Julia Zemiro to host ABC’s new true-crime panel show Crime Night!
The ABC is thrilled to announce that Julia Zemiro will host Crime Night! a comedy true-crime panel show where real-life cases are examined through the lens of criminology and comedy.
Produced by Dreamchaser and Maverick Entertainment, the six-part series will see Julia, alongside a panel of criminologists and comedians dissect famous cases. They will discover the science behind the crimes and use that same science to examine our own lives with hilarious consequences.
Host Julia Zemiro says: “Excellent criminologists and brainy comedians? Check! One very engaged host? (That’s me!) Yes Check!
“I am so excited to be back at the ABC steering a panel show about modern day criminology. This new team of writers and producers are a breath of fresh air to work with, as we delve into the science behind the crimes. The how, the what and the why. The curious, the serious and ultimately very human side of crime.”
Rachel Millar, ABC Head of Entertainment, said: “Australians can’t get enough of True Crime, and we’re excited to join forces with Dreamchaser and Maverick to bring this innovative and original format to ABC screens. For anyone who loves bingeing the latest true crime podcast, or playing detective in the group chat, this is the show for you. Led by the inimitable Julia Zemiro, this is a show that will make your spine tingle with intrigue, whilst making you laugh at the same time.”
Carl Fennessy and Monique Keller, Dreamchaser Executive Producers, said: “Crime Night! is the first commission under our Maverick Entertainment and Dreamchaser producing partnership. We’re thrilled to be launching this brand-new comedy true-crime panel show in partnership with the ABC. The combined talents of Executive Producers David Forster, Frank Bruzzese and Julia Zemiro are exceptional, working alongside a brilliant panel of criminologists and comedians to examine the fascinating real-life cases we’re all obsessed with in the funniest possible way.”
Where to start with this nightmare? Oh sorry, we mean “comedy true-crime panel show”? If you ever for even the briefest second doubted that all ABC panel shows – yes, even that one you like – are seen by the ABC as “pandering shit for our dimwit audience”, our condolences on your loss of innocence.
Also getting our condolences: anyone affected by a crime made fun of on this show. The only possible way this utterly confused format – comedians and true crime? What, they couldn’t get Daryl Somers to host a show on race relations? – can work is if the true crime cases being discussed are so cold Ned Kelly is one of the suspects. At which point, what’s the point?
Okay, it’s just a press release. We’re probably jumping the gun here. We all know the vaguely gossipy vibe they’re going to want to go for. We also know that at the ABC “comedian” pretty much means anyone wandering the corridors who doesn’t work for 4 Corners. It’s perfectly possible that this will not, in fact, be the worst idea for a television show in recent memory – just a lot of blather about forensics with some shit observations from radio hosts mixed in.
On the other hand, it’s aimed at people “playing detective in the group chat”, and those people are the worst. And there’s an exclamation mark in the title! Have we learned nothing from the failure of Cram!?
The Back Side of Television is, well, back. If you’ve been looking for a chance to laugh at the weird shit Australian television has served up over the last 70-odd years, then this third season is everything you could ask for and more. Best comedy show of the year? Hang on, we haven’t seen the second season of Mother & Son yet.
It’s the “and more” that’s important. When it comes to local TV, who wouldn’t love a smart, funny look at the lowlights of yesteryear? It does seem a bit weird that we haven’t had one of those nostalgia clip shows in a while. Presumably hiring someone to go through the archives costs money whereas reality TV pays for itself. Put another way, The Back Side of Television isn’t exactly a one man operation, but host Mitch McTaggart’s name does show up over and over in the credits.
No, what makes The Back Side of Television more than just a snarky nostalgia-fest – though c’mon, that 70’s science fiction episode of The Evil Touch with the sex robot sells itself – is the way McTaggart has actually put some thought into what he’s talking about. This, you may have gathered over the years, is not par for the course on Australian television.
