Home shopping host

A home shopping host is the on-air host that partners with guests on

HSN, QVC, Jewelry Television and ShopHQ. The job of a home shopping

host is to introduce new presenters and guests to the television audience, and help these guests explain the values and features of the product being showcased.

History

Back in 1977,

broadcast of his radio advertisements. Paxson and the store owner argued back and forth, eventually coming to a compromise: Instead of a financial payment, the store owner gave Paxson a box filled with electric can openers

. Paxson took the box, and returned to the radio station.

When the station's

newsbreak, Paxson asked Circosta to sell these can openers to his audience. Circosta initially objected, but soon complied with his Paxson's wishes. "I looked at him like he had three heads," Circosta said, recalling the moment. "I thought it would be unethical because I was trying to be a serious host." When Circosta returned to the airwaves, he began describing the can openers and asking listeners to buy them. All 112 can openers were purchased in under an hour.^[1]

Sensing the sales potential of live, on-air product selling,

Home Shopping Network

, and Paxson's former radio man Bob Circosta was tapped as the network's first-ever host. HSN soon became a billion dollar enterprise and began the home shopping / electronic retailing industry. In 1996, the two sold HSN to Hollywood executive Barry Diller.

In addition to

Maven Huffman

and Lisa Robertson.

Job requirements

On all the major

HSN and QVC routinely debuting brand new inventions and products, the host must also quickly articulate

to the audience why the item is worth purchasing.

Job difficulties

All the national American home shopping channels are broadcast live, 24 hours a day, so mistakes and errors cannot be edited out. This has led to some memorable on-air home shopping

bloopers, such as a QVC

demonstrator falling from a ladder and getting injured, or a Shop at Home host insisting that a moth in a photograph is actually a horse.

Many of the guests who accompany the home shopping host on-air are not particularly TV-savvy or experienced, so the host must help guests better define the attributes and value of the items being showcased.

Because of the large influx of guests and products, hosts often lack the time to study the product beforehand, which increases the need for an effective host to possess sufficient verbal skills to mask this lack of direct product knowledge.

References

^ What A Great Idea It Turned Out To Be Selling Can Openers On The Radio Tampa Tribune

"Can You Believe This Price?" Time Magazine

[1] What A Great Idea It Turned Out To Be Selling Can Openers On The Radio Tampa Tribune

[1]