E! News' Steve Kmetko Says It 'Bothers' Him When Reporters Aren't as 'Wrapped Up' in Pop Culture as He Is (Exclusive)

Previous Hey! Live news Host Steve Kmetko doesn’t mind when reporters get facts about pop culture wrong.

During the ’90s and early aughts, the veteran journalist hosted E!’s signature program with Jules Asner, interviewing the hottest stars in entertainment, including Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Cher, George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Julia Roberts and Robin Williams. Therefore, it is not surprising that when the journalists are not in the game, Kmetko, 71, notices.

“I get a little upset every now and then when I see somebody on the air and they don’t know what they’re talking about,” he tells PEOPLE, recalling a news report in which a reporter discussed Judy Garland’s iconic song “Over the Rainbow.” is one woman who was talking about the song, what a great song it is… But then she said, ‘From 1938.’ And I screamed at the TV, ‘1939’, not ’39.’ Like, the best year in film history!”

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Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Kmetko in Santa Barbara, California in 2000.

Chris Weeks/Getty

The journalist is currently putting his encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture to great use as he hosts a weekly podcast Hollywood still here, in which Kmetko does what he does best, developing his interviewing skills to explore the lives and careers of actors including Eric McCormack, Steven Weber, Jerry O’Connell, Peri Gilpin, Joely Fisher, Eric Roberts and Breckin Meyer.

“The people who came to sit down and talk to me were just great,” he says. “It’s nice to see those people. They come and are very complimentary and tell me it’s good to see me back.”

After more than two decades of career in television journalism, Kmetko was fired Hey! Live news In 2002, while renegotiating his contract with the network, the reporter wrote on a third-party website: “To the viewers out there, if you like my work and want to see me continue, I’d appreciate it if you could write to management and say, ‘Like we like Steve.'”

Shortly after that comment, the network let him go. His sudden departure from Hey! Live news left viewers wondering what happened.

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Jules Asner and Steve Kmetko at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

J. Vespa/WireImage

“It’s like having the rug pulled out from under you, to use a cliché, just being shown the door,” he explains, adding, “I wasn’t ready to leave E!. I loved working there. They sent me all over the world. I worked with people I liked. It was a great platform for me and I had a lot of fun. And I just wasn’t ready, the way it turned out.”

In the following years, Kmetko returns to his native Chicago to take care of his parents. (His father died at 92, and his mother at 98.)

To pass the time, he worked at an Apple store for three years, which was a somewhat surreal experience. “I wasn’t the best salesman, that’s for sure,” he admits. “You know what they often used me for? They used me to answer the phone, because they got a lot of good feedback about it. When I turn on my TV voice, it commands a certain respect, if I do say so myself.”

When Still Here Hollywood Creator Jim Lichtenstein approached Kmetko over lunch about possibly hosting a podcast, Kmetko jumped at the chance, though he admits there was a learning curve.

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Steve Kmetko in 1990.

CBS via Getty

“I didn’t know anything about podcasts,” he says, adding, “I left Hollywood in 2012. I don’t think there were even words like ‘algorithm’ or ‘podcast.’ [then]. …I have a little difficulty, but I think I’m getting over it.”

“When you used to go on trips and talk to stars, you had maybe three minutes to talk to them about a movie or a television show, and that was it unless you were with a bigger entity like E! or CBS, [where] we’d get 15 minutes,” he continues. “So to sit and talk to somebody for 30 minutes or 45 minutes, even an hour, that’s a different set of muscles I’m using.”

When he looks back on his career, Kmetko has relatively few regrets. Although he was previously fired while working as a reporter in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for being gay (he came out publicly at the age of 46), he is proud to have been one of the few “visible” gay men working in the entertainment industry then in the 90s and serves as an inspiration to others.

Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek, another openly gay man, paid tribute to Kmetko in an April 2 Instagram post, calling it a “fan shot.”

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Steve Kmetko in ‘Zoolander’.

CBS via Getty

“Steve Kmetko was the number one Hollywood reporter I thought of, and I’m pretty sure everyone thought. He was tall, blond and handsome and seemed to be friends with everyone on the red carpet. All the big stars knew it was,” Wonterek said in an Instagram video. “I looked up to him… You know I kind of see myself in him.”

Kmetko openly dated Greg Louganis from 1998 to 2000. The couple appeared together on E! event, with an Olympic diver who once joined the Venice Film Festival. “He was a great guy. We enjoyed each other’s company. Our time came and went, and it wasn’t particularly difficult,” he admits.

Kmetko, now single, has been sober for eight years — a choice that allows him to think “clearer” — and still lives with his two dogs in Chicago, renting out a room in his apartment to a friend.

If there was anything he could have done differently, it would have been to change the way he handled his past relationship.

“I made a… stupid mistake, walking away from someone I was mad at, with whom I was madly in love,” he admits. “For some reason, I always thought I’d find someone better. But that was just stupid of me. I own up to my mistakes when I make them… Drinking is another thing, but luckily I think I’ve worked that out.”

Reflecting on his podcast and his return to entertainment journalism, Kmetko is overcome with emotion at the enthusiastic response he has received.

“It was touching and sometimes I find it hard to believe that all these people remember who I am,” he says, adding, “I was really beside myself.”

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Still Here Hollywood is available for streaming on platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

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