Mark Humphries joins 7:30
Mark Humphries & Evan Williams to contribute fortnightly segments to ABC current affairs.
- Published by David Knox
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Satirist (and birthday boy) Mark Humphries is joining ABC’s 7:30 with a fortnightly segment, joined by co-writer Evan Williams.
“We had many offers but the prospect of bringing the ABC’s flagship current affairs program down to the level of third-rate undergraduate humour was too tempting to resist,” the duo said.
“We just love the job stability that can only be found at the ABC.”
Leigh Sales said “I’m a huge fan of quality political satire so you can only imagine my disappointment that we couldn’t land Shaun Micallef.”
Humphries and Evans both previously penned satire for The Feed at SBS VICELAND but have talked down the prospect of following John Clarke & Bryan Dawe at ABC.
Mark and Evan said: “We will never be able to fill John Clarke’s shoes, because his family refuses to give them to us.”
Humphries departed SBS in June to host Pointless for TEN.
Pointless has just wrapped production on 130 episodes, including Christmas & New Year’s editions which should see it run until later in January. All eyes on TEN’s Upfronts at the end of the month to see if it is renewed.
A TEN source tells TV Tonight question writing will recommence in October.
Humphries first 7:30 segment airs on Thursday.
7 Responses
Great news. I love Mark Humphries. I can’t believe 10 haven’t utilised him more on shows like Have you been paying attention & The Project. He’s wasted being only on Pointless.
I miss Clarke and Dawe…they were incredibly spot on and to the point.
Ridiculous idea. Give them a 5 min. segment as with C&D, but not on 7:30. Seems like the Asylum is running amok without a strong leader !
ABC tried some comedy on 7:30 a few years ago, and it went down faster than the titanic. Can’t believe they are going to try it again. This is going to annoy existing viewers, and won’t bring in the young adult audience they are so trying to seek. (IMHO)
That was my first thought as well…I’m sure they’ve tried this once before and scrapped it almost straight away after the backlash. I wish they’d leave 7.30 as the serious show it is suppose to be, and put the comedy elsewhere. Otherwise, why not just run a Mad as Hell sketch in the middle of every 7:30 episode?
Same here. Clarke and Dawe were a huge turn-off. I had just started watching after the death of Clarke but now this so-called ABC “comedy” will be injected back into the Thursday show. What is this ABC obsession with “comedy”? Why are the bosses so intent in shoving it upon us?
Once a fortnight doesn’t strike me as shoving and Clarke and Dawe had a stellar run. Comedy is always subjective but it doesn’t mean it needs to be excised, even in news.