So while this week’s two-part episode wasn’t exactly wall-to-wall laughs, it was extremely interesting. Okay, some parts were funny too, if often in a “that’s a bit fucked up” way. But as a look at how Australian television worked (and works) hand-in-glove with various police forces – in a very much “you scratch our back with technical help and we’ll scratch yours by helping gloss over your many, many failings” fashion – it exposed how this country’s media really works in a way you’re not going to get from Question Everything.
Look, we’re suckers for this kind of thing. Insider info about Australian television? Count us 100% in. Snarky digs at pretty much everything? You know we love that. Let Loose Live even got a mention in week one. We figured we were the only people left alive who remembered that 2005 shocker.
But McTaggart knows how to sell an insightful look at television to an audience that’s come for wacky clips from yesteryear. (and if the reports of an upcoming expose on Man O Man are correct, that’s what they’ll get). Yes, the depth of research on offer is impressive. Linking various real-life police scandals to TV episodes that tried to whitewash them couldn’t have been easy.* But McTaggart’s skill as a host, and his ability to keep things light until it’s time to drop the hammer, are what makes this great television.
And there’s still two more episodes to go!
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*the more cynical amongst us might suggest that an example of the Victorian Police shooting an unarmed person might not have been all that tricky to dig up
While watching Shaun Micallef on the current season of Dancing With The Stars, it was hard not to think: has it really come to this? Or that’s we would have thought if we’d actually been watching the show and not just a clip of Micallef on social media.
But why would we expect anything better of Australian comedy? The whole point now is clearly to make something that’s as disposable and forgettable as possible. And then edit that into tiny chunks so it doesn’t matter if your attention span is measured in seconds.
That doesn’t mean the end product isn’t funny. Working Dog have got this kind of thing down to a fine art. The Cheap Seats and Have You Been Paying Attention? are stone cold comedy classics week in week out. But if you missed an episode, you wouldn’t feel compelled to catch up when there’s a new one just around the corner. It’s hard to imagine even the show’s biggest fans watching an episode more than once.
Which is the whole point. The free-to-air networks want their comedy to be exactly like reality TV, or game shows, or sport, or news. That is, something that must be consumed immediately. If you don’t watch it live, what’s the point? Which explains why so much comedy now is basically competitions or game shows.
While these formats can often be funny, they’re also completely disposable. And not just for the folks at home. Being good on a panel show or a game show is like being good on radio. The best case scenario is that it gets you another job on radio. You go around for a few years doing the same thing, then you’re no longer an exciting new face. If you’re lucky the music stops when you’re a regular on a show that isn’t axed the following week.
People hate on sketch comedy and rightly so. But back when Australia made sketch comedy, if you made a sketch that was good enough, it could give you a career. People would talk about it, they’d rewatch it, you could bring the characters back and do it all over again. Which just doesn’t happen with even the funniest moments on a panel show.
Micallef has done almost everything you can do as a comedian in this country. The reason why he’s been able to do that is because first he did a bunch of sketches people loved. People still share online the sketches he made for Full Frontal and The Micallef P(r)ogram(me). That documentary he did on the evils of the demon drink, not so much.
Likewise with Working Dog. They made their name with The Late Show, Frontline, The Castle – if you want to go back further, there’s the D-Generation sketch shows. People might tell you they fondly remember The Panel. Good luck getting them to actually quote anything from it. Well, unless they remember the time Rob Sitch said he thought a car commercial looked great and Mick Molloy laughed at him.
It’s a bit simplistic to say that sketch comedy (or sitcoms or just character-based comedy) are the foundation of a television career. But it’s that kind of comedy – something with a bit of narrative, a bit of character – that makes fans out of people. Con the Fruiterer and Kylie Mole were mainstream figures; pretty much everyone on HYBPA? is funnier, but nobody’s making a board game about them.
On the flipside, the two shittiest TV comedians Australian television has produced in the 21st century are also the ones with the most devoted fanbases: Chris Lilley and Paul Fenech. They built a rusted on fanbase that enabled them to spend a decade churning out crap while actually funny people struggled. And they did it because they did character comedy. People might laugh at comedians, but they become fans of comedy characters.
But because the ABC are shit and the commercial networks gave away everything to streaming, we don’t do comedy characters any more. Decades of television built around comedy characters – pretty much every comedy-related ratings hit – and the industry just decided “nah, we’re not doing that any more”.
At least for a few minutes on Dancing With The Stars we get to see the comedy antics of that much-loved character “Shaun Micallef”. Sure, he’s no Milo Kerrigan. But who is?
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Beeis back, with more comedians spelling words across ten 45-minute-long episodes. And give or take a few rounds where there’s an added element, like hanging out miniature laundry or a “Spot the difference” contest, that is pretty much it. It’s round after round of comedians spelling words and sometimes being funny.
Is this better than round after round of comedians doing stupid tasks and sometimes being funny? Or some advertising executives talking about advertising in an occasionally funny way? Yes. And also, no. Because despite having comedian contestants and funny-sounding rounds, you don’t get points for being funny on Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee. You get points for spelling words correctly. And that feels like a show which is wasting its participants’ talents.
Hannah Gadsby was a surprising guest to appear in two episodes of this show. They’re world famous, they’ve had multiple successful Netflix specials… what were they doing here? Gadsby presumably started to wonder that themself after winning the first episode due to a stunning performance in the final, fast-pacedround. And they looked set to do it all again in episode two. So, facing a choice of going home or coming back for more, Gadsby let Julia Zemiro win. We have no idea whether Gadsby opted out because they saw how limiting the show is, in terms of being a vehicle to be truly funny. But we wouldn’t blame them if they did.
Because in Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee, unless you totally suck at spelling the words you have to spell, or you can improvise a funny quip to lob at Montgomery or his sidekick Aaron Chen, there’s not a lot of scope to get laughs. And yes, the show uses every trick in the book to make things funny, but you need something else going on to sustain a 45-minute-long show.
Aaron Chen’s surreal pissfarting around is fun, but wouldn’t it be better in a show which was a proper vehicle for that kind of thing? Yeah, yeah, we know the ABC has no money and is forced to fill up airtime with cheap shows like this, but we still get to dream about a world where anyone good in Australian comedy gets a chance to make their own sitcom, or sketch show, or something else entirely.
And so, even though Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee is clearly one of the better shows of this type, we ultimately find it a disappointment. Because every other comedy show on TV right now is a show of this type. And every comedian, finding it’s not possible to make real comedy anymore, ends up on them.
The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers is back for a third season and yeah, what’s going on with the title? Maybe it’d make sense if it was The Inspired Unemployed (Im)practical Jokers. But it’s not. And the head scratching doesn’t stop there.
Prank shows largely belong to an earlier, more mean-spirited time on our screens. You don’t see them much now because the vibe is off. When it comes to reality, people want friendly, warm-hearted shows. Well, that or shows where idiots are in on the joke. Making fun of regular folk trying to live their lives? It’s just not as funny as it used to be. Which was never all that funny in the first place.
The Inspired Unemployed figured out a way around this. Well, Hamish & Andy figured out a way around it two decades ago, but they’re too busy hosting game shows these days. The trick is, you play the pranks on each other – and you do them in public so there’s a bit of embarrassment mixed in.
So most of the pranks on this show involve them acting like dickheads in front of bemused or puzzled people. Whomever’s out front has to do what his mates out back tell him to, so there’s a “we’re all in this together, and we’re throwing you under the bus” feel to things. It wouldn’t hurt if the team members weren’t quite so interchangeable, but as a bunch of bonza knockabout larrkin blokes they could be worse.
But after two full seasons they’re clearly starting to run out of ideas. The first episode back for season three had three segments, one of which – the dance instructor one – was basically the same thing they’ve already done multiple times before. People sign up for a class (yoga, dance, whatever), only to find their instructor is a dickhead. It’s fine.
The final segment in each episode is usually a bit iffy. Designed to be a punishment (someone always “loses” the episode), it involves doing something stupid in front of a lot of people. Are these people impressed at having their time wasted? You tell us. Last time we checked, “embarrassment” was not a pseudonym for “funny”, so these segments often just feel self-indulgent.
