Frank Edoho, a well-known media personality, has denied claims that he was fired as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (WWTBM). He explained that he left the show after its longtime sponsor pulled out.
Edoho said the show stopped airing when its sponsor ended financial support. Later, disagreements during talks about bringing the show back delayed his return.
He explained this during an episode of The KK Show that aired on Sunday.
Edoho remembered starting his career at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, where he worked for four years before switching to television.
“I was on radio. I worked for Radio Nigeria -that’s the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria – for four years,” he said.
“You know, once you can work on radio for four years but not get as much popularity or fame as you would if you worked on TV for one month.”
Edoho became well known as the host of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire (WWTBM), a position he held from 2004 to 2017. He explained that the show ended after its sponsor, who had supported it for about ten years, was hit with a regulatory penalty from the Federal Government.
“So Who Wants to Be a Millionaire sort of came to an end when our sponsor withdrew,” he said.
“I don’t know if I can mention brand names here, but our sponsor stayed with us for a decade sponsoring the show.”
He said the penalty created a financial burden that made it hard for the company to keep supporting the show.
“I think the Federal Government fined them based on some industry… I think it was just like a punitive measure for one corporate thing that happened,” Edoho said.
“I can’t go into details, but that affected the sponsorship of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. So they said, ‘Hey guys, we can’t do this anymore based on the fact that we have to pay an incredible sum of money back to the Federal Government.’”
Edoho said he started talks about getting a stake in the show after hearing that new sponsors wanted to bring it back.
He said his years as host had convinced him that he had become an important part of the programme and deserved a larger role.
“I went into negotiation because we heard that other sponsors were interested, and I wanted to be an executive producer,” he said.
“I wanted to have a stake in it because I feel that I built myself up to the extent that I assumed I was an asset to the show.”
However, the negotiations broke down over disagreements.
Edoho said his absence from the relaunched programme led a newspaper to conclude that he had been dropped.
“We were having differences in negotiation. I think it was one newspaper that went and said that I was dropped based on the fact that, with the relaunch of the show under the new sponsor, I wasn’t anywhere to be found,” he said.
“And of course, they would draw conclusions based on that.”
The media personality maintained that the report was inaccurate.
“So they announced that I was dropped from the show, which was false then,” he said.
“I gave my statement. I said, ‘Okay, you know what? This is it.’ I felt I was thrown under the bus after all the years I put in.”
Edoho left the programme in September 2017, the same year it went on a temporary break after its sponsor, MTN Nigeria, withdrew.
The show remained off the air for about five years before returning in 2022 with new sponsors and an increased cash prize.
Edoho also returned as host when the programme resumed.