Acting Career Question: I want to get into television hosting. How do I get started?

You have two main possibilities in my opinion; both of which I would pursue. First of all, I am an actor, author, motivational speaker and seminar leader and I have done some hosting of live events and presented on video for companies.

Get yourself some hosting training. Learn how to use an ear prompter and a tele prompter. If you want to be a host you will need those skills. You can find people who teach classes on those things like Pat Murphy in NY www.mediaimagecoach.com . She's very good.
So, first and foremost you will want to be trained!
You will need to be good at marketing yourself to production companies and casting directors who cast hosts.
You'll also want to find out which agents or agencies have hosting departments and contact those people directly.
I wrote an article on the site about 12 steps to getting an agent that you can check out if you want.

Something else you should take into consideration. That is become an expert at something and create your own show! With today's technology, you could create a program of your own and shoot it all over the internet, youtube, myspace, facebook and there are so many other sites like that. You could build a website and become a point of reference.

Remember that something else that is important and that will help to increase your possibilities of getting booked on jobs is how big your fan base is. What I just suggested is an excellent way to create a fan base or a following of people who can't wait to see your videos or the next episode of your show.
Here's another page on my site with videos on it that I took off youtube that show how some actors and entertainers are making their own videos to promote their careers.
http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/job-in-acting.html

To follow the path of creating your own show or website you will need an extremely high dose of PASSION. If you have passion you will want to work on your project all the time and doing things for it will not be a chore. If you are thinking more about what people want and less about your passion, you will find that the things you have to do for your site or for your show will be a chore and you won't enjoy it.

Lastly, when you do create your videos and your show, you will then have more things to show your agent or to casting directors interested in your skills.

Good luck!

Tony