Larry Emdur
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Larry Emdur (born December 9, 1964) is an Australian media personality, most known as the former host of the game show The Price is Right. He most recently hosted Wheel of Fortune on the Seven Network.
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[edit] Career
Emdur was born to a prominent Jewish family, of Turkish descent, in the Sydney suburb of Bondi. Growing up near the beach, he developed a keen interest in surfing from an early age. He had trouble with every subject in school & dropped out at 15. Emdur began his career as a copyboy at the Sydney Morning Herald, before moving into television where aged 17 years he became Australia’s youngest national newsreader presenting the overnight news for Seven Network in Australia. After some time in news and current affairs as a reporter and newsreader, Emdur switched to hosting game shows and variety television.
He is perhaps best known to Australian audiences for his five prime time, but poor-rating, game shows including Ca$h Bonanza, and the Australian versions of Family Double Dare, The Price is Right, & Wheel Of Fortune. Larry has hosted Hey Hey it's Saturday twice in 1998, and substituted as host of It Takes Two once in 2006.
[edit] The Price is Right
Emdur is perhaps best known as the host of The Price is Right, which he hosted for five years from 1993 to 1998, before its cancellation. It was then revived in 2003, before being cancelled again in October 2005 due to poor ratings and high costs of production. Both versions aired on Australia's Nine Network. Due to his boyish good looks and charisma, Emdur was very popular with the mostly female, middle-aged audience of the show. His banter with voiceover man Shawn Cosgrove was also popular.
[edit] Wheel of Fortune
After being "rested" by the Nine Network following the cancellation of The Price is Right, Larry became host of the Seven Network's Wheel of Fortune. His contract with Seven was signed mere hours after his deal with the Nine Network expired. While in the first few weeks of his run with Seven's Wheel in the 5pm weekday timeslot, Larry continued to appear simultaneously on Nine in re-runs of The Price is Right, until Bert's Family Feud took over the 5:30pm timeslot on Nine in mid-February 2006.
[edit] Larry vs Rove
In June 2006, an on-air "feud" of sorts developed between Larry Emdur and TV talk show host Rove McManus. This started when Rove received an e-mail from a Wheel of Fortune audience member, who informed Rove that he was the butt of many jokes made by Larry during breaks at Wheel tapings. Larry has frequently been teased about his height, and in response, would make comments to the studio audience such as:
- "Rove McManus picked a fight with me at the Logies. He came up to me, looked me right in the eye, and all the while, he was sitting on Anthony Callea's shoulders."
Rove confronted Larry about his remarks when he was invited as a guest on Rove Live's HelpDesk segment. Larry admitted to the jibes, but stated it was all in good fun, and offered an apology. Rove then challenged Larry to a sumo fight backstage, where both men donned sumo suits, competing in what was billed as the "Smackdown Wheel of Destiny". The fight lasted 8 seconds, after Larry managed to take down Rove to be declared the winner.
[edit] Post-Wheel
On 19 June 2006, news emerged of Wheel of Fortune's cancellation at the end of the 2006 season. Channel 10's Rove Live then started a campaign to "Save Larry Emdur", although Seven soon put an end to Rove's jokes by issuing a statement that Larry would be staying with the Seven Network. Larry has also been a fill-in host for It Takes Two and has filled in for Andrew O'Keefe on Weekend Sunrise and David Koch on Sunrise. Although there was talk of Larry being in line to host a new game show, Seven's reluctance to risk another game show failure (such as The Master and You May Be Right) has led to Larry contemplating his career options.
In an article with The Border Mail dated October 7, 2006, Larry stated:
- “I have done all the stuff I have really wanted to do and there is nothing jumping out at me in the TV world. I am going to France (to the MIPCOM television festival) to have a look around at the upcoming trends and what’s going on around the rest of the world. I will see how I can contribute to that, whether it be in Australia or not.”
Larry's latest ambition is to create his own production company.
