Celebrity Doppelganger

This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Chris Harrison coming to you from the home office in Austin, Texas. On the show today is Mark Wahlberg. So I know what you're thinking, and I'm just going to say right now, and I know this might cost me listeners, It's not that Mark Wahlberg. And when I say Mark Wahlberg, immediately think obviously of them make a movie star. But you also may think, wait, is that the guy that does

It has been a long time. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Are you in La?

I am his Iam in beautiful Sonny Sherman Oaks.

I'm in a beautiful, rainy Austin, Texas.

That's a good place to be.

It's a great place to be.

Are you.

Are you an LA guy?

No?

I mean I've I've lived here longer than most people have been alive. But I'm from South Carolina.

Okay, you're born and raised South Carolina.

Born in Georgia, but raised in South Carolina. And when did you cop around a little bit through the South? I live in Alabama little bit and stuff like that.

But when did you come to La?

I came to La. I left home between my freshman sophomore year colleg and I went on the road a little bit. I was in northern Michigan and on the road that ended up coming out to Los Angeles. I said, I take a gap year and I'm still waiting to go back to college.

How's that working out for you?

It's pretty good. I just got to get a tuition together.

Yeah. Hey, And by the way, the longer you wait, the more expensive it gets, as we both know, with two kids, and.

I'm not eligible for any scholarship, either academic or sports.

Oh no, no, man. Some of these punters now are like thirty five years old, the punters and kickers, these Australian kids are coming over. I'm like they may have it all figured out, like the midlife crisis is now going to be going back to school. Yeah, where were you in college?

I went to Francis Marion College which is now Francis Marion University. It was outside of my hometown. I was really all at the time I could afford to do.

And wow, you went to a smaller school than I did. I went to Oklahoma City University again, same thing. I had a soccer scholarship. It's what my family could afford. And yeah, it's so clearly Mark and I prove how important it is that you go to a really big name school to make it in this world.

That's right. I always tell people, I went to several weeks of college, pretty much checked all the boxes and figured I'd take it from there.

As I said in the intro, one of the many reasons I wanted to have you on is if there is somebody that I get mistaken for and have been mistaken for throughout my career. It's Mark Wahlberg.

So you know, I was thinking about this this morning, that the only time we've actually kind of worked together.

Yeah.

I don't know if you remember this. He was the red carpet for E for the Golden Globes and I was up in the balcony doing something. You were on the red carpet. I had to throw to you or you through to me. I can't remember if I set or you said it, but something the effect of and to prove that we're not the same person on our throw to Chris Harrison.

Yeah, I did it. I told the producers I said, hey, I want a two box of Mark and I because for once and for all, we need to show that we are two different human beings. It was really funny that, you know, when I first came to LA there was like a group of like four or five of us.

About that time. That was a but that was when, you know, being a TV host as a as a profession was a thing and now as much a thing.

Yeah, it definitely has evolved and changed. It was a group of us that, you know, it's like, this is what we wanted to do. You know. My background was local news and I was like, I am a host. That's all I want to do is host TV. And you were kind of the same.

Well, I mean that's not entirely true. Mine was I don't know how to do anything else. I was working in production. Yeah, my whole career was by default. I got engaged and then married to my wife, who was at the time an actress, and then I thought maybe that's what I wanted to do. And then walking down the aisle, I said, one of us has to get a job. So I got a job at Dick Clark Productions as a PA. And my whole thing was to

What was what bridge that gap?

A warm up guy didn't show up one day and Dick Clark said, get the funny kid from upstairs, and that was me.

That's how it started. You started to tell that was.

The left turn. And then you know, people started saying, you know, can you call and stay for work and come do warm up for me? And then I think I got a job. Somebody wanted me to do warm up and when I showed up, they said, we don't have a budget for warm up and we need an announcer, and I'm like, well, I know how to read.

It was there's three weeks of college that prepared me for this.

That's exactly right.

And then you went on what was kind of the first big gig was it was a GSN good game show.

Yes, N was after I had already i think, lost my career and gotten it back already.

Yeah.

