A face for TV

Jul 18, 2025

The world is telling me to repeat one of my favorite posts.

I just watched the new documentary about pioneer journalist Barbara Walters…and of course my thoughts turned to one of the men who helped her in her career (unlike the chauvinists at the time who didn’t).

That is, of course, legendary newscaster, journalist, and Renaissance Man, Hugh Downs…who passed away five years ago this month at 99 years old…and it’s not a coincidence that the Walters documentary was just released.

At least that’s how I see it.

This post is about one of the fullest 99 years of life.

Which included his partnership with Barbara Walters…and me. 😊

As you know I am committed to remembering those who have contributed to my life and career on a regular basis…with special attention to those who are no longer with us…with the goal of no one who has touched me in a significant way ever experiencing a “final death” under my watch.

To get the explanation of what it means to experience a “final death,” which I hope you never experience, you’ll need to watch the movie Coco (the ultimate kid’s movie not for kids)…or read “A fourth life (of nine).”

Neither one is morbid. Promise.

And yes, I talk about this concept often because never forgetting (i.e. remembering) is part of life.

This post is a further reminder for you to continuously remember those who have contributed to your life and career–especially if they are not around in the flesh to remind you personally–so you can pay them forward in your writing, your speech or in deed.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

Feel free to share a story with me about someone who touched you significantly who you’ve lost along the way. I would love to hear from you on this topic.

Hugh Downs is among a group of people who will have a much harder time experiencing a “final death”—he is more well known than many I’ve written about in this context–but he still deserves a shout out for the contributions he made to millions of people through his 10 decades on earth…and now 5 years since his death.

While I only met Hugh for the first time when he was a sprightly 84, I felt like I knew him forever, because he was so generous with his time, always sharing freely his stories about the early days of TV news…and his wonder with the world around him.

I will tell you the story of how he entered my life in 2005, when he was the key participant in the most successful project of my career.

But first, let me share some of his career highlights:

He was cast as Jack Paar’s “Ed McMahon” on The Tonight Show (Mr. Paar referred to him as “My Sancho Panza”); and that’s where he was briefly thrust into the spotlight (for 25 days) when Paar abruptly walked off the set in a huff over a censorship issue in 1960. Safe to say that the best was yet to come for Hugh on the small screen.
During those years and shortly after, he was also host of the popular daytime game show Concentration, a job he held from 1958 until 1969.
In 1962 he became the host of The Today Show (yes, that Today Show, still running today) for a decade. See the P.S. for proof.
He is credited with launching the career of the eventual Mega Star, Barbara Walters, when he brought her on to co-host The Today Show.
In 1978 he became the sole host of the newsmagazine 20/20 until 1984…and then in 1984, he teamed up with Barbara Walters once again and they co-hosted 20/20 until he “retired” in 1999. See the P.S. again for proof of that too.

But Hugh was far from finished…anything but retired…and he spent the next 20+ years “keeping busy”:

As a composer (he wrote a prelude that was performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra).
As an amateur guitarist (he played for Andrés Segovia and said he was pleased that Segovia did not leave the room) and painter (when he had the time).
As an author of numerous books including being an advocate for the elderly (he wrote books and articles about the aging process and was the host of a PBS series on aging called Over Easy).
As a science buff (he was once NBC’s resident expert on science programming) and a visiting professor at Arizona State University. While he came close to becoming a career scientist and would have been a good one, I’m kinda glad he pursued journalism as his vocation. 😊
As an audiophile (he built his own stereo equipment from scratch).
As an environmentalist and unabashed adventurer who piloted a 65-foot ketch across the Pacific, went to the South Pole, and rode a killer whale at SeaWorld.

And, in 2005, he became the star of one of the most successful franchises in infomercial history.

That’s when our paths crossed.

In his obituary, there is a paragraph about this adventure…but frankly, The New York Times got it wrong:

Mr. Downs, who often said he thought viewers regarded him as bland, assiduously avoided the appearance of controversy.

He could not escape it late in life, however, when he was widely criticized for appearing in infomercials for a book called “The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets” and other products whose value many people questioned.

I know for a fact that this is wholly inaccurate.

And I am not being defensive.

There will always be questions when a famous figure (especially a trusted newscaster) begins peddling products…but I was in the middle of the negotiations with Hugh and his attorney before he agreed to do five blockbuster infomercials (28.5-minute TV shows/advertisements) for my company Boardroom…so I have a different (inside) view than The New York Times.

Throughout those negotiations, he was a stickler for not endorsing anything that he didn’t believe in himself–and we had to make sure the shows were 100% value, the books sold were best-in-class, and everything met his approval.

He and his “co-host” on three shows, A-List copywriter (and health expert) Arthur Johnson, made sure this was always the case.

The two of them became synonymous at the time with providing information from doctors and medical experts from the top institutions in the country (including two Nobel Prize winners) …who were all in the shows (and the books).

Questioning Hugh Downs on the selling of the encyclopedic book, The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets, came from those who would have questioned anything Hugh Downs would have sold after 60 years being one of the most trusted men on TV.

Maybe there were dozens (or even hundreds) who felt that way…there will always be haters…but the proof is in the pudding.

We sold millions of books on TV from these shows…and millions more in direct mail that featured the infomercial in the copy (with the headline, “The Greatest Medical Team Ever Assembled!”).

