TVNZ Decide Not To Renew Wheel Of Fortune

TVNZ has decided not to renew its option on the TV ONE show Wheel of Fortune.

The daily 5.30 show will now finish up mid year, and will be replaced by MasterChef.

TVNZ’s General Manager of Commissioning, Andrew Shaw, said Wheel of Fortune was a very popular and well-made show, but like all local programming it was expensive to make and the impact of the recession meant it was not achieving an adequate return from advertising.

He said despite the best efforts of the producers to cut the cost of production, this had not been successful and TVNZ had made the decision to divert its resources into protecting its peak-time programming.

Andrew Shaw said that the production contract for Wheel of Fortune had contained an option to decide at this point whether to continue or not, since it was known that the trading environment was likely to be difficult.

“It’s a great show, and in other circumstances we would have been happy to continue,” he said. “This is simply a reflection of the times.”

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  • monreve

    that’s odd i saw the ratings for the last few weeks and in the 5+ demo it was almost neck and neck with home and away. i guess this is another budget cut . this will have a drastic effect on the news ratings with a poor choice of lead with the boring cooking show!

  • ell

    I wonder if TVNZ might make a play for Home and Away next time the Seven deal comes up

  • samofthewest

    This sucks! I really enjoyed OUR wheel of fortune but hopefully it will be back in the future! And Home & Away could only go on TV2 as it will be out of place on TV1.

    Maybe they could buy the rights to the Aussie “deal or no deal” off Prime?? (TV3′s was horrible!)

  • mike hallam

    is it me and my mates imagination but the current winner has been shafted with thing or things catagoury. its like they out of money and making it pretty hard eh

  • Thingee-Majig

    Absolutely – the “things” have been stupidly obscure. Tonight’s “Fog and Mist” a great example. The “thing” could, and has been, literally be any”thing”.
    And Jason’s sickeningly soppy slobberings over the “stunning, gorgeous” (blah, blah, blah!) Sonia wore through bone within minutes of her return. She stands there in a different gown every night and pretends to press buttons that work automatically. If they replaced her with a clothes rack, they may have been able to afford to contine to the end of the year.

  • George R

    Well you never know….TVNZ has gotten cosier with Seven Media ever since they brought a stake in Tivo, which Seven owns the Majority of!

  • Alex 09

    Rumours are circulating that TVNZ may replace our version of Wheel with the American version of Wheel. Apparently the Wheel Watchers promotion will be incorported into the Pat Sajak and Vanna White version.

    Wheel of fortune rates relatively well for TVNZ and draws a better audience than MasterChef. TVNZ are keen to keep Wheel alive but without the prohibitve production costs. Screening the USA version is considered an option.

  • hampete

    Well it’s mid year now, still waiting. Kinda lame though I really liked WoF. : (