I think the first show I hosted was like eighty seven, No ninety I'm looking at my wife. It was ninety two because my wife was pregnant with our first So that's the first time I was on camera. And then I did Shop Do You Drop as a sidekick sort of announcer on camera for that, and then a bunch of At the time, and I tell people this, at the time, you could do like four different cable networks

When I came out here in ninety nine, I did a game I had TVG the Horse Racing Network. I had a Designers Challenge on HGTV, and then I had done seasons one and two of The Bachelor. I was doing all three at the same time, and people were like, what are you doing. You're hosting the biggest show on network TV. You got to be worth millions and millions of dollars. I said, I'm worth so much that I have three jobs right now. I said.

That was when I did Temptation Island. Originally I'm Fox and everybody and I was, and I always tell a story that was like it aired on a Wednesday night, I think, and Thursday morning I was famous. Like people were coming up to me. And what they didn't realize is we did six episodes, and I think I made seventy five hundred dollars an episode.

And that was the season I crushed you. My first season of The Bachelor twelve five, that's what I was making. And again we did the same thing. It was six one hour episodes. And so I'm like, and you know, when you have thirty million viewers, people think, oh my god, because that many people are watching, you must be worth hundreds of millions of dollars now. And I'm like, I'm worth thousands of dollars still, and I have two other gigs. And I got to go to Home and Garden Network

By the way I've read about that concept of that you renegotiate and get more money must be cool.

It's pretty good. So I guess the biggest question is what's the worst lot in life for you? Being named Mark Wahlberg or being mistaken from time to time for Chris Harrison.

Yeah, I've now put that into almost every Like if I give a keynote or something, I mean I'm talking about you know, know your worth and know your truth, I'm like, I look like Chris Harrison and everybody thinks it's the other Mark Wahlberg. So I have an identity crisis. As soon as I walk on State. I think the older I get, the less like you I look. So that helps.

Yeah, but people the but it was, I mean it was so funny. It was really uncanny. No early on people would be like, you know, we get stopped by the paparazzi or whoever, and they're like, so, like, do you enjoy Antique Road Show? And I'm like, yeah, you know, I watch it from time to time. They're like, well, what about Temptation Island? I said, yeah, no, I've watched that too. I don't host either of those.

Man. People ask me who's going to get a rose next week? And I'm like, you know, I'm not sure, but I think if I had my brothers, I think the Mark Wahlberg Mark Wahlberg thing is is probably more of a daily part of my life. And I talking about that when people come up to you and say, you know, Temptation Island. I was doing Antiques Road Show and this was years ago, like before social media was

They're like, man, you've really let your abs go. Like this guy used to do the Calvin Klein commercials man. But so how many times have you have you gone into a restaurant and you just see the hostess just oh.

Glaze over. Well, my fear of that is so great that any family member, immediate and extended knows that if they make any reservation, they make it very clear which Mark Welber they're getting. I said, please don't make me walk in and have they go, oh, because we have.

A different table.

Like charity events that I've been invited to, and I show up to the event, They're like yeah, oh, okay, and then it's like awkward.

One of my producers brought this up, and I don't even know if this is true, but it's not the worst idea in the world. When I left The Bachelor bachs Arette, someone said, the thought was call you call Mark Wahlberg because he looks the most like Chris Harrison. It'll be the least jarring. Was that a thing? Did someone did? Was that a rumor? Or did anyone reach out to you?

You know, if you go into the Reddit world and all that stuff, you know, first of all, there's a very blurry line between you and me and any other host on TV from a viewers. I realize now how how much in soft focused the viewers often view yes, So I think that made perfect sense to some people. I got a lot of you know, who's going to take Chris's place, you'd be great, blah blah blah blah bl and my answer was, you know, I got my gig, he's got his gig, and all is going to be fine.

Are you still doing prices right live?

I'm not doing prices right live. Todd Newton's out on the road.

That's like his gig, Todd Newton. Tod Newton's still doing that.

Oh my god, Yeah, he's still doing it. As a matter of fact, he's married to who was our prize model for all those years, and so they got married. So it's really kind of a love story. It's kind of cool.

That is amazing talk about Yeah, things that happened on the road.

And when I did Prices right Live, I was always filling in for Todd, so I'd go for like ten days, two weeks. Yeah, and I get my fixed and get out. Now I'm going to lead next Tuesday and do Wheel of Fortune live.

Awesome.

