Foxtel revives RocKwiz in 2023
After seven years off air, RocKwiz will make a comeback in 2023, now on Foxtel.
- Published by David Knox
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Former SBS music trivia show RocKwiz will make a comeback in 2023 with new episodes commissioned by Foxtel after seven years off air.
Host Julia Zemiro, adjudicator Brian Nankervis, human scoreboard Dugald, and a new look RocKwiz Orkestra will all feature on a new look set in 30-minute episodes filmed in front of a live studio audience.
The new RocKwiz Orkestra will feature Peter Luscombe (Musical Director and drums), Clio Renner (keyboard and backing vocals), Bill McDonald (bass guitar), and Olympia (lead guitar and backing vocals).
Eight episode will see RocKwiz hosts and Orkestra joined by contestants and two surprise musical guests who will each perform solo before finishing the episode in the traditional RocKwiz duet.
RocKwiz ran for 14 seasons on SBS from 2005 – 2016 but has continued to tour in sell-out stage shows.
Executive Director of Entertainment at the Foxtel Group, Marshall Heald, formerly of SBS, said: “RocKwiz offers a clever combination of music trivia, comedy and live music that is inherent to its broad and long-lasting appeal. We are thrilled to be working with the team at Renegade to bring this beloved format back to Australian screens.”
Julia Zemiro said: “It’s not often you get a second bite at the cherry. RocKwiz hasn’t been on TV in a long time, but we will be back on screens to celebrate our music genius contestants.
“I can’t wait to welcome back new and established musicians to join in the quiz and surprise us with an unexpected duet.”
Co-creator Brian Nankervis said: “We’re delighted to be making brand new episodes of RocKwiz because we miss the excitement, the challenge and the sheer joy of recording new episodes. We’ve spent the last six years touring our live show and we’ve maintained and sharpened our skills, developed as performers and discovered fresh musical talent that we can’t wait to bring to our viewers.
“As always our musical guests will be a wonderful mixture of household names and exciting up and coming artists and our contestants will demonstrate staggering levels of knowledge.”
RocKwiz will premiere on FOX8 in 2023 and will be available On Demand on Foxtel. Production will begin in Melbourne in November 2022.
RocKwiz is an eight-episode series produced exclusively for the Foxtel Group by Renegade Films. Co-created by Renegade’s Ken Connor and Peter Bain-Hogg along with comedian Brian Nankervis. Register for tickets for the live studio audience at [email protected].
19 Responses
It seems half an hour will be too short to fit in all that. I was always dissapointed when an episode ended back when it was first on. Although I never got into the repeats. I’m in my mid 50s. I occasionally watch Fox8, so that channel suites me fine. I prefer recording on iQ over streaming as I can fast forward the adds and I don’t have to go searching.
Surely its not 30mins has to be one hr?
Loved RocKwiz and looking forward to this, but interesting that Julia Zemiro will now be on a Rupert Murdoch owned network that she had quite a bit to say about on Twitter last year…
The meltdowns from lefties on Twitter that is is on Foxtel now is glorious to watch, not to mention Zemiro’s hypocrisy after old tweets of hers attacking Murdoch were found. Money talks $$$$$$
Hopefully they don’t change the formula. I am in my late 60’s and I watch some shows on Fox 8 but mostly watch things via on demand.
Disappointing that it will be on Murdoch’s Foxtel – deal breaker for me.
Same here…
That’s good news and guessing it will also find it’s way on to Binge.
I asked about RocKwiz in the Spicks & Specks post. Unfortunately though don’t have Foxtel. Would it get shown on Gogglebox?
Rockwiz never went away, SBS has been screening it for 17 years, I watched an episode a couple of weeks ago. It just wasn’t worth it for SBS to make new episodes. That’s only stopped now that Foxtel has bought it. TV is remaking everything, in long tail a name people remember is at least something. Foxtel has to spend 10% of it’s programming budget on local productions, so 8 more episodes of Rockwiz it is.
Was hoping it would one day return to SBS as the reason for resting it was renovations on the filming location I believe. Fingers crossed it is a success for Foxtel.
About time it came back, good one Foxtel, to quote Bob Marley “One good thing about music when it hits you feel no pain”. I’m over the hill but I still rock n roll, music overcomes all barriers. What channel who really cares you got the remote.
Nice work Foxtel!!
This is exciting but a bit bizarre considering it’s Foxtel but hey, I’ll gladly take it!
To me this doesn’t make sense. Don’t get me wrong, RockWiz was a great show but it trended to the older audiences. And I know that Foxtel has been clear over the years about appealing to all Australia and not just the key demos (this was best demonstrated when they revived A Place to Call Home). The bit that gets me is it being on FOX8 – a younger skewed channel. If Foxtel still had owned and operated music channels it would have been perfect there, but alas they have since outsourced all that to Viacom. Of the existing channels it seems the closest this show actually fits is FOX Docos. Foxtel could update the series to be more youth focused to align with the FOX8 audience (they will have Olympia as guitarist after all) but I just don’t see the series then able to keep that sense of nostalgia. Just my two cents worth.
If you’re watching Foxtel via the channels and not steaming individual shows, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not in the youth demographic.
Hate to disappoint but although I’m old at heart I’m only 30. Unlike my similar aged peers I have a Foxtel STB plus another PVR so I can record all my shows and watch without the ads. But you make another good point – the original audience aren’t FOX8’s demographic so if they do hear it’s returning they’ll miss it as they’re looking in the wrong place.
Sorry, I meant a universal “you” rather than you specifically.
That’s changing a lot now as demographic groups move and change, take people like myself who are 62, a lot of us grew up at the beginning of computers and the internet, growing with it. Streaming is our choice more and more now as Free To Air TV offers us not much at all, it still thinks we’re our parents and will watch endless repeats of Midsommer Murders and etc. However we are no longer of that ilk, think shows like Twin Peaks (1990), Picket Fences (1992), Northern Exposure (1995), we were the 30, 32 and 35 year olds watching those types of shows and giving them the ratings. It’s why I like Prime Video as it has a lot of the quirky I like, the Canadian Sci-Fi Lexx for one, the age group of will continue to evolve like that as people get older.
In the USA it’s changing a lot more than here as over 50’s is the biggest growth area in streaming, it’s one of the reasons Days of Our Lives is moving to Peacock as the market is there for it.