Legendary actor and host of the National Dog Show John O'Hurley joined Cheddar News to talk about this year's big event -- and introduce a few award-worthy pups.

<div class="block">Legendary actor and host of the National Dog Show John O&#39;Hurley joined Cheddar News to talk about this year&#39;s big event -- and introduce a few award-worthy pups. The Dog Show takes place November 18-19 and will air on NBC on Thanksgiving Day</div>

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Famed Actor John O'Hurley Is Ready to Host the 2023 National Dog Show

On the fourth Thursday of every November Americans gather to celebrate one of the most time honored traditions. We're talking about the National dog Show in a special cheddar pause. I recently got the chance to sit down with actor and host of the National dog show, John o'hurley to get a preview of this year's competition. Take a look, John. Always great to have you. Welcome back. Thank you. Nice to be here. It's nice to be part of a family tradition now, 22 years old, 22 years old. So tell us what we can expect from this year's show. Well, this year we have uh a nearly 2000 dogs uh representing more than 200 different breeds. And when I started this 22 years ago, we had 100 and 65 breeds that were so you can see how the the menu has grown every year with, with more interesting dogs and breeds. And each one of them comes with uh uh a wonderfully specific history and uh and certainly a different look. I think about this every year. When I watch the show, there are thousands of dogs backstage, hundreds of people what's it like back? Well, if you can imagine that if you're on an elevator, uh, with 10 people and one dog, everybody looks at the dog, uh, you know, and smiles and, uh, there's something about the energy the dogs give us and give the room and you can imagine 30,000 people in the arena. And, uh, they are smiling and having the best day of their lives. The, uh, the national dog Show presented by Purina is the last of the benched shows, which means that all of the dogs, the handlers, the owners, everybody has to remain there in the arena for the entire day from seven in the morning until seven at night. How was putting the national dog show on TV? Inspired by so many of our, uh, favorite film. Best in Show? Well, it, um, John Miller, who was the head of sports programming over at NBC, took home, uh, the, uh, the show one, weekend and, uh, found it very entertaining and came in Monday morning and said, I know we're gonna do with that two hour slot and instead of showing reruns of it's a wonderful life. They said we're gonna do a dog show and they all laughed him out of the office. But they called me on Tuesday and said hello. And I said, Wolf, wolf and 22 years later. Oh, yeah, here we are. Who'd have thought, huh? And we get a, we get an audience consistently between 2030 million people watching every year. So it's become the most popular event that they do. Certainly here at Cheddar. So I do want to bring in some special guests starting with Aie and her owner Whitney. Hi, ladies, welcome. This is a little beaver terrier. Yes, a breed that we uh brought in about three years ago and uh and has uh quite a popularity. We'll have about 25 beavers there competing in uh in the group. Look at her hair clip. Whitney. Why do you think Annie might be the one to walk away with it all? Well, Annie actually isn't going this year. She uh got best opposite sex last year. Her father actually went breed last year. Um But this year, uh we're, we're staying home and a bunch of her relatives and friends are gonna be out there. You know what, a lot less pressure, but I know she'll be ready to go. She is so cute. Thank you so much, Whitney. Thank you. Bye next. Let's bring out Margarita and her owner Mary. This is what when I say we have unusual. Yes, this is one of the most unusual. This is the a Mexican dog. The clo listen carefully. Clo eats squint very well said. Tell us about Margarita. Margarita is seven months old. She's, she's trying her best to be as best as she can, her, her grandsire won best of breed at Westminster. So we have, we have a lot to live up to. Um, she has a lot of, it seems like she's on her best behavior today. But breed with a lot of energy rich culture. Just an amazing first, interesting breed too. 3000 years. This was, uh, this is an, you'd see the pictures of the, in the old paintings of the Aztecs that you'll always see the Choto squeaky there as the guard dog of the royalty. She's so sweet, well behaved for you. I have to say that that underscores the fact that they, all of these dogs are so well trained. You never, there's never an incident of, we have no dog fights. We have 2000 dogs and they all get along and there's a lot more than humans. Sometimes you can't put that many people on a road of a disagreement. Mary Margarita. Thank you so much. You guys, thank you for having the last but certainly not least. No, there's no, at least is not the word you use here. This is the, this is actually the largest of all breeds. This is the Irish wolfhound. Uh, this is, uh and she, this is a she Tali and she's a little, she's a touch smaller than most would be. Uh, if you, if you get a male, uh Irish wolfhound, you could add another uh, 4 to 6 inches there and they've been known to clear off table tops. Oh, I believe it. Tell us a little dog. Yeah, she seems very sweet. Well, we're here in solidarity with our, our dog show friends. She's not up to dog show standards but it doesn't mean that she can't do a lot of competition stuff. Uh, she's very active. She climbs mountains. She does water retrieving. Um, so it's, it's not always the, the dogs that have to win the dog shows. Uh, how much does she eat? Not so much. Now, when they grow, they eat insane amounts of food, insane amounts of food and you turn around and they've grown a couple of inches. A little one. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And thanks to John o'hurley, Whitney and Annie Mary and Margarita Kate and Tali for joining us. And of course, you can watch the national dog show live on NBC at noon in all time zones on Thanksgiving Day. Make sure to tune in. Thanks again to Mr o'hurley and of course, all those incredible dogs who were so well behaved.