It's kind of stage version of Wheel of Fortune. And for me it's like summer camp. You know, I go for maybe ten days. This time, I'm going a little longer than that. But it's bussing truck, so I'm sleeping on the bus. I always say it's good rock and roll fantasy. But the groupies are, you know, a little older.

Yeah, it's like Hasselhoff now you know he's not getting the But so just to fill people in on what this is, so many many years ago, these casinos started Prices right live and it was like a ninety minute show. We did it in Vegas, we did it at all the casinos around And the funny thing is, and I'm sure you were in on this, and I know Todd Newton was as well. Was this was kind of as Bob Barker was leading Prices right.

I was on stage that night he retired.

So people, we all of us were kind of in the mix. They had talked to us all. I'm sure they talked to you about that job.

Yeah, there's a whole story behind that. But yeah, they kind of did.

Yeah, and you know they then they they talked to me about it as well, and I know they talked to Todd Newton, and Todd was really excited about the possibility. And so here's what this is the beauty of Hollywood. It's not that they lied to us, because I think we were all good legit hosts and we all had a shot. But they also needed something. They needed really good hosts to go out and host these prices right

That's changed since back then I mean that was the birth of it. It's now a buzz and truck playing theater, so it's a lot more fun.

Oh, that's got to be a blast then, because if people want to be there.

Plongs of people around the block. It's like a rock concert. And so it's much better than when it was at Bally's and we were kind of grinding it out at four in the afternoon. I just really went to do it so I could play poker. That was the only reason I did it back in those days. Now I go because it's it's like improv, it's like an event,

So that's that's not how this works.

Do it for your own reasons, but that is not how this is going down.

Because I wanted I forgot the name of the executive producer, Andy Felcher. Yes, so Andy came. I hosted for two weeks and he came for the last two days, and then you know, we did the whole dinner thing. And then he actually had me to the Prices Right show where I met Bob Barker and was talking about this is so weird, Like you said, this is how this works. Where I show up and I'm talking to like Bob had to be thinking, who is this punk ass kid who wants my job? Who's at my job right now?

It was every big name and the entire well, actually that's not entirely true either. Do you know what the real story there? No, And I don't want to like spill too much tea, but it is the most dramatic podcast everly. This will be good for three game show nerds, so I'll give them this, and two of them are right here. It was originally going to be Dave Price,

The, by the way, the worst call you can get in this business. I know people think that's a good call, it's horrible. As soon as someone says you're a shoe in, you're never getting the job.

All the people have decided you're gonna test next week, and you got the gig as yours to lose. I'm like, awesome. But then what they didn't realize is that less Moon Best was in the office with Drew Carrey, the only guy who did an audition for the new deal, just making the deal.

That is exactly you know this. It is such a bizarre business we're in. And I was in the mix of that too, and The Bachelor had just started, so I'm like, Okay, maybe I almost have enough leverage to actually be in the mix, but clearly did not. And like you said, you hear rumors of Oh Wahlberg's going in or Todd Newton thinks he's in and everybody's hearing something from their agent, and like you said, it all comes down to Les Moonvez wakes up and decides this,

Deal or no deal.

It was when it went syndication, So how he was doing it killing it, and the syndication deal was going he didn't want to do the syndication or maybe they were just in negotiations or whatever. So I got used and I got brought in to audition publicly. They had all the suitcase girls. Maybe Megan Markle was there. I don't even know, but they did it very publicly on stage. I did the audition and all that, the producers are

You know, I don't know if people outside of our business. I guess this occurs in other businesses, but I don't know people outside our business realize how nasty it can be. I mean, I've had that's a similar story where I had a producer called me at home on a Sunday going, we're doing this pilot and we didn't make a deal for our host and we want you would you do it? And I say sure, it said great, we'll call your agent, only to learn that that was just to get the other guy to sign.

Yeah, that's just let guy the.

Pie, you know, And so the bait and switch.

And it happens a lot. I mean, and you had you know, I don't know if you remember that guy Brian Blakely, who was a friend of ours who was around auditioning at the time. He did this dating show very early on. It was a daytime show on a cruise ship, and we all started getting calls. He shot it, they had already produced it. He was in the edit bay and we all started getting calls agents and hosts to come audition for his job. And so I called him.

