Jo Beth Taylor

Jo Beth Taylor (born Joanne Guilfoyle on 29 May, 1972) is an Australian television personality most well known for presenting on the Nine Network programs "Australia's Funniest Home Video Show" and "Hey Hey It's Saturday" in the mid to late 1990's before suffering from a nervous breakdown and suddenly dissapearing from television for a number of years.

Taylor began a pop career in the early 1990s, releasing the single "99 Reasons" in 1991. The song hit the Australian Top 40, peaking at #31. Her debut album was also titled "99 Reasons", but was not a chart success. "You Don't Own Me" was released as the 2nd single.

In 1993, her television career began when she hosted "Australia's Funniest Home Videos" until 1997. She then earned the role of co-host on "Hey Hey It's Saturday" following the departure of Ernie Carroll's Ozzie Ostrich (in a period in which the show also trialled Livinia Nixon and Penne Dennison as co-hosts).

1993 also saw the release of the song "A Prayer For Jane". The lyrics of the song were about a friend of Taylor's who committed suicide. The song failed to make the Australian Top 50 charts, peaking at #61.

During her time on "Hey Hey It's Saturday" she received criticism for wearing a see through top during the Logies. Pictures of her in the top were front page material for the magazines.

Her time as presenter on "Funniest Home Videos" came to an abrupt end when Taylor suffered a nervous breakdown. She literally finished the program and never returned, prompting "Getaway" presenter Catriona Rowntree to fill in. Livinia Nixon replaced Taylor as co-host of "Hey Hey It's Saturday" (currently weather presenter for "National Nine News" and co-host of gameshow "Temptation").

She appeared on "In Melbourne Tonight" in 1999, singing "I Want You Back".

Also in 1999, she joined the cast of the Australian stage production, "Happy Days: The Arena Mega Musical". She played Laura, a character created especially for the stage show, who was in cahoots with Jon Stevens' Frank (also an original character) to put the famous diner out of business. The music selected for the production was almost entirely from the sixties. Jo Beth's songs included "Stand By Me", "You Don't Own Me" and "Tell Him".

In 2000 she hosted "Starstruck", an Australian Saturday night talent quest show, in what was her final television role. Later that year she married tennis player Thomas Muster in Austria, with whom she had one child (Christian). She divorced Muster in 2005.

She made a television appearance in 2005 on "", a joint venture by the Seven, Nine, and Ten networks to raise money for the Boxing Day Tsunami.

In 2006 she moved to Queensland and joined Noosa's radio station Zinc 96.1 FM morning crew with Jamie Dunn and Agro.

As of mid-2007, Jo-Beth no longer appears on the Zinc FM website. There has been no official announcement regarding her departure.

She co-hosted an Australian version of "Dirty Jobs" on Channel 9 with Ben Dark. It aired from October 7 to late November 2007.

DISCOGRAPHY

Singles:
* 99 REASONS (1991) AUS#31
* YOU DON'T OWN ME (1991)
* A PRAYER FOR JANE (1993) AUS#61
* I LOVE MY DOG (1996) #95

Albums:
* 99 REASONS (1991)

External links

*imdb|id=0852597|name=Jo Beth Taylor

References

* [http://www.weekendernoosa.com.au/features_det.php?id=120 Noosa Weekender Feature]
* [http://www.heatfm.com.au/jo_beth_taylor_in_2006.html The Heat FM Announcement]