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Spicks & Specks host concedes, “It’s still Adam’s seat.”

Josh Earl remains upbeat despite the axe falling on Spicks & Specks, but agrees he was keeping Hillsy's chair warm.

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2014-05-29_2325Josh Earl has acknowledged he was keeping Adam Hills’ chair warm on Spicks and Specks

Earl and Adam Richard spoke to Steele Saunders’ podcast I Love Green Guide Letters about the axing.

The trio filmed 13 weeks of episodes for the ABC before being given the bad news by producers. A week later when the news broke on TV Tonight, Earl was becoming a father for the second time.

“I got all these texts from people saying ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” he said.

“But I was like ‘I’ve just got a kid!’ This is the best day of my life. Well second best. It’s my second kid.”

But Earl admitted, despite the show’s improvement after a rocky start, the news was not a surprise.

“The fact I even got a TV show was amazing to me. So I think I never felt comfortable in it. So when they took it away, it wasn’t like ‘They’re taking something amazingly mine away from me,'” he said.

“I always felt like, I’m kind of… it’s still Adam’s seat and I’m kind of, just here….”

“I reckon I’d be more upset if it was 4 years into it and it was axed.

“But with just one season it was really fun.”

Adam Richard joked about being something of a TV curse, likening himself to US actor Ted McGinley. But he agreed he had endured much bigger job losses than the 13 week run on the ABC.

“It felt like we’d barely started so it doesn’t feel like we’d lost anything (that big),” said Richard.

“It’s a job, I will get another one. All shows end,” Earl acknowledged.

Still laughing despite the axe, Earl also couldn’t help but wonder about other ABC shows that had faced bad news.

“Collectors got another season…. how bad were we?”

12 Responses

  1. Collectors got another season purely because it is dirt cheap to produce. No writers, no guests appearing, no frills.

    Simply, S&S did not pull enough viewers to justify its higher cost. Always a shame, but that is the fact.

  2. Amazing how ABC let the dreadful Randling run its entire course but S&S2.0 is cut short… I reckon I know which of the 2 shows was better…

    And I think S&S2.0 finally scored a victory this week. My dad who watched S&S1.0 largely for Myf had finally conceded that he’s now on Team Ella. That’s a big call!

    @JBar: DLL is a good show but I don’t think broadly appealing enough for an ABC1 audience. Leave it on ABC2 where it fits the demographic better.

  3. I saw an old episode this week Rusty Berther he has great music knowledge. He and Ella could be good captains, not sure about the host. I think if they had a few more of the old games mixed with new it could work.

  5. I agree with Sairy.James and Mac, showing the old repeats on ABC2 did them no favours. I think it’s a real shame, I loved the original but I also enjoyed this version and I think they deserved more of a go than they got.

  6. I’m a huge fan of the original show & cast.I did try to watch this new version. It wasn’t just the host, it was the team captains. imho, they were the wrong choices. And, also, imho, I didn’t like any of them. So, it lost it’s appeal very quickly. I don’t understand why they (ABC1) couldn’t just leave it alone.

  7. I really enjoyed the new one – Josh, Adam and Ella did a fab job – but the ABC should’ve stopped playing the old ones, drawing focus away from 2.0. And I shall forever be grateful for them having DJ Shadow on this season – that was a great episode.

  9. I think the ABC really let them down. By continuing the play the old repeats every night, and not giving them enough time to settle into the position.
    If they’d pulled the repeats for say, 6 months beforehand and put a bit more sizzle on it coming back then i think they would have had a better change.

    I also cant help thinking that the new team aren’t even most of the problem. From watching both versions i noticed the content was a lot fresher. They talked about more recent music and had new up and coming guests on. I think the old Fuddy Duddys just didn’t know what they were talking about, so wanted their old Spicks back.

  10. Agree that S&S 2.0 wasn’t too bad and was improving over time as the “new kids” settled into their roles.
    Yes, wasn’t as good as the original but they had mighty big shoes to fill.
    As I’ve mentioned previously, I think a different, slightly older host may have helped.

    Was still worth watching, especially when they had a good set of guests on – will miss it now it’s gone.

    Doubt the ABC have anything better to replace it with.

  11. Spicks and Specks 2.0 was not bad. Problem was people were so used to the original and as such it could never find an audience. Pity it had so much potential

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