THE newest reality show star on cable’s E! network will be a 19-year-old kid from Indiana – who’ll host his show from his parents’ living room.
Michael Essany, who until now broadcast “The Michael Essany Show” on some of Indiana’s local cable access channels, has snagged a six-episode commitment from E!, which will air his show in January following “The Anna Nicole Show.”
The show, a real-life “Wayne’s World” modeled after “The Tonight Show,” includes sketches and interviews and features Essany behind a desk complete with a coffee cup and microphone, just like Jay Leno and David Letterman.
In the past six seasons on cable access, Essany has managed to coax a gaggle of celebrities onto his talk show, including Rosie O’Donnell, Jewel and former President Gerald Ford.
Essany, a political science major at Indiana’s Valparaiso University, bills himself as a logical replacement for Jay Leno as host of “The Tonight Show,” on which he appeared on last April.
In turn, Leno is expected to be a guest on Essany’s E! show, according to the AP.
Essany is joined on the air by his best friend/sidekick Mike Randazzo, who once poured rancid milk into Essany’s coffee-mug, sidelining the host for about a week, claims the show’s Web site, overseen by Randazzo.
Taping on the show is expected to begin sometime this month.
Essany is the latest cable access host to leap from obscurity to a national cable broadcaster.
The best known so far is former Drew Barrymore beau Tom Green, who hosted “The Tom Green Show” on a rural Canadian cable access station for years before taking his dead-animal-humping shtick to MTV.
The network canceled his show more than two years ago, but recently aired a special in which Green traveled to Japan.
Another, even earlier cable access experiment for MTV was “Squirt TV” in 1996.
The show was hosted by a detached 17-year-old named Jake Fogelnest who interviewed stars in his bedroom and had a deep appreciation for the 1970s.