Do we like Steve Burns?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent record, no harmful words or acts found, no court or misconduct trouble; held back from the top only because the public record on his wider views is thin.
Steve Burns is the 'Steve' of Blue's Clues, the bloke in the green striped shirt who hosted the kids' show from 1996. By his own telling, he dropped out of college to chase a 1970s-style acting career and went to the audition believing it was a voiceover gig. He has said he felt phenomenally unqualified for the job, which makes the 75 million-odd toddlers who adored him a nice irony.
He left on his own terms and then, as the show's fans grew up, turned into an internet folk hero. In 2021 he posted a video for the show's 25th anniversary, acknowledging that his exit was abrupt and telling fans he never forgot them. A generation of millennials said it gave them closure.
The nearest thing to a scandal is that he was never the subject of one. When the Quiet on Set docuseries raised allegations about Nickelodeon's world, Burns said he had no special insight and was watching like everyone else, describing his reaction as 'with horror and heartbreak'. Searches for a lawsuit, court case or accusation against him came back empty, apart from content-farm jail rumours that cite nothing.
On the harm test, we searched for anything he has said or done about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate and found no harmful words or acts of his own. The flip side is that he is not much of a policy talker, so we can't point to strong advocacy either. After the 2024 US election he posted a wordless video offering viewers comfort; it isn't a statement about any party, so we don't read it as one. His long creative partnership with the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd has produced a kids' album.
Lately he has been busy. A podcast for grown-ups called Alive, made with Lemonada Media, was announced in 2025, and he has toured a one-man show about fame, parasocial relationships and the years the internet decided he was dead. He insists the show is not a nostalgia trip. The Edinburgh review called it candid and emotionally gripping.
So: would we support him? Yes. He is kind in public, honest about his own story, has no court record or credible allegations we could find, and has used his platform for comfort rather than culture-war noise. The only gap is that we can't say much about his wider politics, because he doesn't wave them around.