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Former Channel Seven star Mike Whitney has revealed the very surprising reason his popular reality TV show Who Dares Wins was axed in the late 90s.
The veteran presenter, 65, was the co-host of the popular Channel Seven series alongside Tania Zaetta from 1996 – 1998.
The show saw contestants tasked with completing a variety of thrilling dares for prizes – from relatively tame ones such as whistling while eating biscuits, to riskier ones like jumping off a three-storey building and landing on a crash mat.
Mike recently appeared on the Bloke in a Bar podcast and explained that despite its incredible rating success the series was scrapped because of the high insurance costs.
‘The show was just nuts! This is what happened. In year one what was a major dare that if the person completed they went around the world on a holiday. In year two it was now a $50 dare,’ he began.
He said producers were faced with the challenge of continually making the dares more thrilling and engaging – and were eventually left stumped about how to up the stakes while remaining safe.
Former Channel Seven star Mike Whitney has revealed the very surprising reason his popular game show Who Dares Wins was axed in the late ’90s
‘Step up, step up, step up! I remember seeing on the office whiteboard plans for a person to feed a shark in Queensland wearing a chainmail metal glove,’ he said.
‘I said to producers, “What if the shark bites the contestant at the elbow?” Well, then the insurance costs went out of control!’
He added there were even some death-defying unaired motorcycle stunts, which saw contestants get injured and hospitalised. The show ended shortly after.
‘You couldn’t make the show now!’ he finished.
In January 2022, Mike left the Seven network and stepped down from hosting Sydney Weekender after a 27-year career on the travel show.
He hosted his final episode and was joined by his replacement, sprinter-turned-broadcaster Matt Shirvington, who later moved to presenting on Sunrise.
It was a bittersweet moment for the TV presenter, who first appeared on Sydney Weekender back in 1994.
‘Twenty-seven years! To do anything for that long is a very long time,’ he said of his resignation.
Mike recently appeared on the Bloke in a Bar podcast and explained that despite its incredible rating success the series was scrapped because of the high insurance costs
‘I had the best hosting job in Australia. I got to travel everywhere in NSW, meet the most amazing people, and do the most amazing things.’
He continued: ‘People pay to do the stuff I got paid to do. I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to work on this show.’
Whitney compared his departure from the travel series to his retirement from professional cricket.
‘People ask me if I’m going to miss it. Sure, I am going to miss it. It feels a bit surreal. But I had an incredible cricket career as well and I had to retire from that. And who gets to retire twice from two wonderful careers?’ he said.
Mike joined Sydney Weekender the same year he retired from cricket.
He has also hosted other TV shows, including ABC’s Great Ideas, Who Dares Wins and Last Chance Learners.
He is the father of 30-year-old triplets Fergus, Juliet and Madeline, who he shares with his ex-wife Debbie.
