Show dogs, celebrities strut their stuff in show
Tired of binge-watching the same television shows? Here’s something different.
On Sunday, the 2020 Beverly Hills Dog Show Presented by Purina will air from 8 to 10 p.m. on NBC, with more than 1,500 dogs representing 200 breeds and varieties that earlier competed in this show.
Because this show took place in Beverly Hills, Calif., the TV broadcast will be a bit different. It’s hosted by the Kennel Club of Beverly Hills, and the producers, NBC Sports, promise there will be a lot of show dogs mingling with celebrity guests, including actress Bo Derek and Olympic medal winners Greg Louganis, a diver, and Nastia Liukin, a gymnast.
Also look for Doug the pug, who has more than 15 million followers on social media, and Miss America 2020, Camille Schrier.
The show is co-hosted by John O’Hurley, a Broadway and TV actor (J. Peterman on “Seinfeld”), and David Frei, an American Kennel Club dog show judge who provides expert analysis. Mary Carillo, a reporter for NBC Sports and NBC Olympics, is one of the contributing reporters.
A Havanese named Bono won best in show in the 2019 Beverly Hills show. The little dog with the long-flowing hair was the winningest Havanese in the history of the breed that hails from Cuba. Bono has won more than 90 best in show titles. In February he was the winner of the toy group at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club dog show, but a standard poodle won best in show at the competition in New York City.
Previous Beverly Hills BIS winners include King, a wire fox terrier, in 2018, and Ripcord, a Doberman pinscher, in 2017.
Perhaps because there are no live sports on TV due to coronavirus shutdowns, the April 5 NBC rebroadcast of the 2019 Beverly Hills Dog Show was the second-highest rated sports program of the weekend across all networks. It was watched by an average of over 1.2 million viewers.
The top dogs strut their stuff at the end of the show, with a winner in each group: sporting, working, herding, hound, terrier, toy and non-sporting. Each group winner “will walk the show’s unique runway,” according to the publicity information, before the BIS winner is picked.