Not even a heart attack stops Todd Woodbridge from taking on new challenges

For tennis legend Todd Woodbridge, stepping on set as host of the new local version of quiz show Tipping Point triggered a familiar feeling – that of stepping on court.

“We have an audience in the show, that’s a big difference to the British show,” he says. “They start cheering and clapping, then bang, your adrenaline kicks in, and it’s like going on to a court.”

Former tennis champ Todd Woodbridge had added hosting Tipping Point Australia to his burgeoning TV portfolio.

Woodbridge came to fame as one half of supremely successful tennis pair the Woodies alongside Mark Woodforde in the 1990s, though his earliest appearance on TV was on Simon Townsend’s Wonder World as a tennis prodigy at only 12 years old.

Post-retirement from tennis, he has remained a familiar face on television as a sports commentator and presenting on Nine’s Victorian travel show Postcards.

He’s now about to show another side of himself on Tipping Point Australia, a spin-off of the popular British quiz show presented by Ben Shephard, which is set to fill the time slot previously occupied by Millionaire Hot Seat. Woodbridge is aware that game show host is an entirely new role for him, though one that he’s itching to conquer.

“In terms of my career, I’ve always kept it open. I never wanted to pigeonhole myself,” says Woodbridge. “[Game show hosting] is a massive tangent. I didn’t expect to be doing it, which is really why I’m loving it.”

When he got a call out of the blue asking him to screen test for the role, he asked a producer at Postcards what she thought they were looking for. “She went, ‘they’re just looking for you to be you’. And that made it easy.”

Tipping Point Australia follows the same format as its British counterpart with contestants quite literally pushing their luck as they answer trivia questions to win counters with which they can play an enormous arcade-style coin pusher machine for cash and prizes.

It’s this unpredictable element of luck that Woodbridge thinks has been the secret to the show’s appeal. “What’s the machine going to do? That’s the part that draws them in. It’s this mesmerising anticipation of will luck fall my way or not?”

The past few years have been filled with challenges for Woodbridge, with the 52-year-old suffering a heart attack in late 2022. “I had started to do some exercise one morning and I got a pain right in the middle of my chest,” he says.

“I tried to shake it out, but it expanded across my chest and I thought this is not right.” After rushing to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a mild heart attack possibly caused by a family history of issues with blood pressure and cholesterol.

While he has now recovered, Woodbridge used the crisis as a spur to be more proactive in maintaining his heart health and to warn others to do the same, even if they don’t fit into the risk categories.

“It was a shock, but the message I tried to get out there is that everybody looked at me and went, ‘Geez, how can that be happening to you?’ because I don’t carry weight, I don’t look too old yet.

“Since then, I’ve got the all clear. I’m able to do the workload I’m doing at the moment, which I would almost say timewise is the busiest I’ve ever been.”

Todd Woodbridge in hospital after his 2022 heart attack.

For Tipping Point Australia, Woodbridge had to travel to Bristol, as only one version of the Tipping Point machine existed in the world. After shooting 10 episodes on the British set, and seeing that Woodbridge could deliver as host, the local production was given the green light and an Australian machine was built, which Woodbridge describes as more modern.

The Australian show also boasts a more playful vibe. “The British version is conservative,” says Woodbridge. “We’ve relaxed it, we’ve put more of an Australian feel to it where we have encouraged our contestants to interact. So there is banter, they’re ribbing each other in a fun way.”

Tipping Point Australia begins on January 29, and screens weeknights at 5pm on Nine, which is the owner of this masthead.

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