Anyway, this one worked okay. The embarrassing thing was so over-the-top bad it was more like something an evil wrestler would do. The whole thing was closer to a comedy skit, even before the bad guy got his surprise comeuppance. More of this kind of overly complicated, twists-and-turns thing, thanks.
What grabbed our attention though was the first segment. Each member had to individually go into a busy restaurant, sit down uninvited at a table with other people, and stay there until they were directly told to leave. Which they almost all were, because this was creepy as hell.
There was a tiny germ of a funny idea there. Sitting down at a dining table uninvited? That’s so out there you’ll get a laugh. And then it just becomes an awkward, unfunny slog. If you’re doing a prank and one of the victims calls security to get rid of you? You don’t have a funny prank.
Maybe they put it right up front to burn it off. Maybe they’re going to try an be a bit more “edgy” this year. But for a group that (until now) has seemed pretty focused on being pretty bland and likable, harassing people who’re trying to eat dinner with friends and family felt a bit of a stretch in the wrong direction.
But what do we know? The world currently seems full of shitposters and pranksters looking to push things too far. Maybe the future of comedy is just making other people suffer. It’s worked for Tom Gleeson!
So that was it for another season of Taskmaster. Don’t worry though, it’ll be back in a few months*, because nothing says event television like running a format into the ground.
Then again, isn’t pretty much all television “event television” these days? Shows like The Cheap Seats and Have You Been Paying Attention? increasingly feel like abnormalities. Who wants consistency when you can roll the dice and maybe get some classic television**?
Which is a long way of saying that this season of Taskmaster probably would have been the one you’d tell people to watch if there hadn’t been so bloody much of it over the last few years. It wasn’t a classic or anything, but it was a rare example of a show where Dave Hughes didn’t make us want to die.
Look, all the format’s flaws were still there. Five people doing a task where you’re lucky to get one really funny result means a lot of television that isn’t funny. Worse, often it’s having to sit through the unfunny responses that makes the final one laughable, so you’re locked in. It’s television that almost never feels like it deserves your full attention, but if you look away it instantly becomes a waste of time. Worst of both worlds, baby!
And this season was a bit of a slow burn on top of that. After a few weeks, sure: Tommy Little started serving up comedy gold. Dave Hughes? Turns out if you’re stuck watching him for weeks on end eventually his demented shoutings suck you in. But it’s still a pretty poor return on a pretty big investment.
All of which is baked into the format. This season, it often all worked out. The tasks were often both smart and silly, the results amusing yet also impressive. Imagine if someone created a cryptic crossword where the answers were funny. It’d be a pain in the arse to solve, and completely not worth it if you were just after a laugh. But if you liked lightweight puzzle-solving and treated the comedy as something of a bonus? Well, have we got a television show for you.
Not us, let’s be clear: you. We can admire the results while still feeling the process was largely a waste of time. Taskmaster is a lot of work for not much of a reward if you’re looking for laughs. While this season worked better than most, the limitations of the format are always going to mean it’s not a favourite of ours.
After all, if a television series can make Dave Hughes look good, it must be doing something wrong.
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*Next season’s cast: Celia Pacquola, Brett Blake, Rove McManus, Joel Creasey and Anisa Nandaula. It could be worse
It’s perhaps unfortunate that The Weekly with Charlie Pickering airs two days after Have You Been Paying Attention? and a day after The Cheap Seats. They all often use the same clips, and if you happen to watch all three shows, it’s clear that The Weekly… doesn’t have the funniest jokes about those clips. But moving The Weekly… to, say, Sunday nights, wouldn’t make it a funnier show, even if it would give them first crack at last week’s clips. The Weekly… as we’ve argued for more than a decade now (God, help us!), is a fundamentally flawed show.
Part of the reason is that its scripts are either bad or un-honed – does anyone seriously believe they’re doing multiple drafts of those lame gags and sketches? But what really makes The Weekly… a big fat dud is that it keeps trying to do satire (or at least to give the impression that it’s trying to do satire) without having the guts or ability to do it properly.
