Have You Been Paying Attention (double take edition)

Working Dog’s much-loved (by us) comedy game show Have You Been Paying Attention? (or HYBPA) tried something a little different last night: they went to air at the usual time (6pm) with the usual episode, then at 10.30pm they ran an extended “after dark” version that was around ten minutes longer. Has society gone mad?

Well, we’re calling it an “after dark” edition, but from what we could tell it didn’t seem all that much bluer (cue people in the comments pointing out insanely offensive stuff that sailed right on by us). It did seem to have a bit more piss-farting around than usual – we missed part of the early episode and so were unable to do a side-by-side comparison, plus there’s only so much Kate Langbroek we can take in one five-hour period – but again, there was nothing going on that really stood out as a): something that had to go to air that was b): something that couldn’t have gone to air at 6pm.

So what’s the story here? It seems like it was something of an experiment to see if it’s worth putting together two slightly different versions of the same show for vastly different timeslots. Considering (from what we know about ratings) every airing of a show across one week adds towards the total ratings for that show for the week, if they can get the same people to watch one episode twice that counts as two separate groups of people ratings-wise. Unless they’ve changed things from the time the ABC was showing episodes of Randling three times a week to try and get that show’s ratings into triple figures.

Not that we’re complaining here: we like HYBPA so we’re on board with whatever ratings boosting tricks they’re up to. More importantly, with its focus on (maybe scripted, maybe not) scattin’ and riffin’, it’s the kind of show that naturally lends itself to an “after dark” edition. Whether it proves feasible or worthwhile to create two different edits remains the question here: if all that’s added is a bit more piss-farting around it might not be worth the bother, and presumably they wouldn’t want to encourage the guests to crack too many blue gags considering they still have to produce a version suitable for the family-friendly 6pm Sunday slot.

But if it does work, we could have two reasonably different versions of the same decent (again, in our book) comedy game show out there. Which, so long as there’s enough that’s different to make tuning in twice worthwhile, actually would be worthwhile. Australian television is always looking for ways to get more for less out of their comedy buck; for once they may have come up with a way that isn’t complete arse.