If they had really wanted to keep the Nominations show going, they could've cobbled together some sort of set in Sydney to broadcast from (iirc thats what they were doing in 2003 for The Insider - it wasn't coming out of Dreamworld). I think it would make more sense that since they were deep into cost cutting mode in 2008, they likely only wanted to have to pay the hosts for one show a week rather than multiple as the primary driving factor.
Oh definitely. I see on Wikipedia the ratings were well down, averaging 860k (5 capital city figure) across the season, which these days would be quite acceptable but back then was devastating. Prizes were being cut back (only one LG Shine phone and a 3G dongle instead of two phones, and not so much as a scooter as at the halfway mark - can't remember if there were any cars at all this season?). Probably the most obvious sign of budget cuts this season was the pool.
This is the first I’ve heard this. It makes sense and totally wouldn’t surprise me, particularly as many of their hosts and guests were actually Sydney based at the time, but do you have a source for this? There’s nothing on the show or even in the credits to imply it wasn’t filmed in QLD.
Nah. Can't remember where I heard this from - so might not even be true. But I guess since it logically checks out like you mentioned, it could be why its stuck around in my head somewhere.