And get this: With a return rate of less than 10% (and in some cases under 5%).

Those of you who know TV (or online selling), know that a 20% or 30% return rate is not uncommon, and anything in single digits is something to be very proud of–which we were.

It signifies that the promotion and the product are in sync despite some (not many) people questioning the value.

The paying audience is the judge and jury.

The book should not have been in question based on those numbers, nor Hugh’s light endorsement of it (i.e., he was an “objective questioner” in the shows since he did not want to “sell”)– and we had Arthur to do all the selling.

I wonder where The New York Times got their information.

Not from the facts, I guess.

I’ve talked before about how this project came to be and discussed it in detail in my book, Overdeliver (pages 41-46)…and in my blog post, “How my insomnia led to $200 million in sales.”

But today I want to focus on the genius of using Hugh as the host.

When I realized that we could do a successful infomercial selling a single book after my bout with insomnia, I assembled (i.e. “reallocated”) a dream team (pun intended) inside Boardroom, the best direct marketers anywhere in the industry ready to learn new skills… and outside of Boardroom as well.

Lesson: Direct response is direct response regardless of the medium.

And when you have experienced, trained personnel who “get it,” they can pivot quickly…even in entirely new media.

The staff at Boardroom certainly “got it” when they pivoted…from buying media, to creative development to analyzing results.

It was seamless.

Every aspect of marketing on TV had its parallel in direct mail (where we were experts) …and we became TV infomercial experts very quickly.

A critical domino was hiring the director, Steve Dworman, a genius in the world of infomercials…who also helped transition the staff to this new medium for us.

I don’t think he realized what he was getting into when I hired him to direct the entire creative and production process…but he was excited to get involved.

We were on the verge of creating the most successful shows in his career (as well as creating the most successful promotions in ours).

Our first show in 2004 was with radio talk show star Barry Farber, an amazing voice and a man of high integrity…who we paired with the aforementioned Arthur Johnson, the copywriter who had the winning magalog promotion at the time (a long-form direct mail format) for The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets.

Making a radio talk show host and a direct mail copywriter the on-screen talent for a TV infomercial weren’t obvious choices…but Steve had a bigger vision that he was just testing.

With Barry’s melodious voice and Arthur’s enthusiasm for the material (remember, A-List copywriters become A-Listers because they are one with the content they write about), the “concept test” with the two of them worked to the tune of more than $30 million in revenue.

It could have ended there—after all, the infomercial experts told us that 1 in 15 (or even 1 in 20) shows produced are successful.

We could have been content by going 1 for 1.

(Note: Something that I wrote about in my book was that we labelled Arthur Johnson as a “medical writer and expert”—not because he wasn’t a doctor and not because most viewers wouldn’t understand why a “copywriter” was doing the interviewing…despite both of those things being true. We did it because he was a true expert in writing health information–a bloodhound—and he read everything on the topic–and read the book itself cover to cover numerous times—which became a huge plus when he teamed up with Hugh Downs.)

The question was, what could we do for an encore?

Barry was not available for the second show…so we thought we could beef up the credibility with someone recognizable from TV.

Steve did some lengthy research on former news anchors and people Americans trust to be impartial…and Hugh Downs fit the bill perfectly.

But as I said previously, Hugh was initially hesitant…he put us through a gauntlet to prove we were worthy…which was as beneficial for us as it was for him.

His top priority, in addition to the book being the highest quality, is that he would play the curious and inquisitive newsman in the show (i.e., no selling) and Arthur had to prove all his points and answer all his questions about the information in the book (with the help of a brilliant format devised by Steve to bring the articles referenced in the infomercial to life, on screen, by the world class doctors who wrote them).

The result was that The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets lived up to its name…and the franchise was responsible for over $200 million in revenue.

And if you take in all the additional media we ran, offline and online, using the infomercial as the centerpiece, it was probably closer to $300 million.

How we got there:

The direct mail we did after the show aired—using the infomercial’s visuals (including Hugh) and a headline of “As Seen on TV”—made it a bigger bestseller than ever before.
The advertising we did online with paid search and display advertising under the heading of “Hugh Downs Reports” was incredibly successful…despite not many people selling books this way in that media at the time.
The power of spokespeople and credibility/proof elements were never more evident with Hugh Downs, one of the most trusted news anchors in America.
Arthur Johnson, a copywriter who knew the material better than most of the doctors in the book—and a man who could write a script with integrity and compliance (with a co-writing credit to Steve Dworman, who is no slouch with the pen).
The dozens of doctors who appeared in the shows from the top medical schools and institutions like Harvard Medical School, The Cleveland Clinic, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center…who wanted to share their “secrets” (which were their life’s work).

Obviously, this was a perfect storm of disparate (yet meticulously planned) things coming together– something I can only call the gestalt of the promotion:

The media, the hosts, the fulfillment, and the creativity of the director.

It’s certainly hard to pinpoint “one thing” that made it all come together so perfectly.

But today, in his memory, we will say that Hugh Downs was the lynchpin.

That is, we will give him top billing for taking us on one of the wildest marketing adventures of our lives.

Hugh’s patented sign-off on 20/20 was:

“We’re in touch so you be in touch”

Wise words from a true legend.

So…you be in touch too.

Please? 🙂

Warmly,

Brian

P.S. The unofficial “Hugh Downs photo album” …