Fox 9′s Jason Matheson announces his new co-host

Ever since Jason Matheson’s former co-host, Kendall Mark, announced she was leaving Fox 9 for MyTalk 107.1 FM, “The Jason Show” fans have been waiting, wondering and speculating on social media: Who would fill Mark’s role?

Monday’s show revealed revealed Falen Bonsett as Matheson’s new conversation partner, in a taped reenactment of the famous “Dallas” shower scene, which exposed Bobby Ewing’s death as just a dream.

The news delighted “Jason” fans who had enjoyed the duo’s chemistry when Bonsett subbed for Mark when she was on maternity leave last fall. ”OMG!! I was hoping and praying it would be Falen!!!! It is!!!! Thank you for answering my prayer!!” someone wrote on the show’s Facebook page.

The live studio audience welcomed Bonsett with a solid minute of applause. “I’m so excited I forgot to wear deodorant today,” Bonsett admitted, adding that she’d taken a swipe of the photographer’s “wolf scent” deodorant backstage.

Bonsett, the popular 101.3 KDWB radio afternoon-show host, will expand her audience by also doing Matheson’s TV talk show, which airs weekdays in several major markets around the country, including Chicago, Seattle and Orlando.

“The Jason Show,” which Matheson launched in 2015, is produced out of KMSP’s Fox 9 studio in Eden Prairie. The Emmy-laudedshow’s local popularity — its ratings top those of its 10 a.m. time-slot competitor “The View” — led to its national expansion in the past few years.

Matheson has long thought that Bonsett, who distinguished herself as one of the most (lovably) crass and candid female local-media personalities, was a good fit for his viewers. The first time she made a guest appearance on his show a few years ago, her applause may have drowned out his.

“Do you have any idea how much people adore you?” he gushed. “People want to be your friend.”

Matheson says that when Bonsett filled in, he was confident her radio magic would translate to the more visual medium. “As a kid who watched daytime TV more than he went outside, I know what those audiences are looking for,” he said. “And it’s connection. They want to see themselves in the programming.”

Wanting to respect Mark’s turf, Bonsett saw herself as a seat-warmer for those three months. But now that Mark is co-hosting 107.1′s afternoon-drive slot formerly filled by “Lori & Julia” with Brittany Arneson, Bonsett plans to settle into Matheson’s couch cushions for the hour-long show more deeply.

She says she’ll bring ideas that are not-so-suited to radio to Matheson’s well-oiled TV machine. (And, of course, give her good pal some static in the process.)

“I want so badly for Jason to go to a Pilates class with me, because I want to see his legs in the straps,” she said. “Because he’s so tall, I want to see his long, little legs doing circles in the straps.”