Daryl Somers wants Hey Hey back on Saturdays

Hey Hey, it's what day?

When it returns later in the year, Hey Hey's host hopes it has a 'new' night.

After Hey Hey it's Saturday finishes its first block of episodes this week, host Daryl Somers says he will be pushing for the show to move to its traditional Saturday home when it returns later this year.

The show had always intended to have two blocks of episodes this year. It will return in October for seven more episodes. Unlike last year's huge Reunion ratings, this year it has been a challenge competing against big shows including MasterChef Australia and The Pacific.

"When we did the Reunion show on the Wednesday, they rated so well that Nine obviously thought 'Well Wednesday's the day'," says Somers.

"But so many people are saying it's a Saturday show, and it was always Saturday by design. It was Saturday morning originally then it moved to Saturday night in '84 from 9:30 - midnight, which was a quantum leap. Halfway through 1985 we went back to 6:30 at night and stayed there for 14 years."

Against TEN's reality show Hey Hey has taken some major casualties, with many critics saying the show has failed to work. Somers points out that MasterChef Australia has steam-rolled everything in its path, not just his own show. He says it also appealed to many traditional Hey Hey viewers.

"The MasterChef audience is very Hey Hey in its make-up. I would think we'd get a big slice of that audience once MasterChef finishes but we won't know now.

"It's a broad audience and a family audience who would have come over to us."

The show hopes to go out with a bang with Kylie Minogue performing two songs as well as being a judge on Red Faces. Minogue famously sang on the show in the 1980's when she was accused of miming all her songs.

"When she was copping a lot of criticism we had her in the studio performing a ballad live with the band, and she sang it really well, so it sort of stopped a lot of critics in their tracks," says Somers.

Minogue will perform two live songs from her new Aphrodite album, accompanied by 25 dancers.

Somers also hopes to get Jackie MacDonald back in the studio later in the year, who only appeared in live crosses due to illness and her commitment to family and animals.

"It's dicey as she can't ring someone up and say 'Can you look after my horses?' She's so hands-on with it. So we did a cross," he says.

"Ultimately, I thought I would rather wait until a time when she can come down and be live in the studio. So that will probably happen sometime in October after the Commonwealth Games.

"But I'm happy to have a break for the sake of all of us, because it's been very full on."

Hey Hey it's Saturday airs 7:30pm Wednesday on Nine.