Jeffrey Dean Morgan Says Wife Hilarie Burton Convinced Him to Host NBC’s Destination X (Exclusive)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is still in disbelief that he’s hosting NBC’s new competition series, Destination X.

“[NBC] called… and I said, ‘I think you have the wrong person,'” Morgan tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I live on a farm, and I kill zombies, and I’m a dad, and I’m kind of a pain in the a–.”

Throughout his decades-long career as a successful actor, the 59-year-old Walking Dead star says it “never crossed my mind” to take on a hosting gig.

“I’m still not actually completely sure how the hell this happened,” he jokes. “I am not like a typical host. I’m not Ryan Seacrest — who I love, and I think he’s excellent at his job — but that’s not me. I’m a bit on the crass side and I’ve got a very sarcastic sense of humor, and I didn’t picture it.”

But producers were convinced they had their man. 

Based on a Belgian competition series, Destination X follows players as they travel across Europe on a blacked-out bus and attempt to figure out their location each week through various challenges. The contestant whose guess is farthest from their destination gets sent packing. (Think The Amazing Race meets Traitors meets Big Brother.)

“The host was this very slick, kind of James Bond-y guy,” Morgan notes of the Belgian version. “I kept saying, ‘That’s not me either.’ And [producers] just kept coming back and coming back.”

At the time, Jeffrey reveals he was struggling to balance his career (he was shooting the Walking Dead spinoff, Dead City), with the declining health of his father and didn’t know if he had the bandwidth to take on more.

“There was a bunch of stuff going on in my life. My dad was passing away in the middle of shooting, and I was a bit of a mess,” Morgan said. “I wasn’t sure how I was negotiating doing anything well at the time.”

His wife Hilarie Burton Morgan, however, convinced him to reconsider. 

“It was my wife who said, ‘You know what?’ She came from this world. She came from the world of hosting,” he says, referring to her gig on MTV’s Total Request Live in the early 2000s. “She said — in a very nice way, but much more diplomatic than I’m going to make it seem now — ‘You’re not getting any younger. You’ve got this thing about you that it would be fun for you to be able to share that with the world, and you may have an opportunity to do that [by] hosting a show like this.’”

She later added that unlike his typical jobs, Jeffrey “probably” wouldn’t get hurt on Destination X.

Jeffrey also spoke with his father about the opportunity before his death in July 2024. His input? “Well, you know, son, I’m not really a reality show guy.”

“And I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not either, which might make it all that much more interesting and cool,'” he said.

According to Jeffrey, producers assured him, “‘Look, we just want you to be you. A little bit edgy, but a guy that maybe people want to have a beer with, and the gals think is kind of entertaining,’ he recalls. “So I was like, ‘All right, let’s try it.’”

To prepare, he carved out time for NBC’s hit Traitors. “I did watch a couple episodes because we have the same creative crew that is on Traitors, and I’ve worked with [host] Alan Cumming on The Good Wife,” Morgan says. 

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“Alan is amazing. He’s a showman — and I’m not that either,” he adds. “He’s created this whole persona that’s amazing.” 

But Jeffrey knows he doesn’t need to try to be anyone but himself — from the moment he rides in on a motorcycle on the show’s premiere, he puts his stamp on Destination X.

So how does he feel after taking the gig?

“I spent a month and a half in Europe being a weird, fun host, and it was great,” says Morgan. “I had so much fun being the ringmaster of the circus.”

He adds, “It’s an opportunity to do something new, and I sort of relish in that still, at the ripe old age of whatever I may be,” he says. “I had a great time. It was really fun.”

Destination X premieres Tuesday, May 27 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Episodes will stream the next day on Peacock.