If your kids are preschool age, they are likely avid fans of the television show Blue’s Clues. And if so, you are of course already aware that “Joe” has replaced “Steve” as the host who guides viewers, along with Dog, Blue, through the mini-mystery that comprises each episode.

What you may not know is that making this transition involved hours of work on the part of the Blue’s Clues development team to ensure that the preschool audience understood and was comfortable with the change. At the center of it all are the creators, Traci Paige Johnson and Angela C. Santomero, who are responsible for the phenomenon that is this exceptionally unique program.

Johnson, co-creator, executive producer and director of design for Blue’s Clues, says that they looked at more than 1,000 candidates for Steve’s replacement in order to find just the right personality for the job. “We had a TV in the interview room, because we needed to know what he would look like from the viewers’ perspective,” Johnson says. “When we got to Joe, we immediately saw a connection, because he had just the right silly, preschool personality we were looking for.”

Another part of helping viewers embrace the change, which took place in April 2002, was to ease them into it with a three-part “Meet Joe” special featuring both Steve and Joe. This special event, which kicked off with a first glimpse of Joe, Steve’s younger brother, and a game of show-and-tell, allowed viewers a chance to get to know Joe and culminated with a finale in which Steve leaves for college and Joe stays on to lead Blue’s Clues.

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