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John Deeks departs Seven

The "Voice of Seven" parts company with the network after a 44 year run.

Veteran Seven announcer John Deeks has announced his departure from the Seven Network -ending a 44 year association.

“Deeksy” often referred to as the Voice of Seven, is best known for his many promo voice-overs as well as famously calling contestants to ‘Come on down’ on The New Price is Right, and announcer on Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck, Deal or No Deal, It Takes Two, Man O Man and more.

In Melbourne he is synonymous with HSV7 and the long-running Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

He began his career on Melbourne radio stations  3UZ and 3DB, before making the move to Channel 7 in 1976. Until recently he could also be regularly heard on Australia after Dark on the Macquarie Radio Network nationally, including 3AW in Melbourne.

Deeksy has also been a tireless warm up guy for Seven on such shows as Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune, hosting Family Feud and being the face of the Lotto draws for 2 decades.

On 2018 he told TV Tonight, “I’ve read the News, I’ve been the weekend weather boy. I worked with Ernie Sigley on Saturday Night Live. I did the helicopter reports for the football -it’s been a kaleidoscope of things!

“I’ve had 34 years of doing game shows, going back to Wheel of Fortune with John (Burgess) and Adriana (Xenides), in Adelaide, and in Sydney with Rob Elliott.

“I hosted Family Feud in Queensland. Rob Brough went on to read the news so I replaced him. But the Olympics happened in Spain and they dropped it!

“But the consistent has been working on Tonight Live, Dancing with the Stars, Deal or No Deal, all the game shows, warm-ups for Acropolis Now, all of them.”

He also said the key to longevity was being reliable and versatile for the network.

“I do stuff for WA, South Australia, NSW, Queensland, and here in Victoria. It’s the whole network. I’m the ‘go-to’ guy thank God. But I’ve made it that way. I’ve really made sure they know I am available,” he said.

“They can call me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If someone passes away at 3:00 in the morning and they need to recut the Sunrise promo, you can call me, I will fix it.”

This week he said the parting was amicable.

15 Responses

  1. John reminds me of the days when they used to announce what’s coming up next over the end credits. They still do that with UK shows, but young Aussies will never know that kind of etiquette. Now we are lucky if we get end credits.

  2. I met him on the set of ‘GameDay’ as an audience member and you can see why he has survived so long, a very pleasant nature, fond memories of him on Wheel of Fortune as a kid.

  3. Always sad to see on screen faces and voices from TVs golden years move on. I honestly thought he had moved on anyway. Don’t hear much of him nowadays. He was the voice of 7 Melbourne and Pete smith the voice of nine and of course Bruce Mansfield the voice of ten Melbourne. Who were the voices of channels in other capitals?? Would love to know.

  4. Wow, what a career and what longevity. I feel like most of my life (56) John’s voice has been there in all it’s glory and energy. Hope he enjoys his retirement. No doubt if he still wanted work – audio books are huge and his voice is so versatile. Good luck to him.

  5. Wow – sounds like another illogical move by Seven. When will TV networks realise people don’t like change, and usually sticking with things that work is often best as people feel a level of comfort with familiarity.

    I can never trust when people say a parting is amicable… given if someone is keen for work in the same industry, it’s never a good look if they come out and say “nah they screwed me over so I left” or “they sacked me”. I wish John all the best for whatever comes next though – I’m sure it won’t be the last we ‘hear’ of him.

    1. Maybe he’s just semi retiring without wanting to make an announcement he’s actually retiring. 44 years is a damn long time & he might just only want to work if they pay him very generously, otherwise not worth his while to jump off the golf course or whatever. And not always possible for everyone to get a great big slice of the pie in today’s tougher TV industry made more so with the covid situation.
      i agree he should write a book, or even do a podcast. Good luck for the future Deeksy!

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