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Johnny Jacobs was born in 1916, and began his announcing career on the radio in the late 1930s, working for various stations and shows during the war years and throughout the 1940s. He might have been based in Wisconsin for some time during the late '40s/early '50s, since Jim Peck (who Johnny worked with much later on 1979's Three's a Crowd) recalled that Johnny was a member of the same church his father was when he was growing up. He was a either a CBS or NBC affiliate staff announcer, since he later did several intro/outro gigs on various soap operas.
By the mid-'50s, he had relocated to Los Angeles, and his impressince track record in commercials and radio broadcasting along with a talent for sketch-comedy acting led him to high-profile jobs as Ernie Kovacs' announcer on his variety shows. At the same time, he served as announcer and co-star on Betty White's 1958 Los Angeles variety show at KCOP-13.
After Kovacs' death in a car crash in 1962, Johnny found work as Steve Allen's announcer on his 1962-64 Group W talk show (a sort of post-The Tonight Show forerunner to Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin). Soon after, in late 1965, Johnny began his longstanding relationship with Chuck Barris when The Dating Game premiered, as well as The Newlywed Game premiere in the summmer of 1966 on ABC.
Johnny was a close personal friend of Jack Barry, and in 1972 when The Joker's Wild premiered, Johnny naturally took over duties on that show, with Roy Rowan and Johnny Gilbert filling in when his commitment to the Barris shows got in the way. The following year in 1973, Johnny worked on Jack Barry's The Joker's Wild and the short-lived Hollywood's Talking (CBS Daytime), and Chuck Barris' The Newlywed Game (ABC Daytime), as well as once-a-week versions of The Dating Game (which was cancelled by ABC that year but was later syndicated by Sandy Frank), and The New Treasure Hunt, also produced by Chuck Barris and syndicated by Sandy Frank.
After The Newlywed Game and The Joker's Wild met unexpected and temporary demises in the 1974-75 season, Johnny worked on several short-lived Barry/Enright projects (Blank Check -- NBC Daytime, Break the Bank -- ABC Daytime/Syndicated) as well as once-a-week episodes of The New Treasure Hunt, which ran until 1977. Of course, 1976 saw the premiere of The Gong Show both as a daily NBC Daytime show and a once-a-week nighttime version via Firestone Sales, which Johnny announced.
The 1977-78 season saw Johnny fully back in his prime, with a five-a-week nighttime syndicated version of The Newlywed Game -- distributed by WorldVision -- launched to tremendous success. The following year a five-a-week syndicated version of The Dating Game was distributed by Firestone Sales and a once-a-week beauty spoof called The $1.98 Beauty Show went into syndication via Sandy Frank, but while The Gong Show continued once-a-week in syndication, it's NBC daytime companion got the axe by the summer of 1978.
By the fall of 1979, Johnny added a third five-a-week syndicated show to his schedule, Three's a Crowd with Jim Peck (Syndicated by Firestone Sales), but that show failed badly (it was quickly replaced in most major markets by either Play the Percentages (Barry/Enright, Syndicated by Colbert Television Sales) or Face the Music (Sandy Frank) at mid-season). Also, The Dating Game and The $1.98 Beauty Show wrapped up their 1979-80 season production schedules by the end of 1979, with The Gong Show wrapping up as well by early 1980.
Meanwhile, Jack Barry had kept the announcing spot on The Joker's Wild open for Johnny for the last 13 weeks of spring episodes each season from its 1977 return into 1980, after Johnny's duties with The Dating Game, The $1.98 Beauty Show, and The Gong Show wrapped up, and only The Newlywed Game would be still in tandem production. (Jay Stewart did the rest of The Joker's Wild as well as Tic Tac Dough, Bullseye, and Play the Percentages.)
After The Newlywed Game, The Joker's Wild, and Camouflage shut down production in the spring of 1980, Johnny "announced" his retirement at the age of 63. However, he was lured back in front of the mike by Firestone Sales in 1981 for a new version of Treasure Hunt. However, it was possible he was suffering from cardiovascular disease, and he was soon forced to retire permanently by late fall. Sadly, on February 8th, 1982, Johnny Jacobs passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 65, silencing one of the giant voices of Radio and Television.
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