Thank God It’s Friday’s been reimagined?

Remember Thank God It’s Friday (or TGIF)? You know, the Sydney-based, end-of-week topical panel show on ABC radio that’s been running for years? We mentioned it a couple of times, more than a decade ago, and have kind of forgotten its existence since. Until now! This year it got a reboot, with a new host, in a new city and with a new attitude. But is it worth tuning in for or downloading from ABC Listen?

Before we answer that, let’s remind ourselves what the original TGIF was. Hosted by long-time ABC Sydney Drive host Richard Glover, it was developed by Glover as a way “to bring the magic of variety” to the Friday edition of his show (note the word “variety”). Some local comedians would come on, Glover would ask them some questions about that week’s news, and the comedians would deliver a lightly scripted routine in reply. In addition, there was a segment called “The News from Nowhere”, where Glover would deliver a wry, sentimental monologue, musing on something or other (his kids leaving home, becoming a grandfather, memories of his parents, that kind of thing), and there’d be a song or two from some local musicians. Something for everyone, there.

In many ways, Glover’s TGIF wasn’t that different from the usual ABC local radio fare (variety, it’s all about variety!). Except, with its guest comedians and its similarity to shows like Good News Week and Gruen, there was a sense that maybe it would be worth tuning in for. Although it wasn’t. Trust us, it wasn’t. While this was a show that gave comedians airtime each week, the comedy they delivered was as easy listening as the musical acts. The audience for ABC local radio drive shows doesn’t want anything challenging or edgy, goes the theory; they want something light-hearted and everyday – and that’s what they got. Variety! Until now?

When Glover retired from the ABC last year, it was fair to assume that TGIF was over. But earlier this year, it came back, with Charlie Pickering as host. And while Pickering has many, many faults, he is a comedian, and not an ex-journalist like Glover, so it was reasonable to expect the new TGIF would be more comedy-oriented. And it is, we guess. The show is now recorded in Melbourne (Australia’s home of comedy!), and it has more of a comedy quiz feel, with the comedians on the show typically being younger than on the Sydney version.

Something about the vibe of this rebooted TGIF tells you it’s no longer your grandad’s TGIF. There have been jokes about golden showers, drug taking and urinating, and the word “anus” has been used on the show multiple times – and nothing is funnier than those things, right?

And yet, a lot of the show’s very much the same. “The News from Nowhere” segment, which you’d think would be the first thing to get the chop in a comedy-focused reboot, is still there. Meaning that every week, Charlie Pickering has to come up with several minutes of whimsy on something we can all relate to (in last Friday’s show, it was about the first time he kissed a girl). These are worth listening to in a “what not to do” sort of way, in that Pickering doesn’t seem 100% comfortable delivering them, and the audience responds with the most muted applause imaginable. So, yeah, they should cut that bit and get to the quiz…

Except the quiz isn’t that great either, despite having had some very good comedians on it, and a seeming commitment to going for laughs by having a points system where funny answers get more points than correct answers. One major problem for the show is that when the comedians are asked to answer a question on a topical news story, they seem to neither know the real answer to the question nor to have prepared a funny fake answer. Meaning, the show comes across more like a rambling, improvisational comedy podcast than a polished panel show. Maybe give the panel the questions ahead of time so they can write something funny?

Another part of the show that grates is that the show’s producer, Matt, has a soundboard of clips and sound effects that he chucks in occasionally, like he’s Hey! Hey! It’s Saturday’s Murray Tregonning. If one of the panel delivers a “hot take” on something, we hear Jim Carrey in The Mask saying “Smokin!”, and if someone happens to mention food, we hear Donald Trump saying “They’re eating the dogs”. We get that they’re trying to make the show more “comedy” and more “youth”, but it seemed pretty daggy in 2025.

What was good on last week’s show was panellist Andrew Hansen also being the musical guest. Usually, TGIF books a local band or has the cast of an upcoming musical on to perform a number from their show, so having an actual comedy song was welcome. Especially as Hansen’s song was pretty funny. If Hansen could come up with a song that good for TGIF every week, it might be worth listening to regularly.

Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen. And after about six months on air, the Charlie Pickering-hosted TGIF has found its groove, and it’s a not especially funny one. But that’s how ABC comedy is these days. There’s no institutional memory about how to make a funny show (the ABC radio comedy unit got dismantled due to budget cuts in the 1980s), so the focus is on being cheap and as inoffensive to as many people as possible. Being funny or entertaining is a secondary goal. And who wants a laugh anyway when they’re coming home after a hard week at work? No one, according to the ABC.