Thursday, July 23, 2015 — ABC TV is pleased to announce the highly-anticipated third season of Josh Thomas’ comedy drama Please Like Me will premiere on ABC on Thursday, October 15 at 9.30 p.m. The third season also marks the show’s move from ABC2 to ABC’s main channel.

Inspired by the stand-up comedy and real life experiences of Thomas – the series creator, writer and star – Please Like Me explores the world of a man who’s in no hurry to grow up.

This season Thomas extends his talents by taking a seat in the director’s chair for an episode. Original director Matthew Saville also returns. The new 10-part series will give viewers another glimpse into Josh’s darkly funny world.

Joining the cast is award-winning actress, Emily Barclay as Ella. Original cast members reprising their roles alongside her and Josh Thomas are Thomas Ward (Tom), Caitlin Stasey (Claire), Hannah Gadsby (Hannah), Keegan Joyce (Arnold), Debra Lawrance in her AACTA award-winning role of Mum, David Roberts (Dad), Renee Lim (Mae) and, arguably the show’s biggest star, Josh’s dog, John.

When asked what viewers can expect to see that’s different this time around, Josh Thomas said, “I lost too much weight in my face this year and now I have my dad’s face. Otherwise Season 3 is our best yet”.

Since its debut on ABC2 in 2013, Please Like Me has been praised by critics around the world. It was named one of the year’s best shows by prestigious publications including The New Yorker, TIME and The Los Angeles Times and has been named in the top five TV shows of the year by America’s Entertainment Weekly for two years in a row. It has earned a swag of awards and nominations here and overseas including nominations for the International Emmy Award, the Rose d’Or Awards, the GLAAD Media Awards and the Logie Awards for Most Outstanding Comedy, Most Outstanding Light Entertainment and Most Popular Actor. It has also been nominated for nine AACTA Awards, taking home the trophies for Best Comedy Series, Best Screenplay in Television and Best Performance in a TV Comedy.

Rick Kalowski, ABC Head of Comedy, said, “We’re thrilled to introduce Please Like Me to a whole new ABC audience with its move to our main channel for its third season. We know it will delight existing fans and find many new ones”.

Please Like Me is a Pigeon Fancier/John & Josh International production, produced in association with ABC TV and US broadcaster Pivot.

Good news! The ABC still has no idea when the Sammy J and Randy musical sitcom will air, but they can warn us this is coming three months out.

Presumably the actual news here is that Please Like Me is coming to ABC1… just like every other ABC2 show before it that wasn’t axed in 2014. We’re starting to think the rumours that ABC2 is no longer running original programming are true, mostly because they don’t really seem to be running any original programming. So the headline here really should read “Show Already Bought and Paid For by US Network Pivot Will Air on Only ABC Network Currently Airing New Comedy Programming”.

Also, in comedy news, we’ll be glad if anything in Please Like Me is half as funny as this line from the ABC’s current Master of Laughter:

Rick Kalowski, ABC Head of Comedy, said, “We’re thrilled to introduce Please Like Me to a whole new ABC audience with its move to our main channel for its third season.”

Yeah, the ABC1 audience has no idea that ABC2 even exists. Those constant promos for it on ABC1 must be utterly bewildering to them.

Of course, what he really means is “Please Like Me rated so badly on ABC2 because there’s basically no floor on that network’s viewing figures – thankfully ABC1 has a bunch of rusted on viewers that guarantees this season will be the highest-rating one to date. Which will come in very handy if Pivot decide to give Thomas more funding for yet more Please Like Me, because then we can say we’re showing it because of higher ratings and not because it’s a show hardly anyone watches but we get it for close to nothing.”

Still, we’ll be very interested to see just how many viewers Thomas gets on ABC1. Mostly because the ratings are probably going to be the only thing that’s going to be original, interesting or funny about yet more Please Like Me.