Sam Pang Tonight – half time report

Last week, Sam Pang Tonight’s mid-series renewal had a few people scratching their heads. After several decades of networks cancelling new shows of this type after just a couple of episodes (especially shows which annoyed people online and had been dipping in the ratings) it got renewed. Huh?! What’s with the programmers not shitting the bed?

The people at 10, it seems, have cool heads. Good. New comedies need a chance to find their feet, and despite Pang’s on-air gags about falling ratings, his show is not only still well within the Monday night Top 30 but worth persisting with.

There are various things you could do to improve the show, of course, but that would require a bigger budget to, amongst other things, write and film sketches that aren’t pushing someone into a Christmas tree. And the money to do that clearly isn’t on the table. Which means the team have to be as inventive and funny as possible within their budget. But this is nothing new to the people who make comedy shows for 10.

10 basically has a house style for its comedies, and it’s this: make it for cheap, don’t be too political and keep the gags coming. Have You Been Paying Attention?, The Cheap Seats and now Sam Pang Tonight, all fit this bill, and all attract a regular audience.

And if you’re looking for an inexpensive way to get laughs, making sure the guest announcer gets lots of chances to butt in is a good one. Those with long memories might remember Hannah Gadsby performing a similar function on the Adam Hills-hosted In Gordon Street Tonight, and how her quips from the other side of the studio boosted an otherwise so-so program.

So, after a lacklustre start with Dave Thornton in the first show, who didn’t seem to have much to say, subsequent guest announcers (Kitty Flanagan, Guy Montgomery, Anne Edmonds and Becky Lucas) have clearly been given the brief to jump in with zingers at every opportunity. And not only is it funny to see Pang squirm, or spar with them, or in the case of Becky Lucas, find it all a bit confusing, but it’s a welcome contrast to Pang’s more laid-back, Dad joke-adjacent style.

Not that Pang’s laid-back style is necessarily a bad thing. Only a true Dad joke connoisseur would stand in front of an increasingly sceptical public and subject them to four weeks of that Christmas tree segment.

Perhaps a little more original is the “Questions I’ve Always Wanted to Ask and Now I’ve Got My Own Show I Finally Can” segment. So far, we’ve had a doctor, a cop and chef Matt Moran, who’ve all had to sit through bizarre scenes from films showing people doing their jobs. It turns out, films aren’t always depicting professions accurately, and it’s funny seeing how.

SIDEBAR: Imagine for a second how a low-budget ABC comedy show, like Gruen or Question Everything would handle the same topic. Not by showing clips of Rambo burning his wound and then having a doctor comment, “Well, it’s not the treatment I’d recommend”, that’s for sure. More like several minutes of Wil Anderson or someone giving a dull and largely laugh-free explanation of the correct way to deal with injuries whilst sheltering in a cave in Afghanistan.

But even with Sam Pang Tonight’s ability to make a decent show with no budget, there are still going to be people wishing this was The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon or The Graham Norton Show or INSERT TALK SHOW HERE. Because what these people perceive as great tonight show entertainment is celebrity guests.

Like we’ve said before, the kind of big-name guests who’ll show up for Fallon aren’t likely to be anywhere near 10’s Melbourne studios on a Monday. Or any other day. So, the key here is booking the most interesting, hopefully funny, locally-based chatters, getting as much out them as you can, and then doing other stuff. Like playing weird old news footage and segments where people guess what cutlery has been shoved into a tub of dip. It may be a bit lame, but it’s a hell of a lot more entertaining than someone famous plugging whatever thing they’re on to plug.

So, while Sam Pang Tonight hasn’t been perfect, it has quickly learnt what works for it, and what doesn’t, and the network has backed that. Which might not sound like a win, but in 2025 Australian comedy definitely is.