The Weekly is coming back, like it or not

The appointment of a new senior member of staff to an existing TV program can tell you a lot about where that program might be heading. This week, the ABC released information about a new appointment to the soon-to-return The Weekly with Charlie Pickering:

Jules Holmes has started as Senior Producer of The Weekly with Charlie Pickering after working as Head of Field of Tomorrow Tonight (ABC). She previously worked on The Project as Field Producer for five-and-a-half years and had also been Creative Director for a number of brand integration campaigns on Network 10.

So, not exactly a comedy appointment, then.

Or is it? From what we can figure out, a field producer typically works on longer pieces, like interviewing someone about a tragedy or a location report covering the aftermath of a disaster, which isn’t exactly comedy material. And Holmes is very highly regarded in that area.

So, The Weekly have hired themselves a very good Senior Producer with experience of producing high-quality, serious, longform pieces. Which is a good thing, as The Weekly‘s previous serious longform pieces have been pretty snooze-worthy. But what is the show going to do to improve its comedy? Are there any plans to hire someone good to work on those? And now that Christopher Pyne’s resigned, they can’t do any more of that Pyne Watch segment (which is a shame, as it was often the funniest thing in the show).

And how’s the hiring a replacement for Kitty Flanagan coming along? Or are we just going to be stuck with these two this series?