Wednesday, 24th August, 2005 was the airdate of my final night on Temptation, and it looked something a little like this…

https://www.facebook.com/Howtowingameshows/videos/971485956228494

I know I’ve written about this subject before; both the immediate aftermath of the night, and where I was at ten and fifteen years after it happened. But as the anniversary rolls around again, I’ve had cause to reflect on the more lasting differences that whole adventure has made to my life, and to the lives of my family.

I was 36 years old back then, and had been making my way as a freelance writer and actor for the previous 19 years. It was a precarious, all-or-nothing kind of existence, but it was the path that I had chosen; it was the thing that I had always wanted to do. I had been making some in-roads, and like anyone else stubbornly sticking to a career in this field, I was keenly aware of its ‘feast or famine’ vagaries. (Probably more ‘famine’ than ‘feast’ in my experience, on balance!)

I’ve written here before about the success of writers and performers on Sale of The Century, and I’ve interviewed some of them for this blog. They, like me, found that success on the show vastly changed their financial futures. I knew, all those years ago when I applied to go on the show, that barring any “enormous big break” or “smash hit” that led to more smash hits, there was never going to be any way I’d ever see that much money in one lump…

In the immediate aftermath of the show, some people did seem to change their perceptions of me; to some, I was now ‘Mr Quiz Show Guy’. “Come on, Mr Expert, you’ll know the answer to this question…” Comments like this were always good-natured (I think!), and I distinctly remember once being introduced someone via the comment: “This is Stephen Hall – he’s got a Very Big Brain”…

The win led to me getting some work on the light-hearted quiz show The Einstein Factor as part of their “Brains Trust” – which was great fun – and various other quiz show roles behind the scenes, such as verifying questions.

But perhaps the biggest and most lasting difference the win made made was in creating a foundation for our family. As it happened, the win came at a pivotal moment in my life…

I had met and fallen in love with Judi a few months before going on Temptation, and moved to Sydney to be with her. (Host Ed Phillips’ regular references to me as “the boy from Bondi” didn’t take into account that I’d only been living there for a matter of weeks!)

Jude and I got married in March 2006 and bought our house not too long after that. Our wonderful daughter Lily was born in July 2006 and it was such a great feeling knowing that she’d always have a roof over her head, in a house with a mortgage we could manage. I didn’t make any especially flashy or extravagant purchases after The Big Win (apart from our wedding, which we really splurged on). As I’ve mentioned before, I was also able to financially help out my mum and sister a little bit, which was a wonderful feeling.

We still live in that house that we bought 20 years ago, and I still have the car that I bought with some of my winnings 20 years ago. (I didn’t keep the top-of-the-line Volvo I won; it was a bit too rich for my tastes, so I sold it back to the dealer and bought a more modest vehicle instead.) In fact, that car I bought is the car which I am now teaching Lily to drive in! So I guess Temptation really does just keep on giving…

As a sidebar, I have been able to continue in this freelance writing and performing career for these past 20 years and plan to continue doing so for as long as I can. I probably would have kept on at that anyway, without the win… but the financial bedrock it gave me is something that I’m very, very grateful for.

And something that I have been grateful for every day for the past 20 years.

Thank you, Temptation!

P.S. As part of my reflections, I also thought I’d speak to a couple of other previous Temptation / Sale big winners about the long-term effects of their wins too. So stay tuned for those interviews, which will be coming soon!