Q&A Executive Producer to leave ABC

Q&A Executive Producer Peter McEvoy will leave the broadcaster at the end of 2019 to pursue other challenges.

McEvoy has enjoyed three-decade career at the ABC, including creating Q&A 12 years ago.

“In 2007 we set out to make an innovative, audience-focused program that would challenge, explain and shape national discourse,” he said. “I’m proud of the way we have achieved that consistently and in such an entertaining way over that period.

“The aim was to create a live, nationally televised event that brings political leaders face to face with Australian voters and allows interaction with hundreds of thousands in the viewing and online audience as well as the hundreds in the studio audience.

“We not only achieved that but have seen Q&A become a weekly part of the national agenda.”

ABC Managing Director David Anderson said, “Q&A is the most successful discussion-based national affairs program in ABC history.

“Peter has made an incredibly significant contribution to public broadcasting and national current affairs.

“Within the ABC he is renowned and respected as a journalist and creative program-maker. He has mentored many younger journalists and producers in their careers, and I know his departure from the ABC will be felt by many of us.”

Q&A started in May 2008 and has chalked up more than 400 episodes. Host Tony Jones will also depart with a replacement yet to be announced.

“It’s been a great run and I want to thank to ABC for three decades of opportunity,” McEvoy said. “I want to especially thank the wonderful team I have worked with over the last 12 years. The inimitable Tony Jones of course, but also the faces you don’t see. The indefatigable audience production team who recruit a balanced and engaged audience every week. The senior producers who share the editorial load. The studio team who make the show look great whether we’re in Mackay, Launceston, Garma or Shanghai.

“A flagship program like Q&A is only possible at an ambitious public broadcaster with the skills and enthusiasm of hundreds of my ABC colleagues who have been part of this great project over the last 12 years.

“I look forward to watching Q&A as it continues to evolve in the future.”

Peter McEvoy first joined the ABC in the late 1980s at Triple J and went on to work as a reporter and producer for ABC TV and ABC Radio, in Alice Springs, at Radio National, on programs including RN Breakfast, Late Night Live, Background Briefing and Four Corners, and as EP of Media Watch from 2000-2006, before creating Q&A.

He has received numerous awards for his journalism, among them five Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley.