QVC’s Rick Domeier Opens Up About Retiring After 32 Years & His Future Plans

As QVC celebrates 40 years, Rick Domeier is gearing up for a milestone of his own. The popular shopping network personality will retire in December after 32 years. Domeier made the announcement live during the Christmas in July finale of Rick St. Nick alongside Mary Beth Roe. Since then he has been traveling meeting customers through his Rick Hits the Road miniseries and taking a trip down memory lane through the company’s history as the host of the docuseries A QVC Story. The final episode will be available to stream on QVC+ and HSN+ starting October 13. 

Domeier started his run in October 1994 selling his first item, a men’s sweater. “Captain Midnight” became a hit with viewers and kept night owls entertained revealing “Today’s Special Value (TSV). The  65-year-old’s trademark enthusiasm has been a mainstay, even when it came to interviewing some of the biggest celebrities from icons Joan Rivers and Dick Clark to David Bowie and Pattie LaBelle to John Elway and Cal Ripken Jr. Overall, Domeier generated more than $1 billion in sales. 

Here the husband and father of two opens up about his lengthy career and what’s next.  

You’re inching closer to your final broadcast. Has there been any point where you’re second guessing your decision to retire? 

Rick Domeier: Is this where I cry? I don’t want to go! No, it has been surreal. It really has. The response from the QVC customers has been heartfelt and fantastic. I say surreal because you’re looking at a red light. There’s thousands and thousands and thousands of these wonderful people that I’ve never met. I’ve never met them in person. They’ve never met me in person, and yet in so many respects, I feel like I know them. I feel like I’ve known them for a long time. I just got back yesterday from a remote in Finger Lakes with my good friend and colleague and amazing co-host, Shawn Killinger, and at this event at the MacKenzie-Childs facility. About 50 customers showed up. They were fans of  MacKenzie-Childs, but they were also fans of QVC. It was amazing because, again, I don’t feel like I’d ever met them before, but they met me like they knew me.. They knew me as a friend. They said, “Oh, we’re going to miss you.” I was moved. It’s an unforgettable relationship that I have the privilege of having as a QVC program host with our QVC viewers and our QVC customers.

Are you sure you want to go and retire? 

There are already bets as to when I’m going to come back, and if I’m going to come back. If I’m going to come back as a guest, or come back with a product, or what’s happening. Here’s what I will say. I’m so grateful to have been there. So, the overarching phrase is thank you for 32. It’s thank you for 32, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I know I’m making the right decision, and I don’t know if other people feel that way, but I feel like I’m going out on the top of my game. I can still do the job, and still have fun doing the job, but it’s time to go. It’s time to try other things. It’s time to enter the next chapter. I like the phrase that I’m going to be the retirement rookie. It’ll be my rookie year of retirement, and I’ll be cruising down retirement road, and I don’t know exactly what that means. I’ve got some ideas. Deep in my heart for myself and my wife, Amy, I know that I’m making the right choice.

When you say retirement, the common visual is maybe someone sitting on the couch and eating chips. What does retirement look like in your eyes?

I think I’ll be on the couch for about six-and-a-half minutes. Then I’m going to get back up, and I’m going to go to the gym, and I’m going to work out, and focus on fitness and longevity. It’s something that I’m passionate about for obvious reasons. I want this next chapter to be fulfilling. You know, they talk about the go-go years, the slow-go years, and the no-go years. I want the go-go years to be truly go-go, and part of that has to do with travel and hiking, and seeing places that Amy and I have never seen before. We love the idea and the metaphor of Retirement Road. I’ve got some friends that I want to touch base with again. I’ve got some charity activities that I’m involved with. Things like Good Works of Chester County, Pennsylvania. I have local and national interests. I was blessed to have a father who was a World War II hero, who lost two brothers in World War II. The veterans and veteran affairs and veteran activities and veteran challenges are very important to me and to my wife. And so those kinds of things are a part of it. I also want to have some fun. I want to have some fun in this next chapter. So yeah, I would give couch time about six-and-a-half minutes.

Have you thought about what that last broadcast would be like? 

The thing about QVC that’s so wonderful is it’s always changing. It’s always in the moment. I’ve got to go to work tomorrow and do Holiday Fun with Rick & Jane. I’m working with Valerie Parr Hill this weekend for three hours. So I’m on the air for about 15 hours. That’s in the middle of October. So, you both look ahead, and you focus on the moment as well. So, it’s hard sometimes. The athletic analogy I can use is I can’t look to the Super Bowl, you know? We’ve got to get through the season, and then through the playoffs. Something tells me that at my ripe old age of 65, it’s going to be hard to hold back the tears. It’ll be sentimental, heartfelt, and hopefully, relatively mistake-free. I’m not sure what’s going to happen at the end, but I’m looking forward to it.

What have you gotten out of hosting A QVC Story and reminicing? The fourth installment digs into QVC’s future, existing in this world of social media, TikTok, and AI. But you can see through the previous installments how the network was very much ahead of its time.   