Real satirists take a current political story and critique it in a funny, incisive way. The Weekly… on the other hand looks at politics in a cute* way, through the prism of, say, Anthony Albanese’s dog Toto. (* That’s “cute” as in “superficial”, by the way. Not cute as in “appealing”, like Toto is.)
There was plenty to say about Labor and Albanese during the recent election campaign which had nothing to do with Toto – does anyone seriously believe Labor are going to take real action to help younger voters, say – but The Weekly… didn’t go there. Even doing something about the obviously freaky Peter Dutton and his obviously mad policies seemed beyond them. You could argue that the ABC’s editorial policies might have muzzled the show during the election period, except… The Weekly with Charlie Pickering is toothless all the time. Anyone looking for funny, harder takes on Australian politics needs to scour YouTube for clips of Mad As Hell, a show which ended almost three years ago.
When The Weekly… began, there was an audience for a show that treated politics as little more than posturing by a collection of small figures barely worth a long look at. Just look at Utopia, a series of similar vintage built around the idea that government does little more than waste money on studies into schemes designed to rort the system. Does anyone really think politics in 2025 are the same as they were a decade ago?
If nothing else, the election result has underlined the fact that most Australians have put at least some thought into the direction they’d like this country to take. Competing visions were on offer: one was soundly rejected. And yet The Weekly… faffs about each week, acting like politics is some interchangeable superficial fluff nobody really cares about or pays attention to. It’s not just bad at its job; it doesn’t even know what its job is.
Where The Weekly… does get decent laughs, sometimes, are in its “authored” segments. Rhys Nicholson is usually the highlight of the show, although that’s as much for the way they tear into Pickering’s bland everyman persona as anything else. Nicholson feels like they represent those people who put some thought into the direction they’d like this country to take. Zoe Coombes Marr, who made several good pieces on how people with ADHD experience the world, feels like that, too. But then there’s Margaret Pomeranz…
Does anyone need Margaret Pomeranz’s views on any subject in 2025? Not really, especially as The Cheap Seats, yet again, covers what she’s covering, but better. Mel, Tim and Mel not only have a great eye for funny clips from reality TV, but they also have great comic timing when they talk about them. Pomeranz, on the other hand, gives the air of someone doing it for the money, rambling through her autocue of scripted “hot takes” with all the sincerity of someone reading an advertorial for pest control on commercial radio. Although to be fair to Pomeranz, she likened Tom Gleeson to a ball bag last week, so she’s not all bad.
As always with The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, 2025 was a disappointing year. When The Weekly… started in the mid-2010s, you could at least rely on the fact that the show’s crapness didn’t matter so much because you could get good topical laughs elsewhere, from the likes of Shaun Micallef, Clarke & Dawe, Sammy J or the Tonightly team. But now, ABC topical comedy is just The Weekly with Charlie Pickering. Or, even just Charlie Pickering, given he’s recently taken over end-of-the-week topical quiz Thank God It’s Friday on ABC Radio (more on that soon!). It seems the national broadcaster’s desire to platform middle-of-the-road topical humour, and only middle-of-the-road topical humour, has no bounds. This blog is far from in the “Defund the ABC” camp, but given the state of ABC comedy at the moment, some sort of big shake-up is vital and necessary, or what’s the point of even trying to make topical comedy?
It’s a good thing Have You Been Paying Attention? is a topical news quiz, because otherwise we might as well be watching episodes from 2019. When a show’s this good that’s not a bad thing. Well, unless you’d like to see something new on Australian television before it all goes belly up.
As the show that basically created the current revival of comedy on 10 – and is possibly responsible for The 100, we’d have to watch that one to be sure – HYBPA? has given us a lot to be thankful for. And also The Inspired Unemployed.
It made Australian comedy viable on commercial television simply by being really good. If only Skithouse or The Wedge or Comedy Inc or Let Loose Live or Cram! or [hurry it up – ed] had done the same.
So yeah, no complaints. It’s the same show every week, but honestly, at this stage any changes are going to be a step backwards. It seems like ages (note: probably isn’t ages) since any of the new faces they trialed made it onto the regular roster. Maybe this year will be the one when a bunch of new faces break out? It’s not like Marty Sheargold’s going to be back for a while.
