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Variety pilot on the hunt for sponsors

With Jay Leno & Shaun Micallef on his CV, could Simon Taylor be the answer to variety TV's prayers?

Hold the phone. Is another variety show waiting in the wings?

Producers of a new Tonight show Fun Times with Simon Taylor are hoping to find sponsors to help get their show onto Network 10. Word is the pilot (which was not filmed for Pilot Week) has been well received within 10.

A pilot hosted by comedian and writer Simon Taylor was filmed with guests Shaun Micallef, Stephen Curry, Wayne Brady, Osher Gunsberg and sidekick Heidi Valkenburg.

Taylor is stand-up and former Channel 31 presenter who wrote for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at the age of 24, plus Mad as Hell.

The Fun Times team Artie Laing, Antonio Cafasso and Josh Samuels are convinced Taylor is the next big thing ….and with Leno and Micallef on the CV who are we to argue?

12 Responses

  1. Entertainment prime time programs rarely work on free to air these days. People are fast to pick faults in the shows. Whenever a variety format or game show pop up, I am always there to sample it.

  2. Hopefully this gets backed well, a fresh face to variety TV would be good instead of the same faces popping up time and time again. Also think 10 should jump on KAK’s connections and give her a weekly chat show

  3. Seems to borrow heavily from the school of Rove Live. That’s not criticism, just observation. If Saturday Night Rove had been a bit more like this (and on a weeknight) it might have worked.

  4. There seems to be good credentials and guests. Going by the trailer, it looks like it’s skewing towards the comedy talk or chat show format. It works for Graham Norton and James Corden, for example. I like that there is a house band. One of the funnier things about James Corden and Ellen is that they have funny interactions with the house band/resident DJ.

    I personally don’t like too much or excessive focus on interviews as it becomes tedious and boring. I think a balanced mix of interviews, guests, sketch comedy, pre-recorded segments and performances would be good variety.

    1. Yeah by the trailer it looks like it skews that way maybe more so like The Jonathan Ross Show where they have one main guest out and others waiting in the wings that come and go. If they can get a good mix of guests in then that format would be good, like on that one there was an instance of Boris Johnson being on the couch at the same time James Corden was. Imagine say having Anthony Albanese or Scott Morrison out there at the same time as say Shaun Micallef, biggest hassle is though that international guests come here more in our Summer when these shows are off, especially musicians as they do the Summer Festival circuits more.

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