And you know, I'll tell you something. Man, the business and I've been married thirty six years. So sadly my wife hitched her her wagon to this roller coaster. Fortunate for me, but rugher for her. But she's from show business, so she gets it and that I wouldn't have survived.

That it's funny you say that. You know, people have asked me about when The Bachelor went crazy for twenty years and it's like, how do you keep perspective? And you've always seem so grounded, I said, because it can all go away tomorrow. And I know that, and I've I dug in the trenches and fought all the toxic battles. You realize how false that narrative is and how fake that world is. So you you love your your wife,

But a show business that's like one hundred, It totally is.

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You have two kids, two d boy and a girl.

Son's a Navy pilot. Daughter's a retired professional ballerina.

Yeah, your daughter was a premium ballerina. And it's scary to me she's already retired.

Well she did. You know, First of all, it's like being a football player, so you don't get that many years. But she danced at Kansas City Ballet for many years, and then during the pandemic, she left Kansas City, moved to Boston for personal reasons, and then was kind of being courted by Boston Ballet and then pandemic hit and then she's like, why am I, you know, busting my ass every day to do something I love, but get

That is your son, Morgan, Yeah, Morgan. So yeah, he was.

A frost star. I think if I'm not mistaken.

Who's that you have a big I do. Yeah, my son plays them. Both. My kids are at TCU. I got a senior he's about to graduate, so they're probably probably a little younger Josh my son Josh twenty two daughters nineteen. You know, they're both going through college. And I'm kind of still in it. Yeah, but I'm still kind of it's that empty nest, but not quite fully empty nest yet.

You know, I'm not only empty nest, but I've gone to the level where like it shifted. So like when we're all hanging out together and I drive home, they're texting me to make sure I got homesick that chapter.

Now, So what's your son? So Morgan was a Navy pilot, which is awesome, by the way, And what's he's going to take that into the private sector soon?

No, No, he's and leave the navy. He's going to like he says, I'll probably still fly, but I'm a fly for fun, not for money. Yeah, I don't think he wants to do the commercial thing. He's he and his wife, he got married a year ago. They've done pretty well. They've got some real estate, they've got some plans, they got stuff they want. Wild.

Isn't that wild? Like your boys? Like, it's how has that affected your life? Kids are grown, they're clearly successful. They don't need you anymore per se, How did that affect you and Robbie in your life? And like kind of having to rEFInd yourselves and your relationship.

It's it's interesting to hear you say that. I think it's been amazing. I think when my son, my oldest, went to college his first year, I I didn't know what to do with myself if I'm not going to sit on the bench and watch him play baseball and then head over the ballet class to watch my daughter. Like what's my identity? Right? I have none? Even though I'm on TV and I have all that, that doesn't matter. Yeah, I'm really you know, if he hit a home run, then I hit a home run, right.

Well, that's one of the things I always appreciated about you and why we always connected as like this guy defines himself by being a good father, a good husband, a loving guy, a good friend, and so I get that. It's like I lived and died horribly.

Horribly you know, emotionally sick to be defined by your son's home run. Yes, so then and my daughter left after high school, she went straight to she had a scholarship the Watchington School Ballet. She left. So we were really empty nesters at this point in our lives. My wife's in my life. It's more wonderful than it isn't. Yeah, our relationship with the kids has shifted into such a different place. They're both really living that chapter of their lives,

Every now and that, I get to drive by the building and you go in and people are like, oh, there's an appreciate about it.

Yeah, it's a really beautiful time. I'm really you know, when I talk to people about parenting, you know the fact that I keep in touch my kids, check in probably every day with us, and that I think is the greatest measurement of parenting is not how are they doing, but how much are they communicating? And so, yeah, we're having a good time. You know, we've gotten through some stuff. My son has had some stuff, my daughter's I've had stuff. We all had stuff. Like like message happens on the

I'm making this stuff up, man.

Yeah. So I think the apprentice has become the master, and I think I'm the student now and there they're advising me.

