Profile of Mike Walsh on Famous Like Me

The Mike Walsh Show was an Australian daytime television talk show first broadcast on 12 February 1973 until the mid-1980s, hosted by Mike Walsh.

Walsh was already a well known radio and television identity by the 1970s, having been one of the radio 2SM and also appearing on variety shows on Sydney's TEN10 (Channel Ten) and TCN9 (Nine Network), hosting Today on Melbourne's GTV9 and later a weekly tonight show on HSV7.

Produced at the studios of TEN10 and screened across Network Ten every weekday afternoon, The Mike Walsh Show was change from much of Australian daytime television which had previously been dominated by soap operas, game shows and movies. Walsh took the traditional "tonight show" format, added some topical discussion and current affairs, and despite a modest following at first, it soon became a hit with the predominantly housewife audience.

Walsh had a team of regulars that became Australian household names over the years, including Dr James Wright, columnist John-Michael Howson, consumer expert Helen Wellings and former housewife Jeanne Little whos trademark whining drawl and often outlandish attire made her a celebrity in her own right.

The Mike Walsh Show moved across to the Nine Network in 1977 and into the midday timeslot. The audience followed, and the program expanded nationally - screening in all capital cities and regional areas, a rare feat in those days.

Such was the popularity of The Mike Walsh Show that Jeanne Little and Mike Walsh both won TV Week Gold Logies, in 1977 and 1980 respectively - an award usually won by higher profile prime time identities. In 1982, The Mike Walsh Show celebrated 2000 episodes with a special evening edition.

In 1985, the Nine Network moved The Mike Walsh Show to the 9.30pm timeslot, emulating a similar move by another Nine program, Hey Hey It's Saturday, the previous year. However the shows traditional daytime audience did not follow the show through to its later timeslot - and the perception with other viewers that the show was aimed at an older and predomantly female audience led to The Mike Walsh Show as an evening program, having a short life. Walsh moved on to other areas such as radio and theatre, returning to TV only briefly to host a weekly talk show on ABC in 1987, and the game show Superquiz on Ten in 1989 - and in 1999 was awarded a TV Week Hall Of Fame Gold Logie for his contribution to television.

However the legacy created by Walsh and his team lived on for many years after as former 60 Minutes reporter Ray Martin took over the timeslot in 1985 with The Midday Show - a program not unlike its predecessor. Martin continued with the successful format until 1993, fending off competition from rival variety shows on Ten (After Noon, 1985, and Pot Luck, 1987) and Seven (The Bert Newton Show, 1989). Later Midday hosts included Derryn Hinch (1994), Tracey Grimshaw and David Reyne (1995) and Kerri-Anne Kennerley (1996-98).

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Mike Walsh