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Seven to reboot This Is Your Life

Classic entertainment show profiling famous Australians to return as event series on Seven.

EXCLUSIVE: This Is Your Life is returning to Seven later this year as a series of special events celebrating famous Australians.

The classic TV format will profile celebrities, achievers, sports stars, performers and feature reunions, never-before-seen-footage and performances. It will highlight memories from family, friends, and colleagues, including international names.

Originally premiering on Seven in 1975 with Mike Willesee, it ran for six years with hosts Digby Wolfe and Roger Climpson. Nine also screened it variously from 1995 to 2008 with Mike Munro, before a brief 2011 run with Eddie McGuire.

Seven’s Director of Network Programming, Angus Ross, said: “This Is Your Life was an iconic and incredibly successful show for many years. The time feels right for it to return. We can’t wait to bring the format into 2022, engaging both new viewers and the generations of Australians who remember the show fondly and will welcome its return.”

ITV Studios Australia CEO David Mott told TV Tonight, “It was one of the most enduring shows of its time. It’s going to celebrate wonderful Australians. But it’s also the fact that when you when you look at nostalgia, such as the Hey Hey special, there’s a real love and fondness to looking back at moments, well-known people and high achievers.

“We don’t want to move it from the DNA of what the show is, but certainly it’s look and tone will take on an ‘event’ feel.

“Whenever the show came back, it always worked so we’re thrilled that Seven has seen this opportunity.”

Sabrina Duguet, EVP APAC for All3Media International, said: “The appeal of This Is Your Life is timeless and we’re delighted to now represent the Ralph Edwards Production show. The series has focused on the famous and everyday extraordinary people throughout its incarnation, in a refreshingly simple, honest manner to celebrate life and the positive impact lives have on each other.

“We are thrilled that Seven and ITV Studios Australia will be bringing the show to Australian audiences this year.”

A host will be announced soon.

34 Responses

  1. There is a pretty common theme amongst all the comments here. People are getting sick of Sonia Kruger hosting so many shows. This will work if they feature funny & interesting people eg not reality tv stars.

  2. Love this show if they can get the right people and make sure the guests telling the story are interesting. With the advances in live tv crosses all over the world that should help. I think Mel Doyle would be a good choice.

      1. Well she wasn’t “boned”, her contract wasn’t renewed because they had no work for her.

        But as this is an ITV production, there’s a chance she could host without being contracted to the network again. I think she’d be perfect for it.

  3. I like the idea and as John Wood said in his book Raffertys Rules would work again now, with new production values and technology. Hell even some of the old scripts may work. I dont see this on any streaming service. A lot of Australian TV shows pop up on Prime, like Water Rats, Rescue Special Ops, Blue Heelers.

    A word to Seven, if you are going to put in ads in your streaming service, please show different ads not the same ones. I started to watch All Saints but I had to give up because of 7 Plus, maybe this is why they call it 7 Plus it adds all the ads.

    1. I have be watching sons and daughters on 7 plus and its the same 3 ads over and over the voice generations Samsung phones and Marley spoon it’s a shame you can’t record and fast forward them

    2. 7+ had Rafferty’s Rules for a while, but it only lasted a year before it was removed. I suspect it didn’t get a lot of interest. Worst part was I hadn’t finished watching it. Still hoping for a DVD release.

  4. I’ve watched the Mike Munro version back in my days, but haven’t watched Eddie’s version in 2011. I thought that Eddie’s version of the TIYL failed to fire ratings. What were the ratings like when Eddie hosted tiyl?

  5. I don’t know about this. It feels like there just isn’t a place for this genre anymore, but I’d like to be pleasantly surprised.

    It might be a nice chance to pay tribute to some Ch 7 icons like John Wood, Ernie Dingo, Ray Meagher, etc. Just please don’t even think about Sonia Kruger or Samantha Armytage hosting. Stop it. Don’t.

  6. Dear 7 execs, here’s some other new ideas: Mother and Son, Stingers, E Street, Kingswood Country, All the Rivers Run, Rafferty’s Rules, Hey Hey it’s…wait, you’re doing that again.
    You’re welcome

  7. Hopefully the exciting personalities profiled are not just their already under contract staff. I will laugh myself silly if the special celebrities profiled include Sonia Kruger.

  8. What other ex-9 format will they rehash?
    This is why Commercial TV is dying and the networks seem to think people wont see through this lazy programming.

  9. No thanks ,you’ll never beat the original with Roger Climpson chasing Dawn Fraser down the street. They’ll be dragging out people who haven’t even lived long enough to be interesting.

  10. I hope that isn’t the actual graphic of the logo/title sequence, because that looks incredibly cheap and nasty.

    And I hope that they actually dig into the archives instead of taking the easy way out like producers so often do nowadays by pulling low-quality clips from YouTube rather than actual archive materials (or home video releases of TV shows/movies). As one passionate about archiving/preservation, it puts a damper on the production. Another pet peeve is when 4:3 footage is either stretched or cropped.

      1. Love that this is coming back. I’m glad someone mentioned Michael Usher as host for this. I 2nd that motion haha. Reading the article his name popped into my mind as someone in the 7 stable who has the charm and warmth required to host it. Definitely not Sonia Kruger please.

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