Which might prove to be a bit of a problem. The usual line up for an episode is Sam Pang, Ed Kavalee, two female comedians, and someone usually not local or not young. Not local? Not a problem with New Zealand just around the corner, though the now USA-based Aaron Chen might not fly back too often.
As for oldies, Mick Molloy is too busy during the AFL season, Glenn Robbins is a rarity, Peter Helliar is still running at maybe 20% funny on a good day and there’s only so many weeks you can have Tony Martin on. At least Dave Hughes is too busy doing (checks notes) every single other comedy show on Australian television.
The trouble with the HYBPA? format is that a lot of funny people age out of it. If you’re young and hungry, you’re hitting that buzzer hard. If you’ve already proved yourself, and you’re not someone used to bantering on commercial radio five days a week, where’s the appeal? You’ll just be sitting there while everyone else powers ahead.
Which means there’s a reasonable contingent of still-funny people who don’t fit the format, and thus have vanished from our screens. HYBPA? is a funny show that has shaped Australian television comedy for a decade. It just isn’t a showcase for anyone who’s comedic strengths don’t lie in rapid-fire banter. Would Judith Lucy make for a great contestant? Doesn’t seem like we’ll ever find out.
As we head into winter and quiz shows once again become the only game in town for comedy on television, we’re reminded once again that Australia’s definition of “comedy” on our screens is increasingly narrow. If you can’t make a go of it hitting a buzzer, what good are ya?
For all we know, the next John Clarke is out there impressing their mates down the pub, secure in the knowledge that there is absolutely no place for them on our television screens. But at least there’s a new season of The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers starting next month.
Few Australian tonight shows of recent decades have made it through their entire run. Even fewer have been renewed just a few episodes in. That alone makes Sam Pang Tonight pretty special.
But you don’t stay on air unless there’s a sizeable audience who likes what you’re doing, and in news that may come as a surprise to the people on social media who think great tonight shows are big budget affairs, dripping with Hollywood stars, Sam Pang Tonight seems to have found a sizeable audience without them.
Maybe it’s because Australians are sick of the 95% of locally made comedies that are either dramedies, panel shows or pseudo quizzes? Or maybe we’re just suckers for daggy gags and Christmas tree-related slapstick? Either way, it worked. And what’s kind of interesting is that the show didn’t change a lot throughout its run.
Sure, the length of the main guest interview got shorter each episode (a good thing) but otherwise Sam Pang Tonight had a plan and a set of segments right from the start, which it largely stuck to. And which we grew to like. Although they’ve probably wrung all they can out of that Christmas tree.
What did change the show each week, mostly for the better, was the guest announcer, who brought a different energy to each episode. Whether it was Tom Cashman’s dorky asides, Becky Lucas never shutting up, or some well-timed barbs from Kitty Flanagan, it was either really funny or we could just enjoy the panicked look in Sam Pang’s eyes as he realised he couldn’t predict what was coming.
And by the way, unpredictable comedy is also pretty rare these days. If you tune into Gruen or The Weekly, it’s heavily edited and you kinda know what’ll happen. But why Sam Pang Tonight feels exciting to watch is that it’s shot as live and feels like it could go off the rails any second.
Sure, Sam Pang Tonight could make improvements. “Yesterday’s News Tonight” wasn’t the greatest segment ever and could really do with some better clip research and some snappier Cheap Seats-esque lines in between. And a higher budget would enable the team to do a few other types of things, although if they can get laughs out of whether that’s a spoon or a fork plunged into a lasagne, maybe they don’t need more money?
Either way, we’ll be tuning in later this year to see what else the team can come up with. One thing we know for sure is, we won’t be able to predict it!
Meet Your Team Captains. Dave Hughes, Tommy Little And Anisa Nandaula Are Ready For Generational Mayhem.
Whether you were raised on VHS tapes or TikTok trends, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen is back, bringing a wildly entertaining clash of cultures, callbacks, and comebacks, and it’s taking family fun to a whole new level!
