REVELING in a ratings bonanza the day after the debut of ABC’s “The Chair,” it’s caustic host, John McEnroe, is a little shocked to hear his name mentioned in the same sentence as quiz show vets Regis Philbin, Anne Robinson and Alex Trebek.
“You can call me a lot of things, just don’t call me Wink McEnroe,” New York City’s best-known tennis legend told The Post, alluding to veteran game show host Wink Martindale, who was a quiz-show fixture during the late 1950s.
McEnroe, who turns 43 next month, is a husband and a proud father of six children, an Emmy-nominated tennis broadcaster, a wannabe rock star, the short-lived captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team, and now potentially America’s next big game show host.
And the intensity that made McEnroe one of the most compelling and explosive figures ever to grace the courts of pro-tennis is now focused on the everyday Joes and Janes who are contestants on “The Chair.”
On the show, players find themselves on national TV hooked up to a heart monitor, exposed to stressful situations and then asked to answer trivia questions. The prize is $250,000 and, to get it, contestants endure heart-stopping distractions designed to scare them. Every time their heart-rate jumps, they lose money.
At times, players are surrounded by fire, fireworks and, in one case during the show’s premier last week, a live alligator strapped in a harness was dropped from the ceiling and dangled inches above a contestant’s head.
In its debut last week, more than 12 million viewers tuned in. “The Chair” now airs weekly on Fridays at 9 p.m.
“This show is about keeping your composure,” says McEnroe, who famously lost his own countless times on national TV after he hit the pro-tennis circuit in 1977.
At least once he feigned illness and left a charity event he was throwing in London a few years ago when told his band would follow instead of precede the night’s special guests, Led Zeppelin, according to a recent profile in the online magazine “Sports Jones.”
So it’s not surprising that McEnroe has carried over that intensity to his duties as prime time TV show host.
“The producers put together a good TV show, but I’m a perfectionist and I believe it could have been better – we have different opinions about things,” he says.
Still, years of battling umpires and line judges on the courts, as well as tennis officials behind-the-scenes, have mellowed McEnroe’s ornery me-against-the-world attitude. And if the job of game show host ultimately doesn’t pan out, he says it’s okay with him.
“I really believed that when I was the number-one tennis player in the world I could change more things than I could,” he says. “So I’ve realized you can give it your best shot, then you sort of have to move on – hopefully that’s good enough.”
“The Chair” is one of two new shows that have been labeled “torture TV.” They’re among the next wave of programming that networks execs hope will recapture the reality show lighting that hit nearly two years ago with “Survivor” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”
Fox’s entry to the “torture TV” genre, “The Chamber,” forces players to answer trivia questions while enduring several minutes inside a fire-breathing mechanism that also blasts them with pressurized air and electrical shocks.
At least one player allegedly suffered minor burns when she emerged from the machine, which some viewers have dubbed a human-sized rotisserie grill.
“The Chair,” McEnroe says, is different.
“If something happens where it’s meant to sort of jump your heart rate, it’s not meant to in any way, shape or form to physically injure you,” he says. “It’s about a scare, a quick sort of jolt – something unexpected.”