Move over Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Kit Hoover, another former reality TV contestant has landed a regular gig on daytime television. The producers of Tony Danza's upcoming ABC daily talk show have announced that former The Apprentice contestant Ereka Vetrini will join Danza as his announcer and sidekick on Danza 's new The Tony Danza Show.
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With the announcement, Ereka joins former Survivor: The Australian Outback contestant Elisabeth Hasselbeck (currently co-hosting the syndicated The View) and former Road Rules Kit Hoover (currently co-hosting ESPN's Cold Pizza) as former reality television contestants who have managed to crossover into daytime television.
Ereka, who graduated with honors from Boston College in 1998 (only a year before the equally perky Hasselbeck also graduated from the same school in 1999) is unfortunately probably best known for having to defend herself against the unsupported racial slur allegations made by fellow Apprentice contestant and serial liar Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth.
A native New Yorker, the 28-year-old Ereka has worked in Hong Kong, Australia, Greece and Spain as an Internal Operations Consultant for cosmetics giant Estee Lauder. Most recently, Ereka worked as a Global Promotional Marketing Manager for Clinique where she managed all promotional programs worldwide prior to her Apprentice appearance
Commenting on the addition of Vetrini to the daily talk show, John Redmann, the executive producer of The Tony Danza Show, stated "Ereka adds an enthusiastic, intelligent and fun female voice to the show. She has tremendous conversational chemistry with Tony and isn't shy about her opinions. She may not have been hired by Donald Trump -- but we've found the best person for the job."
Wasting no time in taking demonstrating that "conversational chemistry," the two seemingly quickly took some playful digs at each other, with Danza (in an apparent allusion to Ereka's complete lack of any entertainment experience) remarking that, "I was looking for someone whose name ended in a vowel, and I think I found her. Ereka's great, and I'm so happy she's aboard."
"I couldn’t be more thrilled about the opportunity to work with one of the most popular television personalities of all time." Ereka stated. She also fired back at Danza with some friendly banter of her own, reminding the 53-year-old veteran of the 1970's hit Taxi sitcom that he's no spring chicken, "I learned everything about business from working in my parent’s pizzeria; the two best business people I know -- and now I’ll be able to learn everything there is to know about television from a man whose career has stood the test of time."
This is Danza's second time appearing in a program entitled The Tony Danza Show. He also appeared in a failed 1997 sitcom of the same name, in which he played a single sportswriter father raising two daughters. The new The Tony Danza Show will premiere Monday, September 13, 2004. The show is produced by Riverward Productions, Inc. and distributed by Buena Vista Television.
