He’s done letting others dictate his choices.

Rodger Corser wants you to know it’s never too late to achieve your dreams. Despite being one of our most popular and acclaimed actors, one thing has always eluded the handsome star: fronting a blockbuster game show.

Now, at the age of 52, the father of four is finally getting to tick it off his career bucket list, as the host of Channel Nine’s new program The Floor.

Sitting down for a catch-up with New Idea, Rodger confesses it’s taken him this long to host a game show of this calibre, as he always feared the negative knock-on effect it could have with his burgeoning acting career.
Rodger is the host with the most on The Floor. (Credit: Channel Nine)
“Presenting and hosting a show like The Floor … I would have been almost afraid to do five, 10 years ago. I would have been like, ‘That’s not what I do,’” he candidly admits.

When the Doctor Doctor star first started working, the industry still drew a clear line between actors who did television, movies, and theatre, and those who presented and did commercials. The perception was, Rodger explains, that those who presented “couldn’t be taken seriously as an actor”. Looking back, he concedes that he “should have cared less”.

“Hindsight is 20/20,” he shares.

“You go, ‘Oh well, that didn’t really matter, did it?’ [But] at the time, it is really important, and you said no to the opportunity because you thought you might be seen in a certain way. I would have done something like [The Floor] a hell of a lot sooner.”

With the actor/presenter divide no longer relevant – and eager to make up for lost time – Rodger didn’t hesitate to say ‘yes’ when the offer to do The Floor came through.

While Rodger previously hosted Network 10’s The Traitors, it was on a much smaller scale. Filming for The Floor took place across one week in Amsterdam in a studio that Rodger says was the “size of an American football field”.
He’s best known for acting in series like Doctor Doctor (above) and McLeod’s Daughters. (Credit: Channel Nine)
An international entity, The Floor pits 81 contestants against each other in what they call the “ultimate trivia showdown”.

Each player is assigned a tile on the floor, labelled with their subject of choice. The aim of the game is to rule the floor by winning duels against the other contestants, winning their tiles to score the life-changing cash prize of $200,000.

As the host of the show, Rodger doesn’t get to partake in the duels. But if he were a contestant, his topic of choice would be in the “sporting” category, he says.

“Like an AFL kind of subject – or I’d probably 
go for grand finalists or something like that,” he tells us.

Rodger believes that, in order to succeed at The Floor, “good general knowledge is key”.
Rodger had put this dream on the back burner. (Credit: Channel Nine)
In terms of what he’d be scared to face in a duel, Rodger says he isn’t “great with geography”. The thought of being asked about primary school maths also terrifies him!

While Rodger is finally fulfilling his game-show hosting wish, there are still plenty of things he wants to achieve, like stepping behind the camera.

“I don’t know if I’m still going to win an Oscar … I’d have to get into a film first. I mean, that’d all be nice, but I think what’s more realistic and what I’m still hopeful of is to get a project out that I’ve written, or at least co-created,” he says.

What time is The Floor on?

The Floor Australia airs at 7:30pm on Monday and Tuesday on Channel 9 and 9Now.