Young Talent Time

On April 24 1971, Channel O (O as in Orange and now Channel Ten) launched a show called Young Talent Time.

It’s host was Johnny Young, a popular Australian pop star and songwriter at the time who wrote the hit ‘The Real Thing’ which was sung by Russell Morris. 

The stars were the Young Talent Team and this team worked together well because they all had prior history on Channel 7 show hosted by the late Brian Naylor. 

Rod Kirkham, Vicki Broughton, Philip Gould, Debbie (later Debra) Byrne, Jane Scali and Jamie Redfern were the original six members of the Young Talent Team.

The show wasn’t expected to last for long and while the first episode had its share of stumbles but luckily for millions of Australians the talent made up for any issues.

The team that started with six quickly became eight with the addition of Julie Ryles and Greg Mills and the shows popularity continued to skyrocket.

Jamie Redfern ended up being seen by Liberace at the 1971 King of Pop Awards and by early 1972 he was off to America right after he filmed Caravan Holiday with the rest of the Young Talent Team.

The good times continued on as old members made way for new members with the likes of Tina Arena and Karen Knowles now in the team ensuring a new wave of popularity as the 1970’s made way for the 1980’s.  

YTT carried on through the majority of the 1980’s with the likes of Dannii Minogue, Beven Addinsall, Natalie Miller and Joey Perrone bringing in the fans every week.

By now you could buy records, cassettes, jackets, thongs, a board game, get posters out of TV Week and more. 

All things must come to an end and for YTT it happened at the end of 1988 which was sad for many of the shows fans as the show went with a young team that should of led the show to great success in the early 90’s had Channel Ten stayed the course.

In the end, forty kids were members of the Young Talent Team, hundreds participated in the talent quests and of course there was quite a lot of guests but the important thing was that like it or not Young Talent Time was an Australian TV icon but it wasn’t over yet.  

A 1990 direct-to-video episode did not lead to a return of YTT and attempts in the early 2000’s failed though fans did get one great documentary that aired on TV followed a release on VHS and DVD.

There was also guest appearances on TV and each one made the fans hungry for more with every appearance. 

An online radio station even played YTT songs for two hours every Sunday afternoon and fans still couldn’t get their fix by wanting to stay even when they heard the announcer being called for dinner, the signal to play We’ll Meet Again and All My Loving to wrap the show up. 

YTT did return in 2012 with Rob Mills as the host, Tina Arena as a judge and a new generation of kids including Aydan Calafiore performing the hits of the day but while teens enjoyed the show, original fans of the show mostly did not and YTT struggled against the AFL and NRL broadcasts and after fifteen episodes, it was all over for the show.

The 2012 team done a tour after cancellation where they were still met by their fans at sold out appearances and their touring days ended with a show in Western Australia.

Despite all that’s happened, the YTT story is still not over and it will never be over, a mini YTT reunion happened online just last week and future mini ones are still planned.

The fans are described as being awesome, amazing, dedicated, the best and loyal and their support for those who were on the show will never die and that is the story of Young Talent Time as it stands.

To close, I use the words of Johnny Young as he finished every episode 

Goodnight Australia.

-Ryan Stevenson