Jon Douglas Rainey, a former private detective turned television host, is one of four hosts on the talk show he compares to “The View.”
Jon Douglas Rainey is no stranger to television. With a background in security, he was a private detective for five years investigating insurance fraud and domestic cases. He brought his security background to a show he used to co-host on the Discovery Channel between 2005 and 2007 called “It Takes a Thief.”
“We would help people become safer by showing them what they needed to do to protect their home and their families in various forms,” Rainey explained.
That exposure led the Berlin Borough resident to be a guest host on “Anderson Cooper Live” and guest appearances on “Good Morning America” and Fox News, where he talked to viewers about how to make their homes safer and gave them tricks on what they could do to protect themselves.
Because of his fulfillment for helping others and his television experience, he jumped at the chance to host a new talk show airing on PBS called “Keep It 100,” a popular slang term for “Keeping It Real.” The show is taped in Mt. Laurel, and the first episode aired this past Monday, Nov. 7 at 2:30 a.m. Although the timeslot is very early in the morning, Rainey hopes audiences will tape the show if they aren’t awake at that time.
“We are kind of like ‘The View’ where we talk about topics that are hot in today’s society,” he explained. “We talk about everything from politics to things that are going on in the news and affecting people across the country, like the North Dakota pipeline to mass shootings to tensions between parties during this very nasty political campaign.”
One reason he loves being a part of these types of discussions and was so excited for this opportunity is because he believes something positive can be done at the end of the day, no matter what the topic is.
“From my perspective, I always like to talk about people that can make things better in the topics we are discussing,” he said.
He is one of four hosts and the only white male host. The remaining are three African-American females who live in Philadelphia — Fatima Gamble, Briana Harris and Felicia Michelle.
“I feel like I’ve got a lot of responsibility being the only male because when you’re talking about all the issues, which is so many topics, I have to make sure I speak up,” he said. “I feel obligated for male perspectives in general because certainly no one else is going to do it. I welcome the challenge. I welcome being the only voice in my demographic and the only white co-host. I’m proud to speak on behalf of men and white men in general.”
Rainey met his co-hosts several times before they started pre-production the last week of October and said they had a wonderful working relationship from the start.
“I feel very fortunate they hired these women,” he said. “They are intelligent, and we certainly do have different views, but one thing we agreed on is to be respectful of each other before and after the show, no matter what our differences are.”
Rainey said the diversity for the roundtable is needed for a show like this, and all their different views makes it informative and fun at the same time.
“I don’t think it would be an entertaining show if we all agreed and wouldn’t be educational if they (the viewers) didn’t get all these different perspectives,” he said.
