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Who will host Young Talent Time for TEN?

With Johnny Young tipped to take a behind-the-scenes role, the guessing game is on as to who will host the rebooted YTT.

It’s true. A rebooted Young Talent Time will be announced as part of TEN’s 2012 Programming Launch next week.

After moving on from the AFL rights, Lachlan Murdoch and David Mott looked for a replacement for its Saturday primetime slot.

With the success of Australia’s Got Talent they knew they had a potential programme in their vaults, and pursued Perth-based Johnny Young who owned the rights to the show.

Young has always seen the format of an all-singing / dancing cast and contestant acts as having reboot television potential, but this time was on the receiving end of a call  from the two execs and suddenly found himself back in favour.

Earlier this year Young was joined by former YTT cast members in a 40th Anniversary Reunion filmed for A Current Affair. The original series ran from 1971 until 1988.

But for the reboot Young is expected to be involved behind the scenes, having previously said he didn’t seek to host any new version.

That leaves the field wide open for a new, contemporary host. Will they come from the field of pop, music theatre, radio, Pay TV, a former Australian Idol? Tim Campbell, Eddie Perfect, Matt Lee -or even a female host?

TEN, which was also to have had a resident “super-group” as part of Don’t Stop Believing, is hoping to capitalise on the show’s family appeal and the potential to create new musical stars.

It also isn’t clear whether the show will be produced in-house or by an independent production company.

TEN had always vowed any monies it was saving on AFL would be re-directed into new programming.

65 Responses

  1. No doubt we’ll be told that this won’t be just another talent show but a talent show on steroids! (or something similar)

    When the new management took over, there was concern that the rather brave
    and innovative Ten we had enjoyed for a few years would be lost. With this,
    The Renovators and some other recent decisions, that concern now appears to have been justified. The channel seems at risk of losing its hard-earned and valuable profile, its commendable point of difference from channels 7 and 9.

  2. @ David – you’re right in that one of the other networks would have to show interest, but look at the case of The X Factor which was off the air for a couple of years before Seven showed interest. But with TEN being so cheap and not giving their programming a fair chance than TEN wouldn’t really care if another network did take it.
    @ deedeedragons – TEN needs to increase their Australian reality content to compete with Seven so they would be better off putting reality programming in the AFL timeslots instead of A-grade American programming which are better suited to Sunday-Thursday timeslots.

  3. I agree with Bass, Anothony Callea would be a great choice as he was a contestant on Australian Idol and he did go to the Johnny Young Talent School, also Wes Carr as well – but I prefer Anthony.

  4. I think Adam Hills coul go well as host. David, do you know is he is off-contract next year as Spick and Specks is ending? TEN should really consider him, he would be a great host.

  5. Some good suggestions, I wouldn’t mind seeing Anthony Callea hosting this, I think he would also be a great choice, very excited to see how this goes, and a credit to Johnny Young that he chose to step aside from hosting, I think had Daryl done the same, it would’ve meant that Hey Hey could’ve removed some of the excess baggage it was carrying in the 2010 run

  6. Fantastic. Another re-hash of another tired old show. Are we incapable in this country of coming up with fresh new ideas? You can only play follow the leader for so long before it all falls down. The TV industry in this country is imploding.a

  7. Also would love to see Damien Leith as host. He is known as the nicest guy in show business in Australia and was a fantastic fill-in host on the morning show recently when Larry Emdur was away. His experience as a previous contestant on a talent show would help too.

  8. I don’t understand why they are trying to reboot a series from the 70s-80s instead of rebooting their more recent reality shows that they didn’t give a rats a** about – Australian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance Australia. Nigel Lythgow said earlier this year that if TEN didn’t relaunch it then he would be taking it off them and giving it to another network. Now this has not happened yet but if I was TEN I would be taking that threat fairly seriously as it is an amazing show and if Seven got their hands on it then TEN would never win ratings season ever again seems though they actually care about their reality programming (as can be seen with TEN originally having The X Factor and treating it like a second rate program and now it is getting Seven to win ratings season year after year).

  9. I would have guessed it was being made by Shine (which is pretty much in house these days). They could just shift a few tools and film it at the “southern hemisphere’s biggest tv studio”. Or better still, we could see some set building ‘challenges’ coming to a certain 7:30/8:00/8:30/8:40/9:00/9:10pm weeknights ‘hit’ show.

  10. I think Tim Campbell would be a very good fit as a host of this show. I hope they make enough changes to distinguish it from the orignal show though.

  11. I like the idea of Tim Campbell – it’s a hoot on The Circle!
    Dannii Minogue would also be perfect, she can nuture the talent as she has been in the industry a long time herself – but I doubt channel 7 will let her go!
    So excited by this!!

  12. I think a YTT reboot would work if it is more like a Junior Idol format. Imagine 12 Jack Vidgeons battling it out – it would rate through the roof on a Saturday night. They could even mix in a Don’t Stop Believing supergroup.

  13. It would have to be someone really special if this was to actually go ahead- Young was genuine, which is why Somers can’t be used, too see through, Bert maybe?
    you need a father figure as opposed to host same age as group.
    Imagine if Micallef was given this gig, poor kids wouldn’t know what to do, hahaha.

  14. Oh Damien Leith would be perfect. He has a lovely manner, gets on well with all ages and has previously hosted for Channel 10 before with Saving Kids.

  15. If YTT is going to Saturday nights you would think Before the game is defiantly gone from Ten Which is a bit of a shame. That panel works very well together You would Think Seven will definitely pick it up

  16. Great photo with the team and Graham kennedy David! Wow this is big news! Love the nostalgic feel here but it has huge risk written all over it. It would have to have production qualities, no miming like the original and not be cheesy. Tim cambell would be an excellent host. And Johnny young would have to be seen on air at some point wouldn’t he??? Very Happy for Johnny!

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