{"id":854543,"date":"2026-08-14T03:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854543\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T03:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:54:10","slug":"vale-johnny-young-tv-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854543\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale: Johnny Young | TV Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tLegendary TV host and producer Johnny Young, best known for Young Talent Time\u00a0and The Go Show!! has died.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Legendary TV host and producer Johnny Young, best known for Young Talent Time\u00a0and The Go Show!! has died aged 79.<\/p>\n

In a statement released by his family, it was revealed that Young passed away following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnny was the creator, host and producer of the much loved television show Young Talent Time. He wrote and produced many iconic hit songs including The Real Thing and Smily,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnny leaves behind his wife Marisha, sister Cornelia, daughters Anna and Fleur, son Craig (dec.), seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family respectfully asks for privacy during this difficult time. Details of a memorial service will be announced soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the height of its 18 year run from 1971 until 1988,\u00a0Young Talent Time\u00a0was unstoppable.<\/p>\n

The talent quest beamed to living rooms around the country for 42 weeks a year, and with Summer \u2018Best Of\u201d episodes, was on screens all year round. During its \u2018down\u2019 time there were sell-out concerts at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, shopping centre visits, TV Week magazine covers,\u00a0Logie Awards, King of Pop, a\u00a0Young Talent Time\u00a0School and booming pop careers for its graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can walk down the street and people will recognise me, but they won\u2019t remember my name. But they\u2019ll sing \u2018Close your eyes and I\u2019ll kiss you\u2026.\u2019 It\u2019s very flattering,\u201d Young once told TV Tonight.<\/p>\n

Young, who created the show with business partner Kevin Lewis, drew inspiration from\u00a0The Mickey Mouse Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung Talent Time\u00a0was based on the feeling that I got from\u00a0The Mickey Mouse Club. It had similarities\u2026 an elder brother and a group of kids singing and dancing, just very simple entertaining stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I changed it to an hour, added the talent quest component and it became\u00a0Young Talent Time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sang\u00a0All My Loving\u00a0on the first show, sitting around a piano with no strings and backing and \u201cooohs\u201d. That developed later on. People used to tune in, just to see that because it was so it was so \u2018family\u2019 and so lovely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off with a 13 week contract and after 13 weeks we got a 4 year contract. We were perfect programming for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the years 34 young singers would learn their craft on the show, many becoming household names and some spawning lifelong careers: Tina Arena, Dannii Minogue, Karen Knowles, John Bowles, Joey Perrone, Sally Boyden, Beven Addinsall, Derek Redfern and more.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s judges variously including Evie Hayes & Frank Tupper (original judges), Ron Tudor, Ronnie Burns, Honour Blackman, Nancye Hayes, would also cast their eye over numerous other artists: John St. Peeters, John Foreman, Asher Keddie, Livinia Nixon, Silvie Paladino and \u2018associate\u00a0YTT\u2018 member, a young Denis Walter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung Talent Time stands alone. Nobody else has done it. Everybody loves the memory of it, and everybody loves the feeling of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that I regret is that I didn\u2019t write\u00a0All My Loving.\u00a0Paul McCartney keeps getting his royalties!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Dutch born Young began as a pop star in Perth before 1967 he hosted The Go!! Show in Melbourne following the resignation of Ian Turpie<\/p>\n

He had also hosted pop shows Club Seventeen and Young Summer Happening, a summer replacement for Fredd Bear\u2019s Breakfast-A-Go Go .<\/p>\n

Young was also a savvy businessman, co-founding Lewis-Young Productions with Kevin Lewis of Festival Records, before Television House which operated the Young Talent Time School across Australia, produced 1984 telemovie Matthew and Son with Paul Cronin, Darius Perkins and Nicole Kidman and afternoon music quiz Long Play hosted by Ronnie Burns & Jane Scali.<\/p>\n

Young was inducted into the TV Week Logie Hall of Fame in 1990 and the ARIA Hall of Fame for his musical career, including writing The Real Thing, Smiley and The Star. He also recorded Step Back and Cara-Lyn.<\/p>\n

Young Talent Time was later revived by 10 in 2012 hosted by Rob Mills.<\/p>\n

Denis Walter said,\u00a0 \u201cJohn was multi talented\u2026singer, songwriter, television host, record producer. He did it all so well and launched my career via Young Talent Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beven Addinsall posted, \u201cA heartbreaking day. It\u2019s the middle of the night here in Scotland, woken to heartbreaking news. RIP my dear friend. Thank you for being such a massive and positive influence on my life. You started my career at the age of 12, I\u2019m still doing what I love after all of these years. I have you to thank for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This post updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary TV host and producer Johnny Young, best known for Young Talent Time\u00a0and The Go Show!! has died.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-854543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}