Media personality, Frank Edoho, has explained why audience participation television programme Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? went off the air.
Refuting other negative assertions, he said Who Wants To Be A Millionaire exited from the air waves following the withdrawal of its sponsor.
Edoho provided the explanation while speaking on an episode of The KK Show on Sunday, adding:
“So Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? sort of came to an end when our sponsor withdrew. I don’t know if I can mention brand names here, but our sponsor stayed with us for a decade sponsoring the show,” he said.
“I think the Federal Government fined them based on some industry… I think it was just like a punitive measure for one corporate thing that happened.
“I can’t go into details, but that affected the sponsorship of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? So they said, ‘Hey guys, we can’t do this anymore based on the fact that we have to pay an incredible sum of money back to the Federal Government.
“I went into negotiation because we heard that other sponsors were interested, and I wanted to be an executive producer.
“I wanted to have a stake in it because I feel that I built myself up to the extent that I assumed I was an asset to the show.
“We were having differences in negotiation. I think it was one newspaper that went and said that I was dropped based on the fact that, with the relaunch of the show under the new sponsor, I wasn’t anywhere to be found. And of course, they would draw conclusions based on that,” he explained.
He said before encountering Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as host, that he had worked with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria for four years.
“I was on radio. I worked for Radio Nigeria—that’s the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria—for four years.
“You know, once you can work on radio for four years but not get as much popularity or fame as you would if you worked on TV for one month,” he said.
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Edoho said Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? ended after its sponsor, who had backed the show for a decade, withdrew support following a regulatory penalty.
He said the negotiations broke down over disagreements, and his absence from the relaunched show under its new sponsor led to speculation that he had been dropped.
“So they announced that I was dropped from the show, which was false then. I gave my statement. I said, ‘Okay, you know what? This is it.’ I felt I was thrown under the bus after all the years I put in.”
Cami Ezenwa is a Writer, Editor, Publicist, Biographer and Journalism Trainer
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