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Axed: The Mint

Channel Nine’s late night game show, The Mint has been axed.

The final show will air on Saturday 29th March. It is to be replaced with dramas and movies.

The show, with host duties shared by Rob Mills, Lyall Brooks, Natalie Garonzi, Angela Johnson, Lucy Holmes and Katrina Conder was recently dropped by WIN TV. It is likely this had a significant effect on the revenue pool of the phone-in show. Produced in-house by the Nine Network, The Mint replaced the FremantleMedia produced Quizmania last year.

A Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight, “This style of show has a natural life cycle. The Mint will finish up at the end of the month. It’s been a great training ground for new talent and our concentration is now focussed on new programming initiatives.”

Late night quizzes in Australia recently were popularised via games on Big Brother Up Late, which led to TEN’s Up Late Game Show with Hot Dogs. Seven also aired Midnight Zoo between July – October 2006.

But The Mint also attracted a growing swell of annoyed viewers, frustrated by seemingly never-ending games with cryptic answers that were as good as unsolvable.

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25 Responses

  1. Ahh no probs, pity :p
    Its a Dirty Harry movie, it would have been nice to say Dirty Harry killed The Mint before its expiry time 😛

    Cheers 🙂

  2. Nah, it wasn’t scheduled tonight, likely affected by Footy Show etc. There will be a few nights off over Easter too, but as it stands last show is Mar 29. It was on last night.

  3. Hey Dave!!
    I just turned over to Channel nine to see if the Mint team to see if they would say anything (no really.. I dont watch it, please believe me!)
    And low and behold, C9 is actually playing a movie, a crappy eighties one.

    Have they axed it earlier??

  4. At least it was live Australian TV – not banal american sitcoms and repeats. Some of the stuff was very amusing – great for insomniacs. I for one will miss it.

  5. I think the good news we should all take out of this is that Commercial Breakdown with Dermott Brereton can’t come back now because it doesn’t have a set. Two equally bad birds with one stone of televisual justice

  6. Yes, you’re all right, I’m delighted 🙂

    This is a great day. Not as great as the day Howard got thrown out of office, but it’s certainly right up there 🙂

    I do wonder if the legal action against these scams in the UK – and increasing questions being asked about their legality here in Australia – have ultimately prompted Nine to play it safe.

    Certainly The Mint (and Quizmania before it) were extremely damaging to Nine’s reputation and image, and if this decision is a result of the new owners being proactive then good for them.

    See, I *can* say nice things about Nine when they get it right 🙂

    Now, next crusade: to rid late night television of all those sex phone-line and scam ringtone/competition ads.

  7. As good as this news appears, I can only think that shows of this genre will make a comeback on the new digital channels that will appear next year, as the networks scramble for ways to make them viable.

  8. Ok, most of the time I would say late night gameshows are rubbish (I don’t know anyone who actually phoned in) but I say they should bring Quizmania back!!
    It annoyed a lot of viewers, but it was a lot better than The Mint! Nikki Osborne was really good entertainment when you’re drunk in front of the tv on a Saturday night! I don’t know why they had to change in the first place.

  9. This is indeed great news! The most sensible programming decision Nine’s made so far this year. Let’s just hope they show some kindness to viewers and offer something substantial in the timeslot, and not do a Channel Ten and just run huge blocks of infomercials and paid programming between 1 and 6am.

    I like the idea of the Crawfords shows going in the timeslot, but I think Nine would rather die than to stoop so low as to negotiate to “buy” programs from WIN after last year’s tiff!

  10. I like to watch crap tv every once in awhile, but this has to take the cake.

    I can’t belive it lasted so long when for people to realise how ridiculously cryptic those puzzles were.

    Let’s hope they replace it with something interesting and not infomercials!

  11. yeah!!! dont jinx it shhh dont give them ideas!!! lol

    Honestly, I reckon this may spell the end of late night game shows…. I dont actually know that but one can wish 🙂

  12. YEAH! Finally we can have something actually entertaining on tv for a change!

    My only concern is this may inspire 7 or 10 to offer their own version and if they are the only network, they may have a monopoly.

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