A venerable and extremely affable television host, Hugh Downs is known for his intelligence, patience, and decency. The Guinness Book of World Records reports that Downs, among the most familiar figures in the history of the medium, has clocked more hours on television (10,347 through May 1994) than any other person in U.S. TV history.

Downs began his broadcasting career as a radio announcer at the age of 18 in Lima, Ohio, moving later to NBC Chicago as a staff announcer. In 1957, he became well known to U.S. audiences as Jack Paar’s sidekick on The Tonight Show, and he remained in that spot through 1962. In 1958, he began hosting the original version of Concentration, helping to establish his niche of doing more serious and thought-provoking television even within the game show format. 

He served as the National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC’s) utility host for many of the network's 1950s and early 1960s news, information, and entertainment programs. He added The Today Show to his list of network assignments, replacing John Chancellor, who served for just 15 months as Dave Garroway’s replacement on the original Today Show. Downs was the primary host of the Today Show for nine years.

Downs’s reassuring, professional manner in the roles of announcer, sidekick, host, and anchor has been unrivaled in U.S. television. He has said that he tries to be the link between what goes on behind and in front of the camera and the audience at home, hoping that he serves as an “honest pipeline to the audience.” He believes that television works best when a familiar presence is there to help guide viewers in and out of features and stories, however abbreviated that function may be. From 1978 to 1999, he demonstrated that commitment as the anchor or co-anchor of the American Broadcasting Company’s (ABC’s) 20/20, a job he came out of retirement to take after a nearly disastrous premiere almost kept the show off the air. 

His great affability and smooth manner have made it possible for Downs to get along well with whomever he has been paired with. For example, he repeatedly took the edge off some of the sharper moments with Jack Paar, who was well known for his outbursts, tantrums, and eccentricities. Downs proved his diplomacy once again in 1984, when Barbara Walters took the position across from him on 20/20, just after a major brouhaha had developed because she had been asked to leave her position as the first female network news co-anchor, paired unsuccessfully with Harry Reasoner. The chemistry between Walters and Downs was right, and the two worked together successfully from 1984 until downs left 20/20.

Intimates refer to Downs as one of the last “renaissance men.” He is a proficient sailor and aviator—even though he is color blind. He has composed, published, and had orchestrated pieces performed; has hosted Live from Lincoln Center for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) since 1990; and is exceptionally knowledgeable about science and health. One of his special interests is the U.S. space program. Another focuses on issues surrounding aging, and he has earned a postgraduate certificate in geriatric medicine while hosting Over Easy for PBS, the first successful television program in the United States about aging. Always modest, Downs shuns the “renaissance” label, preferring instead to call himself “a champion dilettante.”

Downs is the author of numerous books, including Perspectives, a collection of his 10-minute radio commentaries for ABC Radio; an autobiography; a collection of his science articles (on astronomy and the environment); an account of a sailing voyage across the Pacific; and several books on the subject of aging, health, and psychological maturity. Downs’s public service commitments are also notable. He is chairman emeritus of the board of the United States Committee for UNICEF, chair of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, an elected member of the National Academy of Science, and a past member of NASA’s Advisory Council. He received an award from the American Psychiatric Association for his work on the ABC News special Depression: Beyond the Darkness, and he received an Emmy for his work on The Poisoning of America, about damage to the environment. He was named broadcaster of the year by the International Radio and Television Society in 1990. In 1995, he was honored with a special salute ceremony by the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. 

In 1999, Downs began a very active retirement, leaving ABC and 20/20 after 21 years and after 62 years in broadcasting. The same year, Arizona State University named the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication for Downs. He occasionally lectures there. Downs has also branched out to the Internet, creating and “appearing” on the web-based network iNEXTTV’s Executive Branch TV channel in the programs My Take with Hugh Downs and Conversations with Hugh Downs: Values in America. Downs also recently composed a musical piece for cellist Yo-Yo Ma and had it performed by Ma, accompanied by a 98-piece orchestra.