The Original Host of 'Blind Date' Is Now a Radio Host for the LA Angels
Published Jan. 11 2024, 1:01 p.m. ET
In the late '90s throughout the mid-2000s there were a slew of dating reality TV shows, and one of the more popular and longer running series, which was revived in 2019 with host Nikki Glaser, is Blind Date, which originally debuted on Bravo in 1999 for eight seasons (until 2006) with its original host, Roger Lodge. So what's he up to now?
Where is Roger Lodge, original host of 'Blind Date,' now?
In 2022 Lodge played an announcer on the John Stamos–led Disney TV series Big Shot, and worked with Stamos six years prior to that in Fuller House, where he reprised his role as Roger from the original show in an uncredited part. He must have a great working relationship with Uncle Jesse, because was in another project of his in the same year: Grandfathered.
Roger Lodge celebrating 1,000 episodes of 'Blind Date'
Two years prior to that, Lodge played Mr. Wright in the TV Movie High School Possession, and also played himself in Spin City and Providence in the early aughts along with Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Prior to taking on hosting duties on Blind Date, Lodge played a reporter again in Tony Scott's The Fan.
Roger also hosts 'The SportsLodge' on KLAA-AM 830 for the Los Angeles Angels.
Lodge is the official voice of the MLB's Los Angeles Angels professional baseball team: his Instagram account is dedicated to updates about the club, although of this writing it appears that his most recent post was uploaded back in 2021 (it's a cute one though.)
It does look like Lodge is more active on X (formerly Twitter), however, so if you want to see any of his online posts, maybe head over here instead.
While Lodge did get a few TV and film roles under his belt, he's also hosted other programs in addition to Blind Date.
If you grew up with cable TV access in the '90s, then you might remember the program Talk Soup, which featured a variety of different hosts, one of whom was Roger Lodge, who took on guest hosting duties for a number of episodes on the program.
Talk Soup was, like its moniker suggested, a program that centered on talk show programs that offered up often humorous commentary on everything ranging from a trashy fight that broke out on Jerry Springer to something a celebrity said or did while appearing on The Tonight Show.
What was 'Blind Date' about?
The NBC series featured a simple but addictive premise: Two individuals who never met each other before we set up on a "blind date" with cameras recording them as they got to know each other. Many of the episodes followed a similar structure: Date participants would engage in an activity or two before they had dinner together.
A lot of times they'd end up in a jacuzzi together and after that the show would end. Some of the episodes would fall under categories like "hot dates" where the folks would make out with one another on camera, and on the flip side there was "dates from hell" where folks would chew each other out as they went about their pre-arranged activities.
Like many reality TV shows, Blind Date did make alcohol available for its participants, however, but only if they weren't driving themselves to a date. If they were being carted around by chauffeur services, then they were purportedly encouraged to imbibe to their hearts' content.
Bravo revived Blind Date in 2019 for one season with Nikki Glaser, but it must've not captured audiences like it did back in 1999, as it apparently hasn't been greenlit for any more episodes.
Were you a fan of the series and think there needs to be more shows like Blind Date back on air? Or are you glad networks have moved away from programming like this?