Why former game show host Glenn Ridge left TV career behind for cattle farm

Exclusive: Former host of Sale of the Century Glenn Ridge decided to leave the lights and camera’s behind for the quiet life of a cattle farmer in country Victoria following the shows end in 2001.

Sale of the Century was one of Australia’s most popular game shows for more than 20 years, running between 1980 and 2001. It was fronted by both Tony Barber and Ridge, with Ridge seeing the show through to its final episode.

When it was all over, Ridge decided to pursue his dream of owning a cattle farm.

“I always wanted to [open a cattle farm],” Ridge told to nine.com.au.

“My interest [now] is farming, we raise cattle... I guess you’d say I’m a struggling farmer in Australia’s agricultural business.”

The television veteran explained that he owns “a couple hundred” Australian Angus cows before opening up about the struggles of farming.

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“I don’t find Clarkson’s Farm at all funny, because I’ve made all the same f--k up’s that he did,” he confessed with a laugh.

“What Jeremy’s done for the agricultural business, all the way around the world is fantastic. He’s shining a light on a lot of people who are doing pretty tough in the country.

“We’re the same as most of them, you have your challenges, but I love it.”

Ridge has been farming for 25 years now, and will occasionally pop back onto screens for passion projects.

“We still do have a bit of involvement in television through my production company, which we still run, but not to the same degree as we used too.”

Ironically, he’s been a farmer longer than he ever worked in television, but he confessed that even all these years later, people still recognise his voice.

“People will recall my voice, because that hasn’t changed a lot, so people will say ‘where do I know you from?’”

Sale of the Century aired 4,610 episodes over 22 seasons. Ridge was host for 10 years, taking over from Barber’s 11-year stint in 1991 before it was ultimately cancelled in 2001.

Ridge explained that he “always knew” the shows ending was inevitable.

“The industry is such that you’re only as good as your ratings are... you always know that,” Ridge said.

“The show had been going on ups and downs, the end was sooner rather than later.“

He recalled being called into a meeting by the Nine Network management, who revealed to him and the team that the show would not be back for another season.

“I made sure that I thanked a lot of people for the opportunity they gave me and I moved on…there were lots of people in our industry who seem to think they deserved something as far as fronting the TV show.”

Even years later, it’s clear Ridge is still that positive and humble guy Aussies loved seeing on their screens.

“[But] I was only one person of about 40 people who were working there, so it wasn’t poor old me,” he said.

“You dust yourself down and you move on. It’s never the end of the world, a job’s only a job...as long as you’ve still got your family and your friends around you, you can get through anything.”

Ridge added he still sees and speaks to his “lovely” co-hosts, Nicky Buckley and Jo Silvagni née Bailey, but confessed he hadn’t seen Karina Brown “in a while.”

“Jo and Nicky I catch up with every now and then. We don’t live in each other’s pockets, but we love each other’s company.”

“I thought I was lucky with those ladies, they were very grounded, there was no preciousness, there were no egos, we had a job to do and we had a good time doing it.”

The show reached an audience of 1.5 million viewers across the country every night at the height of its success.

Ridge said getting those kind of numbers today is much harder.

“There’s a lot there’s more a competition these days,” he said. “It takes something very special to get all those eyeballs, nowadays, although nowadays, the eyeballs are international rather than just local.”

Ridge reminisced on his years in the industry as part of Nine’s 70 years of Television special.