Hot Seat to go “into hiatus” on Nine
Nine's long-running Hot Seat will be replaced in 2024 host Eddie McGuire has confirmed.
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Nine will change its 5pm programming in 2024, pulling Hot Seat off air after 14 years.
“With great pride and joy but also sadness, Millionaire Hot Seat will go ‘into hiatus’ at the end of January next year,” Eddie McGuire told 3AW this morning.
“I want to thank everybody who came on the show those who’ve watched it over 25 years. It changed my life. It changed a lot of other people’s life. It’s been an absolute joy. And the good news is the show that will replace me will be produced out of Melbourne and the wonderful staff at GTV who have worked alongside me, hopefully would be a big part of it.”
Michael Healy, Director of Television said, “Long-term fan favourite Millionaire Hot Seat, and its predecessor, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, have been fundamental pillars in our Channel 9 schedule for 24 years and will continue to be through 2023. For 2024 there will be a change, but for this year we look forward to bringing more triumphant stories to those who love the show and who play along with Eddie.
“For the past two and a half decades Eddie McGuire has made the show come to life, uncovered the great stories of our contestants, and has had the pleasure of handing over total prize money of more than $90 million. We thank him for his commitment to the show over those years and for the shows still to come, and look forward to continuing our successful partnership with Eddie into the future.”
Hot Seat began as a spin-off 14 years ago in 2009.
Based on an Italian format twist, the half hour show was originally promoted as a short-run series, declaring “20 nights! 20 million dollars!”
The show kept Nine competitive against the might of Deal or No Deal, which it outlasted, and defeated 10 News First. Seven briefly even threw Million Dollar Minute against the show.
By 2017 it was extended to a one hour format to compete with The Chase which has subsequently surpassed the Nine series in the ratings.
That has given Nine headaches for its 6pm News with Seven holding the ratings crown.
By next January McGuire will have had 25 years associated with the Millionaire brand, having first hosted super-hit Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Across its run McGuire has asked over 50,000 questions of 15,000 contestants.
While just two people have won the million dollars (4 including Millionaire), and 34 contestants have won $250,000, the show has given away more than $60 million.
Hot Seat‘s 2500th episode screened in April while there were nearly 300 episodes of the classic Millionaire.
“Millionaire probably broke me in a big way, nationally,” he recently told TV Tonight.
“It was a different stamp to The Footy Show. Ian Johnson, David Leckie, Michael Healy and I think (John Stephens) said ‘Give the kid a chance,’ because everyone wanted to host it.”
Of Hot Seat he said, “Gyngell rang me up and said, ‘We’re going to do a version of Millionaire but we’re going to strip it. Would you do it for us? You don’t have to do it, you’ve done everything, you’ve finished up as CEO…’
“I said ‘I’d love to do it.’
“And I remember ringing the guys after the first day of records and I said, ‘This is flying. This is really good.’”
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37 Responses
I vote for Tipping Point to replace it, and because Ben Shepherd is very good looking. . . .and because often the questions are on Australia. And the contestants more often than not, know the answers. Yes I watch it. I also watch to see if winner actually wins the 10,000 pounds, and on 4 occasions (Ive seen 2), winning 20,000 pounds. I also enjoy seeing what the thing mystery prizes are. ie things verses events/trips/weekends.
Re Hotseat, i think the prize for not winning big money shouldve been $2-5,000.. $1,000 seemed too paltry. The smallest amount won is $10,000; so $2-5000 wouldve been more fair. But thats just my opinion..
Millionaire became way too slow and the fastest finger segment was a gimmick in my opinion that had little or no point in the show.
People used to watched millionaire to see a quiz show and not a heavily watered down format with chit chat about contestant’s longwinded life stories. That’s why viewers flicked over to the Chase.
Thank goodness! 13 years overdue- and I’ve been on Hot Seat but why it had to change from the actual format of Who wants to be a Millionaire- I don’t know? No other country has changed. Along with the list let’s bring back Who wants to be a Millionaire but with another host of course. But gee Blanketty Blanks would be great to come back. Provided they did have a great cast on it.
“Based on an Italian format twist…”
If I was Nine I would put ACA on at 5.30 as News rates and ACA is a brand name and would put Sale Of The Century on at 7PM. sales will work better after everyone has sat down and eaten and will have a larger audience.
I had the pleasure of sitting in the hot seat last year (no, I didn’t win any money)… but my goodness, Eddie is a machine and a true professional. I couldn’t believe the pace at how the recording was done.. I think 7 shows the day I was there… well done to all involved over the years
P.S. Surprised they aren’t softening the blow with some 25th anniversary primetime episodes of the classic format next year.
That can actually work as the content, such as the trivia can be appreciated regardless of how old it is. There could be The Best of Millionaire, and there could even be The Best of The Chase, which could show the best moments or episodes. Once in a while, there will be The Chase episodes that will knock the ball out of the park with a thrilling ending.
