Untold With Maria Menounos debuts on July 17, and will feature the affable and experienced Menounos back in a hosting role.
The entertainment news show will focus on three major stories in each hour-long episode.
On the first one, audiences can expect hearing about the obsession with the royal family, how selfies affect plastic surgery rates, and the movie Sharknado.
Here’s what you need to know about the 36-year-old who’s headlining.
1. She’s Hosting a Show on E!
The show will run on E!, and the host is enthusiastic to join the esteemed pop culture network.
“I am so excited! For someone like me who loves to work and loves to produce, E! is indeed the perfect home. I can’t wait to get started!” she told Hollywood Life.
According to the network, the program will feature a segment called “The Pop Culture Moment,” with YouTube and Vine stars, and another called “The Untold Moment,” which will involve interviews.
“I love having time to tell stories. My work at the Today show and Nightly News really gave me a solid background to utilize here. I’m a journalist that likes to dig deeper,” she told Hollywood Life.
2. She’s Known for Interviewing Celebs on ‘Extra’
She became a host in 2011 and ended her run on the popular entertainment program this May.
When her departure was announced, rumors swirled that either she was fired or had to leave because of bad relations with her co host, Mario Lopez.
A source dispelled the gossip to People, saying,
“There’s no Mario-Maria thing. She has no problem with him. She’s fine with her co-host…”She was not fired. She wasn’t ousted.”
Her job involved countless celebrity interviews and star-studded red carpet appearances, which she seemed to take on with ease.
When asked if she got nervous about interviewing the many celebrities on the show, she said:
It depends on the interview. For the most part, no; but there are those times, whether it’s sitting with the Obama family, that was nerve-wracking. You have to be very prepared. You just have to know everything you can, have done all your research. I think preparation kind of gives you that ease and that confidence.
During her time on television, her unusual laugh has always caught her audience’s attention.
When asked how she thinks it came about, she told AOL, “When I was ten years old, we went, we spent all this time, I think it might have been a month in the village where my dad is from…and I hung out with goats all the time! I was literally just playing with the goats in the backyard and I swear I got it from there. I also watched Flipper religiously so mix Flipper and the goat and then you get my laugh.”
3. She’s Been With Her Boyfriend for 16 Years
She’s dating producer and director Keven Undergaro, and admitted that she gets asked the marriage question quite often.
On the Today Show, shown above, she told Matt Lauer,
“It’s a natural question… I get it…The answer is I think that when we grow up and finally attack the whole kids thing, we probably will just do it all at once.”
They star in the reality show, Chasing Maria Menounos, on Oxygen.
The show, which already completed its first season, follows the couple as they live with Menounos’ parents, who are Greek immigrants.
Her parents wasn’t always accepting of their daughter’s Italian-American beau.
In an interview with AOL, she said:
He wasn’t Greek so my dad was very upset, pretty much disowned me, took my education away… I was now pretty much homeless, no education, no degree, but I had Keven.
4. She’s a WWE Fan
In the video above, we see Menounos in the ring at WrestleMania 28.
She told Wrestling Inc how her love for the sport came about:
I started watching when I was a kid with my dad. Growing up we were diehard wrestling fans, so it stuck with me my whole life. And then of course I met Kevin, my boyfriend, who you get to see on the show. He’s a big wrestling fan. So then we all were kind of just fans together.
Although Menounos is fit in the clip, she was not always so slim.
In a piece she wrote for Ladies Home Journal, she talked about her college weight gain:
I didn’t gain the Freshman 15—I gained the Freshman 40,” she revealed. I could keep candy and chips in my room and eat all the late-night pizza I could afford. I grew to a size 14 and kept growing. I felt sick and lethargic. I wanted to nap all the time.
Since she no longer wanted to feel that way, she created her own fitness and diet plan and lost 40 pounds in a year.
It was after that significant weight loss that she moved to California and landed her first gig, as a correspondent on Channel One News.
5. She Shared a Kiss With Derek on ‘DWTWS’
She participated in Season 14 of the dancing competition, and was voted off in week nine.
You can watch one of their flirty dances in the clip above.
Her chemistry with her partner Derek Hough caused quite a stir, especially when they kissed during one of their numbers.
In an interview with ABC, she dished about the liplock.
“It was actually my idea…we should rip off your shirt…umm not enough,” she said.
Even her own boyfriend seemed concerned. In an interview with Howard Stern, he said:
Out of all of them? I’d say Derek. That would be the one. This was the only time I ever wondered, yeah … You know what, Howard? I just put my mind on other things. It’s A, I trust Maria and B, what can I do?