It has been an amazing journey. I was unaware last year that I was going to be chosen as the narrator of A QVC Story, but the most striking for me are the parallel stories. There’s the story of QVC that starts in 1986 and the humble beginnings and VCRs, and Diamonique. Then there’s the parallel story of where I hopped on this train in 1994. So there’s the business story, and then there’s my personal family story, and I’m not on the outside just narrating this. I’m also living it. So, that has been incredible. It has been incredible to look back. It has been incredible to look back and think about the rotating set that we had. And the first time, you know, I ever sold a VCR on QVC and JVC camcorders, the technological changes that have happened through the years since is incredible. Through the years, from the digital revolution that we kind of moved into, or fell into, because of what happened in 1994 and 1995, selling computers on the air, all the way to iPhones, and social media, and so much more.

Along the way, I went from being single when I got here to getting married. Having two sons, raising the sons, becoming a coach, becoming a mentor, and now becoming this senior citizen along the way. It has been incredible living the story and telling the story. And I will say this about the story itself,  it’s a story of incredible creativity. Creative people who worked hard through the years, creative teams who worked hard, who came up with ideas that changed the industry, that became the gold standard of what we do. When you think about these terms of social influences and ask, “What do you do?” They say, “I’m a social influencer.”  Oh really? So, you talk about products on the air. Oh, interesting. We started that way back then, the original social influencers. It is wonderful that people from the outside are also giving credit where credit is due to QVC and the executives and the hosts and the team that helped create this entire, what is now, a global industry.

What are some of your biggest pinch-me moments while working for QVC?

The zeitgeist universe that is West Chester, Pennsylvania, and QVC is this incredible combination of entrepreneurial business, products, all of these great ideas, and pop culture. Then you have people like Lori Greiner coming up with an earrings organizer. You have Sara Blakely, who decided to cut the feet off of pantyhose and came up with Spanx. At the same time, here comes Joan Rivers. Here comes Victoria Principal. Here comes all of these wonderful celebrities that are now wanting to add their element of entrepreneurial spirit and pop culture. When you combine that, how do we execute that? How do we make that happen? Those memories, those pop culture moments, I think about also music. I had the opportunity to work with Chicago, the band. Earth, Wind & Fire has been to QVC.

Do you know that Dolly Parton, the late, great Dolly Parton, was at QVC? I had the opportunity to work with Quincy Jones. I mean a genius when it comes to music producing, one of the greatest of all time. Those kind of pinch-me moments were incredible. I once caught a pass from Dan Marino. We had a Nutrisystem show, and I’m in the green room with Hall of Famer Dan Marino. I said, “I got a football, do you mind?” There have been endless wonderful moments. And I will add that in order to execute it, you have to make it happen. The role of QVC host has been fascinating to watch. Not only in my own personal journey, but as new hosts have come to the queue over the years. You have to have an interesting skillset. It’s not all improv. It’s not newsy, and it’s not hard selling. It is a hybrid combination that people like my friend Shawn Killinger have mastered of entertaining, storytelling, and selling. Not to mention, revealing vulnerable aspects of their personal life, all rolled into this skill set. There’s talent that not a lot of people can do. My friend Alberti Popaj is another one who has  just mastered that combination that can talk about the product, influence the product, and connect with the customer at the same time. It has been quite the journey, to say the least.

What do you remember about the time you were demonstrating the voice-activating command of an Amazon Echo by asking Alexa if she could order a pizza. The audio from the live broadcast triggered units at home to attempt to place a real pizza order. 

It really happened. I was kicking off “Today’s Special Value.” I had new skill sets that the Amazon Echo had, and we came up with a great idea. Asking Alexa to order five pepperoni pizzas from Domino’s. Check. Got it. Done. End of the hour. Here comes the coordinating producer. “Great job, everybody! Oh my gosh, they’re loving it, they’re loving it. One thing, stop talking about the pizzas, no more pizzas.” I asked why. The response was, “We’re getting complaints from customer service.” Turns out my booming, over-the-top, loud voice went through the television speakers and into people’s homes and ordered pizzas so that 45 minutes later at quarter to one in the morning, people’s doorbells rang. “Your pizza’s here.” Someone inevitably probably said, “I didn’t order the pizza. Rick ordered the pizza. The guy in the TV ordered the pizza.” Fun moment.

What do you think your legacy will be at QVC?

I hope that it’s a legacy, if you even want to call it that, of somebody who didn’t know how to do the job but was passionate about learning. Someone who understood very quickly that it was all about my relationship with the viewer on live, unscripted national television with no written blueprint exactly how to do it. I can’t do it the way Jane Treacy does it. I couldn’t do it the way one of our original hosts, Bob Bowersox, did it. I had to find my way or not find my way. They either like you or they don’t. They either connect with you or they don’t. So I hope it’s an ongoing connection that has also evolved. I will say I’m a different person than I was. I’m the old guy now, you know what I mean? I have a son who’s getting married. I didn’t have kids when I started. The gratitude of that relationship staying over 32 years is something that I’ll always cherish.

A QVC Story Part 4 premiere, October 13, QVC+ & HSN+