Hallvard Flatland

To foreigners the moustachioed, dark haired Hallvard Flatland can best be described as a mix between Ted Turner and Alex Trebek. Hallvard Flatland grew up in the Norwegian county of Telemark. Started work as a teacher in the late 1970s before ending up a sports reporter in Norway's biggest (and at that time ONLY) TV-channel NRK. The channel was not happy with his work as a reporter and his contract was terminated. Not long after he, together with a small group of investors, started TVNorge (TVNorway), the first commercial TV-channel in Norway. With the game show Casino (1989), hosted by Flatland himself, the channel got off to a flying start. The show was the first of its kind in Norway, with the posibility of winning a car every week and as the show grew they even offered the weekly chance of winning a brand new house! Flatland showed himself as an extremely charismatic TV-host with a winning personality. In 1994 NRK, the channel who once fired him, hired him freelance to host a live evening talk show live from Lillehammer during the two weeks the town was host for Winter Olympic Games. The 1990s turned the former teacher into the most sought after TV-host in the country and somewhat of a media mogul. In the late 90s Flatland sold all his stock in TVNorge, leaving him a multi-millionaire. He has since worked on and off for NRK, TVNorge and TV2. In 2001 he was back in the headlines when TV2 released him from a 20,000,000 kroner contract refusing to pay the money, turning him head-to-head with the CEO of the network.