'The Gong Show' 2018 Host - Tommy Maitland Is Really Mike Myers!
The second season of The Gong Show reboot is premiering TONIGHT (June 21) on ABC and if you’re watching the show, you probably won’t recognize the man hosting the show.
Austin Powers actor Mike Myers plays a character named Tommy Maitland, who is the host of the show.
It was not confirmed until this past January that Mike was behind the stunt and he finally spoke out about it a couple months ago.
“I’m an old punk rocker, and there were a few things I would watch [growing up]: Saturday Night Live, Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club TV, and The Gong Show,” Mike said (via Vanity Fair). “There was something punk rock about the show . . . It was show business, but it had absolutely no ambition in it whatsoever—it was ambition-free. The show was kind of like performance art of a talent show. It’s not really taking itself seriously.”
“I just thought, if I’m doing this almost deconstruction of a talent show, I should be the ringmaster who is also deconstructed. It should be English in that way of keeping things moving, the super-gregarious [host],” he added.