Question Everything’s path for new talent

ABC panel show Question Everything has been adopteding a bold production plan to give new talent a shot at TV.

To give new comedians a chance at primetime television, the CJZ production brings comedians into rehearsals to audition for a seat on the panel. The writers’ room also welcomes interns.

The Age reports comedian Tom Cashman didn’t have any agent when he first appeared on Question Everything last year. Now he will co-host Taskmaster, with Tom Gleeson on 10 next year.

Anderson is in favour of welcoming more young talent to television and is floating a proposal for a new tonight show on iview, following debate around ABC’s Frankly.

“You don’t need a heap of money. Give me a studio that’s set up the same way and you then give each of those people a team of people to put together their version of a tonight show,” he said.

“It doesn’t have to be a forever thing. But you’d also be training young camera operators and young editors and young directors and young writers. And you’d be aware of the fact it’s going to offend people, and they’re going to get things wrong, and sometimes it’s going to be terrible and sometimes you’re not going to understand it. Great. That’s the whole point of it — to be messy and experiment and take risks on things.”

Presenters who fronted recent ABC shows before they turned 40 have included Kurt Fearnley, Courtney Act, Dylan Alcott, Linda Marigliano, Alex Lee, Tom Ballard, Aaron Chen, Kirsten Drysdale, Tony Armstrong, Marc Fennell, Hamish MacDonald, Angharad “Rad” Yeo, Gemma “Gem” Driscoll, Amelia Moseley, Jack Evans and Jan Fran.