He then went on to host a children’s game show on Seven. Can’t remember the name.
Edit: It was Spit it Out in 2010.
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I Loved Rollercoaster.
Fun Fact the Rollercoaster Website is still up
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Cool.
Smart.
Real.
How believably dorky. Love it.
Monday Movie Opener…
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Tfw it doesn’t mention anywhere on that page how rollercoaster rhymes with toaster 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnIQpafTmIA
It’s interesting how lottery draws evolved (or rather, devolved) over the years. First for the mid-week state lotto draws, a fancy expensive set with two presenters, and now the midweek state lotto draws aren’t televised at all, and even Powerball is relegated to just the machines with shitty Officeworks banners behind them.
The early Saturday lotto draws televised in NSW are interesting. The feed is obviously taken from Tatts in Melbourne, and the difference in quality of production shows!
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Some of us are old enough to (just!) remember the early Tattslotto draws on Penthouse Club with Mary Hardy and whoever her male co-hosts were at the time (they did alternate a bit towards the end of the show’s run).
I’m not old enough to remember David Johnston and Lucy Kiraly hosting the first draws in 1972!
Most of that devolution came as a result of the advent of the accelerated flow between programs about a decade ago, which meant no traditional 8.28pm slot to slide into.
Once that happened, the new agreement only covered draws of $15 million or more - certainly this applied to the draws shown on Seven (Mon/Wed/Sat Lotto was on Nine in NSW) - but I suspect that even that’s been dropped except potentially for the biggest draws. (I do remember the first time Oz Lotto went over $90 million in the early/mid 2000s, and how Seven milked it for all its worth by extending the first ad break of whatever they were showing until about 8.55!)
These days they’d be doing the draws out of Brisbane, as Tatts moved their headquarters up there after merging with the QLD TAB and taking over the Golden Casket lotteries brand up there, and all the draw times are now based on QLD time (so they actually happen at 9.30 Sydney/Melb time). The results for Powerball and Oz Lotto are still shown on-screen during the evening, although it appears this has more recently moved to 7Two.
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It looks like Seven like to trot out their stars to cross promote their shows whenever there’s a massive jackpot. For example,
Sonia Kruger hosts Oz Lotto with a $100 million jackpot draw in 2009:
and Virginia Gay for the $110 million jackpot in 2012:
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That’s certainly a rare one! Bring these back nine!
The one thing I remember about the Lotto draws was before NSW Lotteries were sold TCN-9 in Sydney did the Monday & Wednesday Draws with the Oz Lotto & Saturday night draws being drawn at HSV-7 in Melbourne who looked after Tatts-Lotto. This ment the Channel 7 Draws from Melbourne were aired across the 9 Network in NSW.
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And also syndicated to SAS10 in Adelaide where it was branded X-Lotto. (“X” as in “cross”, not X as in “10” 
)
Here’s one example with SAS10’s Noel O’Connor introducing the draw before crossing live to Melbourne:
YouTube: MediaTreasureTrove
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Even in the biggest markets in the USA lottery draws are still conducted and televised during the early evenings. You would think it would be in the interests of Tatts to buy some advertising time in the early evening to televise draws and spruik their products.
With Oz Lotto and Powerball, it looks like everyone got the same draw aired across Australia (i.e. no local references at all), but with Saturday Lotto in NSW, it’s clear to a close watcher that they were taking a dirty feed from Melbourne with the local introduction by Alex Wileman and her spiel during the drawing inserted over the top (e.g. “A 78 year old pensioner in Bondi recently won $20 million in last week’s superdraw…they plan on using it to cryogenically freeze their head…next number 25”).
I find the length that they’d go to in an attempt to try and make the Saturday draw seem like it was done locally to be very fascinating. In particular, the audio. They’re obviously playing a pre-recorded sound effect of the machine operating to cover the dirty feed they have with Melbourne presenters. You can spot how on some Saturday Lotto draws, they also flashed the Tatts graphics with the prize pool and division 1 figures during the draw (i.e. after Alex had already introduced them with the local NSW Lotto graphics at the beginning of the program). At the end of the draw where it goes back to Alex for the summary, the graphics switch from the balls generated in Melbourne to the ones generated in Sydney, and it’s very subtle. You’d have to be watching very closely to notice.
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Damn it, I never noticed any of this stuff when I was kid. I should probably go on YouTube and see if there any vids of those draws…
Here’s an example of one. You can spot the switch of the ball graphics at around 1:30.
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Seen in Brisbane: Gavin Wood and Marianne Van Dorslar in 2000
And still going strong in 2003
Edit - I can unload videos if interest.
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Hasn’t Oz Lotto and Powerball now moved from HSV7 to BTQ7?
Tattslotto draws with these two hosting are such a childhood memory for me. I remember always having to switch to Channel 7 just before 8:30pm on Saturdays so my Aunt could catch the tattslotto numbers - never mind the fact that in those days you couldn’t claim your winnings until Monday and the numbers would be in the Sunday papers anyway!
I even remember when Draw 2000 clicked over, must have been close to the year 2000 or just before. Thanks for the shares
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