STEVE is out and Joe is in.
For most Americans, it may not be quite the same as when Carson left the “Tonight” show. But for pre-schoolers, the upcoming changing of the guard on “Blues Clues” ranks as the biggest TV shakeup of their lives.
Why is Steve leaving?
“He’d been on the show for 85 episodes and he felt it was time to go on to other things,” says Brown Johnson, executive vice president of Nick Jr. which airs the popular show (it’s also broadcast Saturday mornings on Ch. 2). But Steve helped train Joe – they taped three episodes together.”
About his “Blues Clues” predecessor, Steve Burns, the new host, Donovan Patton – who will be called “Joe” from now on – says: “He was a great example, almost like a mentor to me.”
“He told me to not to think of it as ‘doing kids television,’ to think of it as any other kind of acting you would normally do.”
Patton is set to make his “Blues Clues” debut April 29.
The show will explain the switch to toddler fans by sending Steve off to college and introducing Blue’s new friend, Joe, as Steve’s younger brother.
“We auditioned over 300 people all over the country,” says Nick Jr.’s Johnson. “The great thing about Donovan is his exuberance and spirit.”
Patton, 23, is an Air Force brat, born in Guam and raised in Colorado, Germany, Las Vegas, California, Michigan, New Jersey and New York.
Right now, he shares a Williamsburg apartment with two roommates. He’s got no tattoos (Steve had one, which he kept covered for the show), but Patton admits to a pierced left ear, which he got in the fourth grade.
“My stepdad had two earrings in his left ear. I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really cool.’ It wasn’t usual for my school, but I was bigger than most kids, so they wouldn’t say anything.”
But don’t expect to see the earring on “Blues Clues,” Patton says.
Right through the eighth grade, Patton spent most of his spare time playing soccer. Then, the acting bug hit. He got the lead in his drama class’ production of “Charlie and the Six Chicks.”
More recently, he has acted in small regional theaters and starred in a chewing gum commercial. To get the part on “Blues Clues,” Patton went through four rounds of auditions. And he’s proud that he was chosen by kids and their parents, explaining that producers sent audition tapes to focus groups to gauge kids’ reactions.
The best reaction, though, was from Patton’s 5-year-old sister, who was really excited when she came to the set one day and met Steve.
“She and Steve drew some pictures together and then she took my stepmom aside, tugged on her sleeve and said, ‘Mom, I didn’t think Steve was real.’ “