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Couch potatoes bite back

It's not all about ripping into shows, says Gogglebox producer. "Sometimes it’s very moving and warm."

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Executive Producer David McDonald admits initially he didn’t get the idea of Gogglebox either.

A TV show about people watching TV? Huh?

“When I first heard the concept for the show I pulled a face too. But when I saw the English show you get it in about 2 minutes. It’s quite addictive once you get into it,” he tells TV Tonight.

McDonald has a background in Comedy, having worked on shows with Andrew Denton, The Chaser and Comedy Inc. but in recent years moved across to MasterChef Australia.

Now he’s producing a 10 episode series that blends Observational TV with Comedy as 10 families are filmed watching television in their homes and reacting with delight, cynicism, emotion and horror, via remote cameras.

“It’s like taking the country’s temperature each week of what’s going on. Not just for TV shows, but we get our News from TV, Current Affairs,” he explains.

“So it is a snapshot of the week as seen through the eyes of Television.”

“It was one of the hardest shows we’ve ever cast”

The Sydney and Melbourne households include art dealers, a sports-mad family, Greek-Aussies, physiotherapy students and a gay couple who have raised 3 kids.

“There are different age groups, backgrounds, jobs, socio-economic groups. We wanted a well-rounded cross-section of people.

“You just want to get variety of input.

“It was one of the hardest shows we’ve ever cast, because there is no unique ability. You don’t sing, cook, play guitar, dance or lose weight,” he says.

“So we had a massive casting team who cast it all on the street.

“Anyone who caught their eye they would be followed up with phone interviews, Skype interviews –which was a little bit of an audition process- and if that went well there was a further audition process.”

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One family was even spotted in a food court, because of the way they were interacting. But unlike overseas families, not all Australians were enthusiastic about participating.

“The first reaction was often, ‘Why would you want to put us on television? We’re not funny,'” says McDonald.

“But they were not trying to perform or be anyone other than who they are, and that’s who we wanted on the show. Opinions and comments are what the show is all about.

“Because it is in their house, their environment, they are much more relaxed. It’s filmed with remote cameras and there is no-one in the room with them. So you do get all those unguarded moments.”

“There are certain things we want them to watch”

McDonald concedes that sometimes families were asked to include some shows in their TV diet, but he defends it was for a good reason.

“If they just watched whatever they wanted to watch you would just have content all over the place. So we produce it a little bit, not too much, mainly so we can turn a show around,” he explains.

“There are certain things we want them to watch as well, because basically we’re making a show on the biggest talking points. So we want to focus on what we’re talking about.

“There’s a mix of shows they really enjoy, but there is a misconception that it’s all about them ripping shows apart.

“There are lots of programmes they watch that they love.

“Sometimes it’s very moving and warm. It’s not always funny, depending on what the material is.”

Footage of rival network shows will fall under the Copyright Fair Dealing Act, which allows for nominal inclusion under News, Review or Satire. Gogglebox will tick two of those boxes.

The show also needs to be transparent when it comes to families being critical of shows screening on TEN, Foxtel -or even those produced by Shine Australia

“If we’re going to do it, we have to do it without prejudice. And we produce some of these shows as well! So within reason, it’s fair game,” McDonald insists.

“Or if they praise a show you might get (criticism). So we don’t worry about that. It’s more about ‘What’s amusing, what’s interesting, what’s entertaining?’”

Tonight and tomorrow viewers on Pay TV and Free to Air will be the judge of that.

“It’s a warm, funny show about TV, but it’s not all about knocking everything. Once you see it you’ll understand it.”

Gogglebox Australia airs 9:30pm Wednesday on LifeStyle, 9pm Thursday on TEN.

17 Responses

  1. Watched last night on Foxtel, almost turned off at the start when they started off with MKR, but I stayed with it and had a few LOL moments, and the comments about John Howard & Tony Abbot were so true. I main grip with the show though is the choice of narrator, why have they got the Foxtel continuity announcer and Home & Away promo voice narrating this? Whenever I hear her voice I just think of those awful Home & Away promos. Could they not afford someone well known?

  2. Love Gogglebox UK version. Thought the Aus version was terrible. They really tried their best to produce it for middle Australia but lost all the cleverness and along with that went the humour.

    They really buggered it up.

  3. “There are certain things we want them to watch as well”…… Naturally being Foxtel shows the producers do more than tell them what to watch….the add where the TV show is talking about drinking and most ” viewers” had a drink….mmm that wouldn’t have been a producers hint as well???

  4. I’m not sure if a series like Gogglebox would work in Australia. I know Ive watched the US version, which is called The Peoples Couch and it was pretty funny. But its a comedic format, audiences want to see sarcastic comments and jokes, I don’t think they care to watch a family bawl their eyes out at a tv screen.

    Either way, I think 9pm on a Wednesday is an appropriate timeslot for this show. Unlike other decisions that the programming team at TEN have made..

  5. The UK version (and not “the English show” as McDonald states) works because the Goggleboxers are seen watching shows that the audience can relate to: big dramas, reality TV, even the news, all from across the main terrestrial networks.

    On the promos for the Australian version I only saw Foxtel programs referenced. I’m not so sure an audience will tune into Ten to watch people’s reactions to shows that haven’t been broadcast on free-to-air, and are therefore unfamiliar to the majority of viewers.

  6. I had absolutely no desire to watch this and the ads look awful. But after seeing that the producer has worked on The Chaser productions and Comedy Inc I will give it a shot.

    Those are my two favorite Australian comedy series

  7. “It’s filmed with remote cameras and there is no-one in the room with them. So you do get all those unguarded moments.”
    The kids are asleep, the parents have shared a bottle of wine, they’ve forgotten about the cameras… and there’s your late-night adults-only edition.

  8. It’s funny that he says they cast on the street as I seem to remember reading about the casting call application form. So there must be some that just wants to be on TV. I hope it will be unbiased like the UK version. Just seeing the promo for “Dance Moms” and “Real housewives of Melbourne ” these are not the most talked about shows of the week.

  9. The UK version is absolutely hilarious. Hopefully this version will be also. Not so sure about the time slot on Ten though. The promotion of the show has been terrible.

  10. “you get it in about 2 minutes” ……. What is there to get? I still say my idea for watching grass grow or paint dry is a winner!

    ” but we get our News from TV, Current Affairs,” he explains.” ….. Okay, that is just disturbing on many levels!

  11. Will there be a spin off show about the Goggleboxers watching themselves? And then watching that show and then watching that show and then…

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