Joining Anne Edmonds as host of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen, are the show’s captains who will bring their own unique flair to each generation.
Gen X, the “slacker” generation too busy rolling their eyes to get involved in the drama, will be led by the sharp-witted, irreverent Dave Hughes.
Gen Y, masters of avocado toast and skinny black jeans, will be represented by the hilariously charming Tommy Little.
Finally, Gen Z, the most informed yet easily distracted generation, who are ready to document everything on TikTok, will be Captained by the vibrant and fearless Anisa Nandaula.
Expect nostalgic throwbacks, modern mayhem, and challenges that’ll have the whole family shouting answers at the screen. It’s smart, silly, and guaranteed to spark some excellent intergenerational debates!
Who knew we’d long for the days when Hughsie had his own show? At least then he was confined to one location. Now he’s turning up on every single comedy show stinking up the place. And just in time to confirm our gripe, we’ve been handed another press release!
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee returns for more outlandish fun in June
Thrills! Suspense! Sesquipedalian! These are just some of the words that could be spelled correctly or absolutely fumbled when Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee returns for season two on Wednesday 4 June at 8.35pm on ABC TV, with all episodes available to stream on ABC iview.
Host Guy Montgomery and his loyal assistant, Aaron Chen, return to test whether Australia’s best and brightest comedians are actually all that bright when it comes to spelling. Across the extended 10-episode season, get ready for more hilarious misspellings, witty banter, and unforgettable moments as four comedians take to the podiums every week.
Vying for the most prestigious prize on TV – a one-way ticket to defend their title on the next episode – is an all-star lineup including Hannah Gadsby, Hamish Blake, Julia Morris, Rove McManus, Denise Scott, Becky Lucas, Kirsty Webeck, Josh Thomas, Dave Hughes, Dilruk Jayasinha, Susie Youssef, Lizzy Hoo and more.
Each episode features five high stakes spelling rounds, each more outlandish and frustrating than the last. Brand new spelling rounds this season include “The Love Spell” where comedians must date potential matches in the hopes of gaining a ‘partner’ to help them spell. In “Speance”, a spelling-séance, the comedians connect with a spirit to help them spell out their next words. And in “Show and Spell” the comedians have been asked for the first time to bring in something from home that they can spell, but all is not as it seems.
No big surprises there, aside from Hannah Gadsby dipping her toe back into the local comedy scene. Hard to believe that only a few years ago she’d have been a regular on this kind of show (if not hosting her own).
Otherwise, Hughsie’s back! Seems he’s legally required to be part of every single Australian comedy program not made by Working Dog. Good news is, about 70% of Hughsie’s act is that he’s clueless and out-of-touch, making him the perfect quiz show contestant in opposite land. Which is handy because that’s also the place where he’s considered funny.
The fact that Australian television comedy is now almost entirely quiz shows is a big part of why Australian television comedy constantly feels like it’s got one foot in the grave. You can make jokes when you appear on a quiz show, but you can’t build a career on those jokes.
Even if you’re extremely funny and able to craft a distinctive comedy persona that comes across in the tiny window a game show gives you – ie, Aaron Chen – it’s not enough. You’re not going to get your own sitcom or comedy series. The best you can hope for is a gig hosting another game show.
Game shows have a place in the comedy ecosystem. Some of the funniest Australian shows this century have technically been game shows. Though usually the good ones push the format so far the “game” part is largely buried. But when the only kind of show that makes it to air is the same kind of show, that ain’t good.
Australian television is a slow moving boat. But there are trends, and formats do go out of style. When Gruen became a hit on the ABC, they gave the go-ahead to every “comedy” panel show format they could. And then when every last one was trash, they gave up on the format.
Hard to believe in the era of Hard Quiz, but there was a decade or so where the ABC turned their backs on quiz shows featuring ordinary people. Remember sitcoms? Local drama? The commercial networks don’t.
Australian television currently has all their laugh-producing eggs in one overcrowded basket. Fingers crossed bird flu doesn’t spread to comedy.
