The Village Voice named MSNBC’s Willie Geist “Best TV Sidekick Who Deserves His Own Show (At a Reasonable Hour)” in the 2009 Best of NYC awards. Right now, Geist, whom the Voice calls a “contempo Dick Cavett,” co-hosts “Morning Joe” and hosts “Way Too Early.”
But we most enjoy witty and amiable co-host Willie Geist, the TV sidekick who most deserves his own show. Wait — he does have his own show. But it’s on at 5:30 a.m., for God’s sake, and we’re late-rising media types, not dairy farmers. We love Willie for his wry and clever sense of humor, for his encyclopedic grasp of pop-culture history, and for something you rarely see on TV anymore — his understatedness. In an age of blowhards and noise, it’s a pleasure to be in the company of someone this amusing and relaxed.
According to Matea Gold at the L.A. Times this week, “ABC recently made overtures to Willie Geist…to join the network for a possible future role on “GMA.”