That’s such a shame. Eddie does an excellent job on this show. Very entertaining. I came back to Hot Seat after Andrew O’Keefe left The Chase. I did give Larry a go, but it was obvious to me, that he did not know the answers himself to most of the questions. I prefer my quiz masters to have some general knowledge, so Eddie won hands down. It does seem that many viewers did not feel the same. If nine does do Sale of of the Century, Eddie would be a great host, but I’m guessing they’ll want someone new in there at this stage.
Something else for brainiacs to hone their skills and show their “smarts” on instead of general knowledge…like using their logic, commonsense and observation skills…similar to the 1% Club….even something quirky like Hard Quiz…there have been that many GK shows over the years and the majority of them were and still are on FTA even Foxtel…including reruns….Surely there are brainiacs out there working in TV land who possess creative skills….I for one would surely hope so.
They claim Millionaire is on a break and could come back. Sale of the Century was one of Australia’s big prize pool game shows, with about a $100,000 prize pool, which was massive for a game show back then.
Added competition would make it more interesting, unlike just one-on-one with Eddie. SOTC has a strong brand and a reboot could be timely. Viewers want it back, as shown by the poll, especially if they offer bigger prizes like before.
Past hosts, Ed and Livinia, were charming and set a great example and were great role models of working colleagues, similar to Wheel of Fortune.
Viewers enjoy real trivia champions, so making the questions tougher would increase the excitement of winning big and making headlines, just like in the past.
I’ll note that the remake of SOTC that I refer to was titled Temptation. The original name still holds clout.
I vote for Hapy days for old times sake
Millionaire Hot Seat has been a great production, as I’ve been in the audience twice. I hope a big budget version of Sale of the century will be the replacement. The Sale of the century format was a successful show at seven o’clock. Why not at five?
I’d love to see either Blankety Blanks or Sale of the Century return
We all know what “hiatus” means, though Millionaire is always a brand that will come back.
Whatever the replacement is I bet Eddie hosts it.
Hot Seat has had a good run. But it’s ratings have been on the decline, and lagging by a fair bit behind The Chase on the East Coast (the show airs earlier in Adelaide and Perth).
Let’s the speculations begin on what will be its replacement.
I do hope that a 30 minute fast game show airs at 5.30pm. Although some 60 minute version work, like The Chase, but some do drag on when there’s limited questions (like Hot Seat), and the host asks lots of “personal questions” to fill in time….
If it is Tipping Point replacing Hot Seat, I can’t see it doing much better than it does at 3pm for the UK version.
If I’m not mistaken, this means Eddie will only have a single, late night Wednesday Footy Classified that he fronts next year? When was the last time he only had one thing he was front and centre of? His production company is going gangbusters though so he’ll be fine, but it’s just an interesting observation.
Upfronts are in September…. we will see if there is anything immediate. Nine indicates he will remain and I tend to believe.
RIP Hot Seat – definitely changed some lives with the huge amounts of money they gave away. Now give a new show a go!!! If we see Tipping Point or Jeopardy or bloody Wheel of Fortune…..give me a spell.
As soon as those numbers with the news on the East Coast started slipping it was a foregone conclusion.
Loved watching “Millionaire” when I have the time, for me, the perfect lead into the news.
Now bring back ‘Celebrity Squares’ or ‘Wheel of Fortune’! 😉
Nine needs to consider a new game show to help with its lead-in to 6pm news. They need to innovate and come up with ideas of a new show. Hopefully during the Upfronts 2024, Nine will announce a new game show.
Agreed! While Hot Seat had its flaws, Tipping Point is an already slow-paced and tired British show that relies on peoples addiction to the Pokies (Fruit Machines in UK). Nine or atleast any network need to try new formats and stop buying boring existing ones.
Funny when they announced Tipping Point they denied Hot Seat was going anywhere didn’t they? It has had a good run, congratulations to Eddie.
Is this where Jeopardy comes into play?
I love Jeopardy but not sure Australian audiences feel the same way – when it was previously trialled here….it didn’t last
You mean three whole decades ago?
Been noticing the ever-widening gap between 7 & 9 News, not attributed to just Adelaide and Perth anymore. As an ex-studio director of TCN9 News I find I rarely watch 9 these days, due to the pull of The Chase lead-in on 7. Be interesting to see what they replace it with. Not Tipping Point, please!
Nine news is plus or minus 200,000 behind seven news each night this year compared to last and seven often has a clean sweep of the five metros in both half hours. Interestingly, seven has not increased that much rather, it seems FTA has simply lost 200,000 viewers for the 6pm hour.
While it’s had a good run, I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. It’s been under performing on the east coast for a long time now and dragging down the news. If they are keeping a game show at 5pm, surely it’ll be a local version of Tipping Point?
Wonder if Tipping Point ever actually produced the announced UK expat filmed episodes.
Tipping Point would have to be odds on favourite to replace Hot Seat, but Eddie mentions production of the new show from Melbourne.
Well you cannot argue it has had a significant run and contributed to the Australian TV landscape and Aussie culture. It will be interesting to see what 9 decides to do for a replacement. I am guessing the popularity of Tipping Point may be an option or they have something else up their sleeve.