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Comedy back on TEN’s cards

Incoming TEN CEO Hamish McLennan has signalled his interest in the network pursuing comedy and cricket.

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2013-03-04_0141Incoming TEN CEO Hamish McLennan has signalled his interest in the network pursuing comedy and cricket.

While talk of acquiring cricket rights has been put on the table before, the move towards comedy indicates his recognition that the network used to thrive on its own irreverence.

This is good news. TEN was, after all, the network that brought us The Comedy Company, Thank God You’re Here, The Panel and two revivals of Good News Week.

He tells the Daily Telegraph today that he is looking for new shows that captured the same ground-breaking edge that Big Brother once had.

“Big Brother, in its day when it launched, broke so many rules. It was really interesting content,” he said.

“What’s most important is to be fun and irreverent.”

All formats and genres were now under review.

“We can get back our swagger,” he recently told staff. “What I have always liked about TEN is there is an irreverence to it and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. That’s a good pro-forma for what we need to do going forward.”

The Australian Financial Review also reports that TEN has raised the idea of sharing broadcast rights for cricket with Nine.

21 Responses

  1. I was wondering if ten get cricket can they show Australia home games live and when Australia go on plane and play away put the cricket on channel one.

  3. Why dont Ten try to reinvent Hey Hey its Saturday on a Saturday night? Or do another series of Good News Week.
    I remember watching both shows and both shows made us all laugh when they were both on. So how about it Ten give them ago?

  4. Totally agree. Good Comedies need money to pay large team of writers. Ten need to get in bed with working dog again. But knowing working dog, they will not want to go there again. Would love the panel to return in 2013!!

  5. The last good Australian comedy shows I remember were Hey Dad, Acropolis Now & All Together Now. Can’t remember any others off the top of my head.

    I really miss Fast Forward, Full Frontal & Comedy Inc too. I’ve even been watching the repeats of Fast Forward. They were hilarious and never date as there is always stuff happening in politics and shows to send up.

    I have to disagree about Big Bang Theory being shit, it’s one of the funniest shows on TV. And Two Broke Girls & Mike & Molly are good shows too. I enjoy them.

  6. @glennc – impact? By giving an interview to News Ltd and making some platitudes about how it’d be nice to have some comedy and cricket.

    Newsflash. Comedy costs money. Look at the teams of writers involved in US sitcoms – even the shite like 2 Broke Girls, Mike and Molly and Big Bang Theory (all 9 – who woulda thunk?). 10 has no money and Australia has no comedy writers which is why we have slapdash skit shows, panel shows and chat shows which all star the revolving cast of usual suspects who also have their own unfunny radio shows. This is what masquerades as comedy in this country.
    Last funny Australian comedy that required a little bit of thinking from the audience??? Struggling … help me out here folks.
    We all know need a comedy saviour and it sure as hell aint Josh Thomas. (I think I need my own column to tell it like it is)

  8. Agree a modern day Fast Forward (and/or Comedy Inc) would be great.

    Like to think there are enough good comedy writers out there to make a quality Aussie sitcom. We need a good laugh at ourselves.

    I think the prospect (although I would watch it) of a modern day Kingswood Country or even that other one with the red headed “sech-itary” (!) is probably a bridge too far because many ppl take life too seriously these days.

    We prob have enough gameshow / talkfest / quasi-news / adventure comedy shows for now. If Working Dog revived something like The Late Show I’d watch that too. Might even watch a Sat night staple a la HHIS (or TLS for that matter) as a viable option over footy. People like family type options on Sat night I think.

    But in all these ideas the right people need to be in it who have broad appeal.

  9. I think this is a step in the right direction.
    Good to see McLennan having an impact before he even starts, hopefully it continues.
    I, for one, would watch GNW or Ronnie Johns if they were returned. Or a modern Fast Forward.

  10. Skithouse was woeful.

    A (good) modern interpretation of Fast Forward is needed. Not a carbon copy with lower standards.

    Some Fast Forward and Full Frontal skits are as relevant and hilarious now as they were then.

  12. It would be good to see Working Dog back at 10 again.

    When they were at 10 (and in previous forums at the ABC) was when they seemed to do the best. Going to 7 they haven’t really done all that much.

  13. Thankgod you’re here and the panel were great shows and GNW needs to return in its old format, well news based but live perhaps to incorporate viewer interaction

  14. Sounds good to me! Add to the list the likes of Rove, The Wedge and The Panel which were all comedy successes on TEN, as well as the annual Mebourne Comedy Gala. I can see original Australian comedy series doing better than Nine’s Tuesday’s sitcoms as they are loosing viewers by the season.

  15. Comedy? Oh dear. Who can forget Nine’s disastrous attempt at branding themselves The Home of Comedy in 2011 and how the promos went to air before news bulletins headlined by the Japanese earthquake/tsunami?

    Wasn’t TEN’s most recent attempt at comedy the late, unlamented Skithouse? Looks like TEN is about to have its own Ben Elton moment.

  17. Irreverent means not showing respect, being disrespectful and flippant. I too also hate that word and it is what has alienated many audiences, particularly older audiences for many years now. I thought the ‘new’ Ten wasn’t going to go under the old path and instead start appealing to older and wider audiences.

    Well if that is the case, there is no room for ‘irreverence’.The only way to take get the station back on track is to take themselves more seriously otherwise they will continue to just be a joke.

  18. “All formats and genres were now under review”.

    Hmm, a former network C.E.O. (Eddie Maguire) used these literal words at some point during his unenviable 15-month stint at Nine. He claimed each and every idea initially rejected will get a second chance.

  19. ‘irreverent’ .. eugh. that word brings back all the memories of the late Mott era. A place I bet no ten employee would want to return to.

    I thought they were moving away from ‘irreverent’ and towards ‘nice, different, unusual’ or whatever 3 adjectives they peddled out at the last upfronts.

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