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Axed: Coxy’s Big Break

Exclusive: After an impressive 11 seasons, Seven travel show with Geoff 'Coxy' Cox will end its tour.

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EXCLUSIVE: Long-running travel series Coxy’s Big Break is ending its run after an impressive 11 seasons with Seven.

Hosted by larger-than-life media personality Geoff Cox, the series is one of the longest running travel shows on air, but will bow out with two more episodes. It has aired on Seven and 7TWO on weekends visiting travel spots and offering “mates rates” discounts to viewers.

The end of the tour is believed to be due to budgets and timeslot availability, with Seven recently picking up local sports codes in VFL and WAFL.

Executive Producer and Head of Content or WTFN, Wes Crook, told TV Tonight, “It’s one of the longest runs of any travel show about. I was talking to Coxy today and we’ve seen virtually every continent, travelled all around Australia and done everything that’s worth doing in Melbourne. There are not many shows that survive that long and carry your name in this caper, so I think he’s very happy.

“The people who head WTFN started Postcards on Channel Nine. Coxy was the original host of Postcards. And he just asked me to remind anyone who asks that it was better when he was fronting it!

“He says that with a hint of fun but he’s been doing travel shows now for 15+ years.

“It’s a pretty good run in anyone’s language.”

Across more than 300 episodes the show has been to every Australian state and territory plus New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii, Bali, Thailand, Vanuatu, The Cook Islands, New Caledonia, China, Vietnam, Austria, Ireland and Antarctica. The show is also co-hosted by Rhys Uhlich and Lee Chan, both former reality show participants on Make Me a Supermodel and My Kitchen Rules respectively.

“The longevity is owed to Coxy’s personality. He’s big, boisterous and unique. And the other guys make Coxy feel really young,” says Crook.

“He still gets mobbed wherever he goes. We just did a shoot last week and he was mobbed by some 60-something grandmothers. There are not many times he gets upstaged but that was one of them.

“When you are as big and bright he is, you are going to get noticed.”

WTFN, which produces such shows as Bondi Vet, The Living Room and Tony Robinson’s Tour of Duty, also makes formats for international broadcasters, notably in Lifestyle and Factual genres.

“There are still projects Coxy will be suited for. So I wouldn’t be sounding the end of his career right now.”

Coxy’s Big Break will end on March 22nd.

Seven did not respond by deadline.

10 Responses

  1. I wonder if Channel 10 should look at picking up the format. It wasn’t axed because it was a failure. It was axed because 7 couldn’t reasonably fit it into their schedule given their increased football commitments. Ten have plenty of room even allowing for their fairly low commitment to V8s.

  2. It always looked like one big freeby for Coxy – I was always astonished at the amount of cross promotion. It should have been on one of those marketing channels.

  3. Wow! Thanks for all the great memories Coxy – What a journey! good to see you’ve already started relaxing and putting your feet up! (Wait.. isn’t that what you’ve been paid to do for all those years???) XXX

  4. What?! I loved Coxy’s BB, one of the only shows I enjoyed on Channel 7. Ah well obviously travel shows will be soon gone like the way of the dinosaurs I spose.

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