I saw a blurb this week that Steve Thomas would be hosting some other show - maybe for a one-shot performance.
My wife and siter-in-law are big fans of TOH, they like Steve and would like to catch the program.
Does anyone know the show name, network and the time?
Apparently he’s now working for the DiY (Do it Yourself) network. I did a search for him on their site, but didn’t come up with anything but TOH reruns. Perhaps the new show is currently filming and will be aired next season?
Here’s another article that came up about things he wants to do in the future: http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/sep03/171916.asp?showheadlines=all
I’m still cool on the new guy. I actually like Thomas best of the three hosts they’ve ever had on This Old House (Bob Vila, Steve Thomas, and whatever the new guy’s name is).
I feel the same way, and I can’t remember his name either!
I might be way off, but he seems like a brash young kid, tryng to fit in as an equal with a bunch of old and very wise veterans.
Man, what a sweet gig to give up! And for the DiY network? Is that cable channel 6781 or 6782, just past the Fishing Fly Tying network?
It was most thoughtful to do that search and to link the article. I appreciated both very much.
Antiochus
You are welcome! I’m a TOH junkie and jump at the chance to inflict it on others! 
FTR, Kevin O’Conner (aka “The new guy”) is a doll. You have to watch Ask This Old House and Inside This Old House (on A&E) to really appreciate what a goofy good sport he is though.
You have to wonder whether Steve left because now they do 4 shows a week (TOH, AskTOH, InsideTOHx2). When he started, he only signed up for one half-hour.
There’s something fishy about the Inside TOH shows. Norm does not do this show at all, and it features only episodes from the Bob Vila days. (I’m guessing perhaps Norm is just too busy with TOH and New Yankee Workshop to take on a third show, but the great pains to make sure Steve does not appear at all are sorta creepy. Could be just a contractual thing though.) The work on that show though is about 5% new footage/hosting and 95% old footage. (I’m not even counting the little comedy bits at the end. Like the guy, hate the gal.) I’m sure most people would jump at the chance to make more money for a relatively small amount of work. (The real work in that show is by unseen heroes sifting through old footage and grouping it into coherent categories.)
I was under the impression Steve Thomas didn’t quit, he was fired. No cite, though.
Remember how that came up a couple of posts ago?
His name’s Kevin O’Connor - as everyone here knows by now.
When Steve made his debut, I was a little skeptical that he’d succeed. One of the things I liked about Vila was the pace he set. With him, the show moved.
Well Steve kept the pace Vila set, but he also introduced a missing ingredient: chemistry.
He seemed to bring out the warmth in all the regulars.
Did Vila? In my opinion, no.
“This Old House” is a far cry from the Bob Vila days. Today, with the four television programs, the national magazine, and the franchising and assorted other merchandising endeavors, it’s clear that the TOH phenomenon is big business and business people are focused on empire expansion.
Thomas’ TOH role seems like the proverbial Dream Job to us, but even dream jobs get old. If you look at Thomas’ resume/bio, before he signed on at TOH, he was into oceanic and Arctic exploration, had written a best seller, and could have gone any number of ways. Bob Vila ultimately left the show because he wanted to cash in–and cash in he did; a couple of years ago, he sold a house for about $5 million.
Steve Thomas has taken another path. He just turned 50 years old. This, with the recent death of his father, serves as a major milestone in a (successful) man’s life.
There’s nothing on record to suggest he was fired, as alleged above. Instead, it looks to me like a dynamic guy decided to jump ship while he still had some youth and energy left in him–to see how else he might channel his passions.
I see his move as admirable and wish him well.
I have to backtrack and correct myself. Norm IS on Inside TOH, but not on Ask TOH.
I don’t mind the “big business” aspect of the show now, really. It just makes it more accessable, IMO. I like how Ask TOH focuses on more everyday homeowner problems, and I like on Inside TOH how they show the improvements in technique/tools/technology that have occured since they did something 20 years ago.
I’d swear Norm appears regularly on Ask TOH.
Isn’t this the show in which Norm and the rest play that silly, but mildly amusing game of “What in Hell is This Here Thingy?”
Norm is not on Ask TOH. Kevin, Tom Silva, Rich Trethewy (sp?), and Roger Cook (the landscaping guy) are the guys on that show. One or twice they’ve had this painter guy on, and there was one home visit where they sent an electrician, but no Norm.