Steve Burns to launch podcast for grown fans
Steve Burns was the host of “Blue’s Clues,” a children’s show on Nickelodeon, from 1996 through 2002.
SAN FRANCISCO — Former “Blue’s Clues” host Steve Burns just announced he’s starting a podcast to keep the conversation going with his, now grown, fan base.
He posted a video to YouTube on Wednesday with the pitch for a podcast, sitting down in front of a wall made of wood and looking directly in the camera.
“It’s basically a societal requirement at this point that everyone has a podcast, so why don’t we have one?” he says in the video. “You and I. It can basically be what we’ve always done.”
Burns was the host of “Blue’s Clues,” a children’s show on Nickelodeon, from 1996 through 2002 and has made reappearances with new hosts over the years.
But this new project? It’s geared to those who grew up with him, who now have families of their own and whose problems are more complicated.
“It used to be about shapes and colors and letters and numbers and vegetables and stuff, but now it could really be about death and sex and taxes and everything that makes it so weird and wonderful to be alive,” he says in the video.
The “Alive with Steve Burns” podcast plans to launch in the fall, nearly 30 years after he first appeared on Blue’s Clues, with the goal to create a “podcast that listens back.”
“As millennials navigate an ever-changing world, Steve will host conversations on topics ranging from personal finance to spirituality and modern love,” the description of the video said. “(It’s) about the big questions — identity, mortality, masculinity, loneliness, success — and what it means to stay human in a complicated world.”
The video announcing the idea reached nearly 60,000 views in the first day it was posted and the YouTube channel dedicated to the proposed podcast already has 29,000 subscribers.
In 2021, he went viral on social media when Nickelodeon’s children’s account posted a video of Burns addressing the time between then and the last time he’d really been seen when he abruptly left the show.
In the video, he said he had gone off to college and was finally doing what he wanted to do.
“I wanted to tell you that I really couldn’t have done all of that without your help,” he said. “I’m super glad we’re still friends.”
The video made many emotional, with hundreds of thousands of replies, nearly 2 million likes and people reminiscing on the nostalgia his face and voice brought.
He had left the show without giving a reason why at the time, but in “Behind the Clues: 10 Years of Blue,” a 2006 Nickelodeon special, he said he was losing his hair quickly while young and “refused to lose my hair on a kids TV show.”
He’s since been on TikTok and other social media platforms, appearing on podcasts and more.
“This could be cool,” he said in a social media video promoting the podcast. “I’m excited. I am. I’m excited.”