Johnny Gilbert (born John Lewis Gilbert III July 13, 1928, in Newport News, Virginia) is an American announcer who has mainly worked on various game shows. He is best known for announcing the syndicated version of Jeopardy! since its 1984 premiere and still does it today.
Activity[]
The first game show he ever announced was Music Bingo, a program that aired for two years on both NBC and ABC. Johnny was also a substitute announcer on Wheel of Fortune when the late Charlie O'Donnell was sick in 1995, on the April Fools 1997 episode when Alex Trebek hosted, and in 2010 following Charlie's death. Johnny also hosted a few game shows, one of which was Music Bingo. He was also a singer and had his album entitled The Voice of TV's Jeopardy!, Johnny Gilbert Sings. Johnny lent his voice to the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo Wii U, PS3 & Xbox 360 versions of Jeopardy!, alongside the late host Alex Trebek.
Early Career[]
Johnny hosted several game shows, including Music Bingo (1958-60), Words and Music (beginning in 1960), Fast Draw (1968), Beat the Odds (1968-69), and the Los Angeles Dialing for Dollars (circa 1970-74). He also hosted a local talk/variety show, The Johnny Gilbert Show, from 1965-68; its replacement on the schedule was the first talk show hosted by Phil Donahue.
One of Gilbert's first announcing jobs was the original (1961-62) version of Camouflage, hosted by Don Morrow; Johnny filled-in at least once, on January 8, 1962. Outside of Jeopardy!, he may be most famous as the announcer of the original Bill Cullen version of The Price Is Right for its ABC run (1963-65), filling in for Bill at least once. He also announced on Barry & Enright's The Joker's Wild (1972-75/1977-86) and Tic-Tac-Dough (1978-86), often filling in for Charlie O'Donnell, Jay Stewart, or Johnny Jacobs.
Later Career[]
Other shows that Johnny announced include Make Me Laugh (1979-80), Chain Reaction (1980), Dream House (1983-84), Go (1983-84), The $25,000/$100,000 Pyramid (1980s), The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime (1986-87), Blackout (1988), and Supermarket Sweep (1990-95/2000). He also filled announcing duties on Super Jeopardy! (1990).
Trivia[]
- He contributed to the Hasbro Interactive Jeopardy! video games by reading the clues, instead of Alex Trebek. This gave him more to do, but it doesn't feel very show-accurate.