In an exclusive interview The Bug’s entertainment editor Buddy Tugg sat down with Todd Woodbridge, host of the new Channel 9 game show, Tipping Point Australia.

Buddy Tugg: Most of The Bug crew were wondering just how desperate you must have been financially to have taken up the hosting role in such a shit show as this?

Todd Woodbridge: Hey, that’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?

Buddy: We just wanted to know what your tipping point would have been to take this on?

Todd: Fair enough, I suppose. It’s been almost two-and-a- half decades since my last pay packet on the international tennis circuit.

Buddy: Can I just say that Channel 9 is apparently delighted with your role on the show and how it’s going in that crucial time slot from 5pm leading into Nine’s News around the nation.

Todd: Thank you.

Buddy: Yes, they are absolutely delighted that they only have to pay for three contestants on Tipping Point compared with the six on Millionaire Hot Seat and of course your pay packet would only be a fraction of Eddie Maguire’s.

Todd: Geez, you’re serving them up hard and fast here.

Buddy: Thank you. We were also wondering if your stupid contestants really believe that how they press their button has any effect whatsoever on where their counters land?

Todd: Well, they’re not the brightest bunch are they? You’d better not use that if you don’t mind.

Buddy: Consider it deleted.

Todd: Thank you.

Buddy: Each segment of Tipping Point seems more ludicrous than the one before. Bank builder is often rather meaningless and the Quick Fire round has 30 seconds of questions that generally result in a couple of tokens on average after a gimme first question that a grade fiver could answer. And how about that final head-to-head section where the questions are hard but the contestants don’t have to know the answer as long as their opponent doesn’t know it either. It’s pretty stupid, really, isn’t it?

Todd: I guess so but we are talking about people waiting to watch Nine News.

Buddy: Fair point. And how about that jackpot temptation silliness at the end? Ever feel guilty when you offer three counters and they’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the jackpot counter over the edge and into the win zone? There’s basically four spots the counter they put in can land, so your producers must know the odds of even four counters landing in the right spot are pretty remote.

Todd: As I said, these are people just filling in time until Peter Overton or Andrew Lofthouse and Melissa Downes come on.

Buddy: Yes, they are a sad bunch indeed. You could offer a dozen counters and a return trip to the moon and they would often still simply be gambling away the money pot they’ve build up.

Todd: That’s true.

Buddy: Thanks for your time today, Todd.

Todd: You wouldn’t know how much they were paying McGuire, would you?

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