Nine cans Temptation for more Eddie time

22Aug07

Source: MediaSpy

The Nine Network has shelved Temptation and will replace it with a weeknight series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, to be hosted by former CEO Eddie McGuire.

The move now puts hosts Ed Phillips and Livinia Nixon’s futures at the network in question, with the program to be shelved for the remainder of the year, winding up in October.

Hoping to get a return on the $4 million dollar salary of the former boss of the network, Nine will air the program in the 7pm slot weeknights.

The Daily Telegraph understands that a forty episode season will be produced to see out the final eight weeks of the ratings season.

McGuire is due to hit the Melbourne studios to commence production in the coming week.

This comes following rumours that had McGuire hosting a new 6.30pm lifestyle and current affair show as a replacement for A Current Affair.

But sources say he is one of a number of hosts touted for the show which wouldn’t start until 2008 and was “very embryonic” in its development.

Nine sources said the decision to bring Millionaire back was necessary to “keep the rights to the show alive”.

The show was shelved in February last year when McGuire became the network’s chief executive.

The show was unsuccessfully run as a weeknight show two years ago in the 5.30pm, up against Seven’s Deal or No Deal.

Even though Temptation has rated well in its 7pm weekday timeslot, often beating Seven’s soapie Home and Away, it hasn’t been so successful in the summer period, with viewers tuning out in droves over the non-ratings period.

This leaves Phillips and Nixon jobless, with Nixon’s side-project Things To Do Before You Die being confirmed as a one-off series.

However, Temptation cast and crew have been told that the show will be back next year, and that the show has not been axed.

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