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Damage control a disaster for The Wiggles

Richard Wilkins' interview with The Wiggles generated an instant buzz after Anthony Field was ill-prepared for the scrutiny.

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How could they have got it so wrong?

For all the squillions The Wiggles have accrued you would think somebody would have given them better advice before fronting the Today show yesterday.

Anthony Field’s deer-in-headlights answer to Richard Wilkins’ questions about the exit of Sam Moran was TV gold.

Wilkins’ interview generated an instant buzz after Field was ill-prepared for the scrutiny.

“What about Sam? Sam was…. what do you mean?” Field asked awkwardly.

“What Sam does now is Sam’s thing. His contract has come to an end.

“I have nothing to do with really, Richard. Sam was doing a job.

“Yes it was news to him. I haven’t spoken to him so I don’t know (how he took it).

“I don’t want to speak for the guy … I don’t know how he feels.”

The Wiggles were doing the rounds yesterday. On Sunrise the chat wasn’t much better.

Field also told The Circle the Today interview had caught him by surprise and had been expecting to sing songs (seriously?).

But he again conceded Sam Moran didn’t know he was going to be leaving the group.

“No….Sam was an employee of ours. Like a musical theatre performer he was playing a role,” he said.

“They were going back and forth. Sam has lawyers…. we were keeping out of that.”

As a branding exercise for a children’s entertainment troupe, yesterday was a disaster. Now the pressure will be on to land a tell-all interview with Moran.

Meanwhile the Herald Sun says Greg Page won’t be a shareholder in the group, after leaving with $20m when he exited five years ago.

Anthony Field, Jeff Fatt and Murray Cook each own 30 per cent of the band and the remaining 10 per cent is split  between the band’s managing director, Mike Conway, and its creative manager, Paul Field (brother of Anthony).

There is also speculation Moran was called in by management on Tuesday and terminated with a $60,000 payout.

First blunder for 2012: The Wiggles.

54 Responses

  2. I think they were caught off guard because none of them expected the media to go off like a pork chop.
    Bottom line is that Sam was a ‘temp’ – he did not establish the band just joined it once already successful. And how dare they not check every important date in Sam’s life before talking to him (not) pffft

  3. @ Allie – You do realise Ed’s “joke” you were LMAOing at was actually on The Project last night…

    Oh and David, the article says Greg Page won’t be a shareholder in the group, not a stakeholder. Not the same thing.

  4. Why don’t they just add one more Wiggle. The kids really won’t even care and the group is probably still profitable enough to be able to cater for an extra wiggle.

  5. I didn’t realise the episodes of the wiggles in the uk were so old, as good as they were maybe it’s time for them to move aside and let the youthful ones take over! We don’t even have the episodes with Sam in!! Don’t get me wrong the wiggles are great, my kids loved them but there’s knowing when it’s time to give up!!

  9. Yes a very strange decision. A child of 5 who loved Greg is now well past The Wiggles, so who are they hoping to appeal to with this move? For a group who seemed to be very smart businessmen until yesterday, it is odd. There must be more to it. I think the March tour may be a difficult one for them. If they saw Sam as an employee, hey its their business. But what response were they expecting? Theyre not Van Halen, and Greg ain’t David Lee Roth.

  10. It was disrespectful, undignified & down right painful to watch!
    It should have been handled much better than this …
    I’m glad Greg is feeling better.
    But this is not the way to do this.

    I wish Sam all the very best for the future.
    This may turn out to be a blessing in disguise,
    leading to something wonderful for him & his family.

    It’s all very sad.

  11. It goes to show that these guys have had more interaction with toddlers than actual adults over the past 20 years.

    Best line of the night was on The Project last night when asked why couldn’t Sam stay on in the group as another colour wiggle to which Anthony replied “There’s only room for 4 in the Big Red car.” Goes to show how much the brand overall means to them. It wouldn’t have looked good last year with Greg making the rounds telling everyone he’s almost broke due to bad investments (go figure) so of course they thought what better way to drum up enormous free publicity. Major backfire..

  12. Am feeling rather glad that I am 3.5 years into my twins’ lives and there have been no Wiggles in sight. Now, where’s that Play School dvd….

  13. Well I can’t see Sam returning under any circumstances – the atmosphere would be pure poison. The whole thing was very poorly handled.

    Never liked the Wiggles much anyway .. that stupid thing they do waggling their fingers drives me insaaaane !

  15. I agree with @Jerome that The Project interview was almost as worse in its dismissal of Sam and considering it was after a day of bad press, I was surprised how much the Wiggles tried to pretend it wasn’t happening.

    To have Anthony standing there with his brother and Greg, in a muscle t-shirt and biceps flexed full of tattoos was a really odd branding choice for a discussion about kids entertainment. (I don’t care if he has tattoos, it’s perception and the visual wasn’t good).

    Also interesting how quiet the news on Greg’s failed real estate venture was – I seem to recall an ACA story last with him saying he’d lost a fair chunk of the $20m he walked away with. I am now desperate for an expose on the Wiggles, come on weekend magazines – get writing.

  16. Ah, “WiggleGate” – love it!

    All the axed Wiggle has to do is register the name “Yellow Skivvy Sam”, get a good agent and hit the club circuit with his own back-up cohorts…

  17. I always thought that The Wiggles would eventually evolve and as the older members retired, there would be new members to take their place, the same way that Hi5 does. This would have ensured the longevity of the concept and the older members could keep writing songs and raking in the millions.

  18. You’d also think he would have been better prepared by the time he came round to be being interviewed on The Project but his answers were just as awkward on that show.

  19. The first guy had a twenty million dollar payout!!!

    !!!!!!

    Enough said. These guys seem like a bunch of oil barons and money-hungry children’s entertainers…all based off “hot potato”…go figure

  22. i saw the segment on the project, hours later – and it was Still awkward to watch. Richard wilkins will be basking in this for the next year. With this fiasco effectively being a C9 exclusive, does it mean C7 will move heaven and earth to be the first to interview Sam?

    I couldnt imagine Sam going back in a few years (or months?) to replace other members of the team.

  23. Um, $60,000 isn’t really much to write home about. Take out the taxes and the rest will be gone in a flash.

    I think what is causing people to be out of sorts is the fact that it is painfully obvious that Anthony doesn’t have any kind of relationship with Sam. You would think that they really liked each other according to how they acted on stage. It’s kind of a charade really and most fans don’t care for that. Somebody should have at least picked up a phone to check on the poor guy to see how he was doing. Apparently, they don’t care. It was just a cold business deal and not a friendly partnership like they portray on their TV show and concerts.

    They have handled this poorly and that is an understatement. Their PR rep should be fired immediately! They are going to get negative blow back on this for a very long time. I for one am very disappointed in them.

  24. Brand Wiggle needs to sharpen up the PR act Fast. Get some market researchers out to see the tangible brand damage done. Most commenters I see in social media have kids the same age as mine, we’re not the target market. They’ve got to evaluate the sentiment of the ones who are the future bums on seats.

    For an brand who have been around for close to 1/4 century there is no excuse for yesterdays Today show performance, even though it’s claimed words were put in his mouth. For Dickie WIlkins to look like a hard hitting journo, tragic.

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