>>>Who is Howie Mandel ?
>>
>>An unfunny American comedian.
>I remember seeing him many years ago on a show called (I think) "Make Me Laugh." It was hard to tell if his material had any humor in it because his delivery was so awful. He has toned down that delivery a great deal on this show and (IMO) does a better than adequate job as host.
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>He also popped up every once in a while on Leno (I reserve "The Tonight Show" to mean Carson's version). His specialty was provoking anger from unsuspecting targets by behaving like to total jerk.
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>I'll give him some credit, though. I thought he was very good in St. Elsewhere
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>>He has recently washed up as host of "Deal or No Deal", part of the reality show infestation that flourished during the writers' strike.
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>Could be wrong but I'm reasonably sure that the show was developed before the writer's strike. OTOH, it has gotten a great deal of extra air-time because of the strike.

I'm sure you're right. There has been an explosion since November but there were already some on.