Jerry O’Connell Is 'The Talk''s First Male Co-Host

Jerry O'Connell is the first man to co-host CBS' 'The Talk' in the show's 11 seasons.
Jerry O'Connell is the first man to co-host CBS' 'The Talk' in the show's 11 seasons. (Image credit: Ron P. Jaffe/CBS)

Jerry O’Connell is replacing Sharon Osbourne as one of the co-hosts of CBS' daytime talker The Talk, making him the first man to occupy one of the show’s permanent seats. O’Connell has been a frequent guest-host of the show this summer.

Last month, Fox announced that O'Connell would host a test of game show Pictionary on select Fox stations starting July 12.

Also Read: Jerry O’Connell to Host ‘Pictionary’ Game Show on Fox Stations

O'Connell joins The Talk’s Sheryl Underwood, Carrie Ann Inaba, Amanda Kloots, Eve and Elaine Welteroth. He comes on board after Sharon Osbourne departed in March after defending English news anchor Piers Morgan's comments about Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle after her and husband Prince Harry sat for a primetime interview with Oprah Winfrey. Morgan stomped off the set of Good Morning Britain after co-host Alex Beresford challenged him on air for saying that he didn’t believe Markle’s claims of bullying and racism within Buckingham Palace or that she considered suicide as she said in the interview.

O'Connell has plenty of daytime experience. He has been a frequent co-host of Disney's Live with Kelly, sitting next to Kelly Ripa after Regis Philbin retired in 2011 and again after Michael Strahan departed in 2015. He was considered a finalist to become the show's permanent co-host. 

He also guest-hosted for Wendy Williams during summer 2016 when Williams took time off to deal with some personal issues. 

As a result of that guest-hosting stint, Fox tested a talk show called Jerry O in 2019 starring O'Connell but it didn't proceed into national syndication. In 2014, CBS developed a talk show pilot around O'Connell and his wife Rebecca Romijn called Man in the Middle that also did not go forward when CBS could not find available daytime time slots for it. 

O'Connell also has guest-hosted ABC's The View.

With Fox testing Pictionary this summer, O'Connell could find himself with two shows on his hands by next year.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.