But obviously there's a lot of pride in that. And you see your kids growing and I'm sure it's been interesting too because I'm going through this now. You're kind of four steps probably a little further in watching your relationship evolve because it's got to evolve into something else. Like you said, you know, I'm not driving them to practice anymore. I'm not imparting all that much wisdom anymore. I do advise them a little bit because they are

Of the time. But I also make the joke when they come home, I'm like, you know, your kids coming home is like going to Vegas a week. Sounds like a good idea, but after like three days, you're broken, hung over. It's so But the truth is, when you talk about it, like your advisory role as a parent, one of the things I talk about and one of the things I try to do is realize now that my advisory role is only when asked, because they're figuring it out and they're doing better than I did at

Well, that's their job too, And the bully pulpit.

She'll definitely hammer you until you do what she says.

Before I let you go. If you mentioned something really interesting at the beginning any of this we got in at kind of the golden age of hosting. I mean, I feel I always tell people I got on the last train out of Network TV. It was phenomenal. So did you a Temptation Island? And it was I've watched it. Not only kind of diminish as far as the hosting role that you know, Seacrest and Bergeron and you and

I would there's a joke about my mind, as I would tell them to run away and become an accountant and you'll be thrilled. But here's my take on this, Chris, because I appear as my age who are either retiring or still trying to grind it out, who have a great resentment for the fact that our industry isn't an industry really anymore. But I don't feel that way at all. I think that Actually my advice to others is take

It's true.

Yeah, I always am talking to my friends, who are you know, frustrated about the business, and I'm like you, guys, the cheese moved and it's freeing and liberating. So I'm thrilled with being TV. But literally, I say to my family, I'm like, you know, I don't go look for TV jobs anymore. You know, if people want me on TV, they're gonna call me, and I'm gonna go do a TV show and I'm down to do it. Temptation Island has been awesome. I don't know what's next for me

Yeah, you can do anything. It's true.

You do something you had to hire somebody with a camera, go to an edit bay later for hundreds of dollars to cut it together, and then make tapes or CDs to send to people, and there was nowhere to see it.

Yeah, evolve, evolve and move on. And speaking of evolving, you're doing a podcast.

Yeah, I've got to figure out a name for it, but I've laid down a couple episodes. I'm gonna probably launch it the first of the year, somewhere around there. I'm not really sure, but I'm in it now and sort of furthering the conversations that we have on Temptation Island but also life. You know, it's hard to say, you know, what's the podcast about? You know, your podcast is about you and the people around you and the

Half the people come to you, the other half come to me. There you go, and they should they should all do better.

The first thing I tell him probably higher professional, Yeah, exactly.

Just because I play one on TV doesn't mean I have all the answers for you, dude. I appreciate the time, man, I really appreciate you coming on. And I like the name of the podcast. That is I'm Mark Wahlberg. No, not that guy, and no I did not host The Bachelor.

I joked that I would call it a Mark Wahlberg podcast, because there's the and then there's a but then you got to quit saying things that demean you. Come on, stand in your past.

One of the things I loved about having a podcast is when my producers like, who should we have on? I said, you know who I want to talk to? Just by the way, whether someone finds this fascinating or not, it doesn't matter, like this is the conversation I wanted to have. This is someone that our lives have criss crossed and been intertwined for twenty years, and we have such People.

Don't realize we're rarely we're never in the same room. It's like we're so aware of what going on because I have to be briefed on what you're doing so that I can answer the questions when asked.

And you know, he was in it back in the day. I don't know if it's a similar thing, but I was hyper aware of what Todd Newton was hosting. You know, what you were hosting, What what jobs are out there? What's going on? You know, because it was such a it is such a cutthroat business and we were all just grinding trying to get jobs, and but it was funny. There was there was a lot of civility into it. Like you said, you'd fill in for Todd. I filled

Todd's throwing me stuff. Albeit the ones who thrown me have been so low paying and a little bit janky.

There was a reason he's throwing them exactly.

He didn't give me the good.

But this is the reason I love doing this podcast. It's it's the conversation I wanted to have. And UH wish you and Robbie the best to the kids and everything going on in your life. My friend. It's it's good to catch up.

And my love to Lauren and UH and all the best of you, and thanks for having me on. And you know, when I have a podcast with a name, I'll come back on it and tell your people to come listen. So HI will and then you know, if they're watching you or me, and they can figure it out.

Later exactly, they'll think it's the same thing. I should just put you on my podcast feed and we'll just keep just running no one would ever know that sounds good to me, all right, Mark, take care, Bud, all right, see ya, thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever, and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.