2005 in Australian Television - Events

Events

• 8 January – Australia Unites: Reach Out To Asia raises $20 million for the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami relief effort. It is also the first time that Australia's three major commercial television stations have co-operated to broadcast such an event.

• February – Australia's Funniest Home Video Show returns and starts 2005 when AFHVS became Australia's Funniest Home Videos with a funky major revamp, a monster-revamped funky instrumental theme muzac and a relocation from Melbourne back to Sydney. This is the very first episode to be filmed at Nine's Sydney studios since 1999.

• 25 May – Graham Kennedy dies at age 71. The network on which most of his shows aired, the Nine Network, passes up the offer to broadcast his funeral but Seven axes Nine's coverage, picks it up and wins it. Nine does eventually show parts of the funeral live.

• June 2005: Deal or No Deal host Andrew O'Keefe replaces Chris Reason as co-host when the title Sunday Sunrise became Weekend Sunrise.

• 26 June – Douglas Wood is interviewed by Sandra Sully about his time as a captive after Network Ten pays a reported $400,000 for an exclusive interview.

• 15 August: Big Brother: Greg Mathew, along with twin brother David Mathew, also known as "The Logan Twins" is announced the winner of the fifth series.

• 25 August: After a one-year hiatus, The Mole returns to Australian television for its fifth and final season, hosted by Tom Williams after its original host Grant Bowler was unavailable due to a prior commitment.

• 17 October: Rob "Coach" Fulton, a resident from Sydney, becomes the first ever person to win $1 million on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Just four weeks later, another resident from Sydney, Martin Flood, won the top prize, amid allegations of cheating.

• 27 October: Liz Cantor wins the fifth and final season of The Mole, taking home $203,000 in prize money. John Whitehall is revealed as the Mole, and Craig Murrell is the runner-up. Cantor would later embark on a role with Channel Seven in Brisbane as its fill-in weather presenter.

• 26 November – The very last ever episode of The Price Is Right goes to air on the Nine Network after a 5 year run then a 2 year run. The show was axed due to the strong competitions of rival Seven Network game show Deal or No Deal.

• 2 December: A Current Affair draws with a final goodbye with Ray Martin in the hot-seat before retiring for the very last time. As the program is rested to try out a major revamp, he is definitely to be replaced by Tracy Grimshaw in 2006. Tracy Grimshaw quits the Today Program after 9 years as co-host. She will be replaced by former-Ten News anchor Jessica Rowe from 30 January 2006, then soon axed due to poor ratings.

• 5 December – Wheel of Fortune returns to Channel Seven with Larry Emdur & Laura Csortan as the hosts. Emdur & Csortan are Wheel's first hosting partnership since Baby John Burgess & Adriana Xenides, between 1984 and 1996. On the very first episode, the car was won! The final edition of the version was screened on 28 July 2006. Its return, host and letter turner was announced on Sunrise on 18 November.

• 16 December: Good Morning Australia ends with a final goodbye after a 12 year run on Network Ten from the studios of ATV-10. Host Bert Newton retires from Channel Ten and signs up and returns the Nine Network to host game show Bert's Family Feud. The following year, Good Morning Australia time slot was replaced by 9am with David and Kim hosted by former Getaway reporter David Reyne and former National Nine News/Nightline presenter, Kim Watkins who both moved from the Nine Network to Channel Ten.