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Gruen crowd “a terrible audience”

Whatever went down at the Gruen record, Wil Anderson acknowledges he told the audience they weren't doing a good job.

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ABC has denied suggestions a recording of Gruen on Tuesday night was aggressive, describing it as “nothing unusual or untoward.”

On radio yesterday morning Anderson said the audience was terrible.

“Usually we have a fantastic audience and it wasn’t that they were bad people, but they were just sitting back in seats not giving you the energy that you need so you try to rev them up. I literally just told them they weren’t doing a good job,” he told Triple M’s Grill Team.

Reports speculate that after a lengthy segment on Cambridge Analytica  he said, ‘that took 40 f***ing minutes to film. I don’t want to be out of line but you guys are the worst audience I’ve ever had.'”

News Corp claims an exchange took place with one audience member after they described the segment as “boring”. But on social media others claim the comment suggested he be replaced with Adam Hills.

“There was nothing unusual or untoward about last night’s live recording of Gruen,” a spokesman told the Daily Telegraph.

“Wil interplays with the live audience on a regular basis to ensure high energy in the room and the audience feel engaged and entertained. Last night’s audience took this interplay with the good humour with which it was intended and Wil thanked them for their enthusiasm at the end of the recording.”

Last June Anderson laughed off suggestions of a misunderstanding during a flight to Wagga, which resulted in him being questioned by local police. No charges were laid.

Source: News Corp

17 Responses

  1. I agree, the pace of this ep was terrible and the segments dragged on far too long, the tedious Cambridge bit in particular. I’d have hated to have been in that audience.

  2. i loved last weeks but this week was boring ……. they picked the wrong subject and was the ad for australian tourism even shown in australia?

  3. I watch Gruen because I’m interested in the content, but I can’t stand Wil Anderson with his shouty delivery and jokes I can see coming a mile off, he’s not remotely funny, would love to see him replaced with someone humourous but not intent on being the constant centre of attention.

  5. Some subjects bore people more than others. It was one night, so they should just move on. Don’t know why it even gets mentioned when the odd sagging night happens.

  6. The Facebook/Cambridge stuff is just old news: it was analysed to death weeks before Gruen came back, and then to just bag out Zuckerberg being robotic didn’t add anything to the discourse.

    But the discussion on the Australian Tourism campaign should have fired better – the audience was obviously bored to death by 40 mins of “facebook is bad”

  7. It was definitely a different vibe last night. The first gag at scratchies misrepresented the ad. Todd was quite vocal, and Russel was unusually quiet. The edits were numerous and more obvious too which perhaps suggests a difficult record session.

  8. First let me say I think Will is a great talent and the show is much needed on TV. Having said that, as someone who has worked in front of TV audiences for 28 years, I am surprised Will is quick to blame the ‘terrible’ audience. What that suggests is that somehow all the ‘terrible’ people all decided to get tix for that one record, and every other night its been ‘not-terrible’ people who have come along. Every audience Starts the same; keen and optimistic for a good night out at a show they like. If the audience aren’t responding, it is absolutely in reaction to what is being presented.
    Gruen has never been billed – and nor should it, as a comedy show. It is entertaining, informative, controversial, and many times funny. Don’t mistake a quiet audience for a disengaged audience. Having said that, and not having seen this episode, Cambridge Analytica is only interesting to a…

    2. I think Wil needs to chill out a bit, just focus on being a comedian, and not a social justice warrior like he did when MMM took over from JJJ on Australia Day and the countdown – everyone just calm down and go back to what you are good at and leave this silliness out

    3. I agree with Popey. The main function of the audience is so producers can gauge what material is working and what isn’t. You can encourage an audience to laugh louder but you can’t make them laugh if they aren’t finding it funny. Should have been a red flag to the producers that this segment just wasn’t funny if that was their intention. It sounds like the audience were just giving an honest reaction and you can’t blame them for that. I think Gruen is the sort of show where it’s a mixture of informative and entertainment and doesn’t have to be a barrel of laughs for it to be engaging with the audience. It is disappointing and frustrating for producers if they have worked hard to craft a segment they believe an audience will find funny but fails to hit the mark. No one should take it personally. Just move on and keep doing good work.

  9. Terrible crowd for a Terrible show…. I painfully sat through it last night as I wanted to watch Home Delivery and The Weekly. Will fell flat and his tone sounded like he would rather be elsewhere. Won’t be watching again.

  10. I have been os for the past 3 weeks, so last night was the first time I saw this new season.

    I don’t know if it was me being a cranky old man or the general demise of TV, but I felt the opening monologue forced and certainty not as funny as the guest would make us believe with their concocted laughter. So maybe Will’s humour is getting a bit stale, but I fully concede humour is in the eye of the beholder.

    Anyway the boring nature of the Cambridge Analytica analysis put me to sleep, literally.

    1. Speaking of Cambridge Analytica, I fell asleep watching the recent 4 Corners epusode featuring tbat subject. The XL edit on ABC2 will be interesting to see if that segment survives.

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