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Between the Lines gets the go for Eddie

Eddie McGuire's next project, sports quiz show Between the Lines, will air on Nine later this year.

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Eddie McGuire’s next project, sports quiz show Between the Lines, will air on Nine later this year.

The Southern Star-produced panel series will include Mick Molloy, who appears with McGuire on MMM breakfast in Melbourne.

“It’s been knocking around for a while,” McGuire told Mediaweek.

“One of the things I’ve noticed about sport is it dominates so many lives but we’re forgetting these days the funny stories and the fun of sport.

“These days everyone wants to chase Ricky Nixon and Brendan Fevola around or the Rugby League boys whenever there’s a muck up. You can address that but get people who will give it a bit of light and shade rather than beating the stories to death.

“There’s still a lot of fun that goes unreported. Good funny stories, hilarious situations right throughout world sport that you don’t get to anymore.”

McGuire said more people should be producing shows with fun as the key factor rather than getting bogged down in demographics.

McGuire currenly hosts Hot Seat, Million Dollar Drop and This is Your Life specials.

Source: Mediaweek

46 Responses

  2. Wont work. It’ll be just another sanctimonious sports discussion panel. Australians are too precious about their sport. We can’t laugh and gawk at stupid athletes (& administrators) like Britons or Americans.

  3. “General” sports shows dont work because people that want to watch a show about a certain sport find they seen very little of the sports they like, most of the sports they dont, and the sports they do like are being talked about by people that wouldnt have the first clue what they are talking about! By the way….more Eddie? Really? Really? Really?

  4. They show just as much of Eddie as they do of Charlie Sheen if not more.Time for a new approach Nine.
    Find New Hosts possibly or just dump the whole thing and replace it with some good comedies or bring back an an airline/airport style show for that time of night each week anything has got to be an improvement.
    Did anyone here remember how we had to suffer through his millionaire back in the late nineties earlier part of the last decade for a few minutes just to wait for Sex and the City those were the longest minutes of anyone who was a fan of the latter one’s life.

  5. I wouldn’t write this off just yet. Yes, the basic format has been attempted twice recently, neither with much success. (And the ABC also had a non-comedic sports quiz show not long before those). But that doesn’t mean it can’t work.

    All it needs is the right mini-games, the right comedians and the right guests. Given Nine’s deep pockets, the last will probably prove the most difficult. Sportspeople on comedic panel shows generally prove their lack of comedic ability.

    A succesful format would likely have many ways sportspeople can display their abilities through physical rather than verbal challenges.

  9. The Nine Network really do have a problem as far as their talent pool is concerned. The problem being is that they dont have any. Or if they do then they are not being given a go because Eddie has friends in high places ie David Gyngel.

  13. I actually don’t mind Eddie, but having said that, enough is enough. I think they are just getting there moneys worth out of him, being that he is on such a huge salary, but the viewers certainly don’t want to see any more of him.

  16. Australia has had two goes at sports quiz shows in the past two years. Squiz on SBS and The Trophy Room on ABC. Both did not rate well. What does Nine think this show has that the other two haven’t?

    FWIW, TV One (NZ) had a sports quiz show called ‘Game of two halves’. If they replicated that format, they’d be onto a winner. Eddie would not be the right host for it though.

  17. Has sports entertainment ever really worked? The Footy Show does well but did The Fat or Live and Sweaty really rate? The Trophy Room is hard to judge because I just don’t think people want to watch Hellier,but Ahn Do’s SBS show was similarly unsuccessful and Shane Warne the musical bombed badly. The Dream was great but that was more because of the talent and the Olympics and the Ice Dream didn’t do nearly as well. Before the Game is a pretty cheap show and has been given an long time but I doubt nine will have the patience. Not saying it wont work but I think people who like sport just want to watch sport.

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