from pharmaceutical product launches to an award winning series of kid's "edu-tainment" videos to charity benefits at Caroline's Comedy Club

Hosting The Organization for Autism Benefit at Caroline's on Broadway
and 196 full games of Jeopardy!

Mr. Trebek and Todd at the taping of the Waston Tournament in January of 2011
(more on that in a moment).

CORPORATE HOSTING: Over the past 15 years, Todd has hosted live audience and broadcast events for KPMG, MetLife, Savient Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma, Sanofi Pasteur, Astra Zenica, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Genentech, Schering-Plough, Roche, Pfizer, Merck and Novartis (among many others). The first video on the right entitled, CORPORATE HOST REEL, is from one of the first live broadcast events he hosted. The job usually consists of fulfilling the role of the "interstitial guy"...hosting the segments BETWEEN segments--not entirely unlike what Ryan Seacrest does on American Idol. Todd interviews speakers (sometimes from a stage or studio set made to look like a late night talk show
), introduces the next break, hosts a game show type recap session or even sings a popular song with altered lyrics to fit the theme of the meeting. The purpose of these meetings is to train the company's personnel all at the same time (in one location) so the content remains the same for everyone.

TV PILOT: The video on the right entitled EcoFreaks (created by Tricia Caruso) is the full pilot he filmed in early 2009 with the intention of selling it to the National Geographic Channel. This video has special meaning to Todd because of the first segment. He interviews a man named David Shepler in New Paltz, NY who owns a Net Zero Energy home. After spending roughly 6 hours in David's home with a camera crew in tow, Todd and David became very good friends. It would prove to be an incredibly important friendship that Todd treasures to this day.

JEOPARDY!: In August of 2009, David Shepler (from the EcoFreaks pilot) called Todd and asked if he would like to go to dinner in NYC. At dinner (in a very loud Mexican restaurant, over a pitcher of margaritas), the following conversation took place:

David: "I have a business question for you."
(Todd couldn't remember if they had ever discussed what David did for a living.)
David: "Would you be interested in hosting Jeopardy!?"
Todd: I'm sorry. It's really loud in here and, with this margarita, I thought you said, 'Would you be interested in hosting Jeopardy!'
David: No, I did.
Todd: Um. Yes! Now...WHAT?!

David Shepler, it turned out, worked as the Project Manager for the IBM Watson

Todd hosting one of the Watson matches before the fancy blue set was built
division and they were going to be testing Watson against ex-contestants of the TV game show, Jeopardy! Clearly, they needed a host to facilitate the games and, since David had just worked with a host on EcoFreaks, Todd was asked to fill the position. He was officially hired in Novebmer of 2009 to host all of the test-sparring matches between the IBM computer Watson and ex-Jeopardy! regular season players and tournament of champions contestants. These test games were to ensure that Watson would be ready for his prime time television debut in February of 2011.

CORPORATE HOST REEL

LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW INTRO

EcoFreaks--National Geographic Channel Pilot

JEOPARDY! HOST MATERIAL

JEOPARDY!--TODD'S FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE WITH WATSON

THE MINUTE NEWS

MILLION SECOND QUIZ

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