The National Lottery and RTÉ have said that the Saturday night gameshow Winning Streak will not be returning to our screens for the foreseeable future due to "ongoing restrictions related to Covid-19".
The popular RTÉ One series, which sees contestants taking home prizes from the National Lottery, will not be going ahead as it would be "too much of a risk to players, their families and the staff".
Lotto chiefs and the national broadcaster said they were "disappointed" to have to postpone the show - which last aired in early March - and said scratchcards will not be available for sale while it's off air.
A National Lottery spokesperson told the Irish Mirror: "Given the ongoing restrictions related to Covid-19, the Winning Streak TV gameshow will not be returning for the foreseeable future.
"Both National Lottery and RTÉ are disappointed to postpone the current series but, given the unprecedented challenges posed by Covid-19, producing the programme while managing social distancing in studio, we feel, provides too much risk to players, their families (who travel from all over the country to support the player) and the staff of RTÉ, National Lottery and KPMG, who are the independent observers for the game show."
Winning Streak halted production on March 7, days before former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced a series of restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Host Sinead Kennedy said at the time: "It feels strange to be at home watching telly instead of being in studio making telly this evening!
"But this is the situation I find myself in for the foreseeable future...just in case you haven’t heard, the remainder of the Winning Streak shows for this season have been postponed.
"Of course, I’ll miss meeting new contestants each week and giving away a ton of money but mostly I’ll miss the craic with Marty. I’ll just have to tune into him on Lyric FM in the mornings to get my fix like the rest of you."
