Frankly: “It felt like a big step to take. But now I love it!”

EXCLUSIVE:

“I said to a friend of mine, a day or two before our first record, ‘What did I think I was doing, saying I’d get up there and walk out onto a stage by myself? Trying to conduct a show in front of a live audience ?'” Fran Kelly says of her ABC chat show, Frankly.

“It felt exposing, I suppose. You’re walking onto your own TV set, your name’s up there. It felt like a big step to take. But now I love it! Can’t get me off it! Give me more!”

Tomorrow night, Kelly’s season finale goes to air with guests Richard E. Grant (pictured top), Joel Creasey and Vika & Linda Bull.

It concludes an 8 episode run with a range of Australian & international guests across the realms of television, film, music, comedy, publishing, science, dance and more.

After a 16 year run of early morning radio hosting on RN Breakfast, taking the plunge into hosting a light entertainment show, with a studio audience, was not without its hesitations.

“It was a big learning curve,” she reveals.

“Oh yeah, this is just the same. This is just interviewing.”

“Interviewing is not new to me, and that’s what eventually made me feel great. Once I got on the couch, and into my first interview of the first show, I realised, ‘Oh yeah, this is just the same. This is just interviewing.’

“Because before we started, I said to my EP, ‘How do I conduct an intimate interview in front of a giant studio with a live audience?’ And he just said, ‘You just do it the same as you’ve always done it.’

“The live audience injected real-time reaction, which is lovely, and gratifying for guests ….I think by week four, I was getting into the groove.”

Reflecting on her first season’s guests, Kelly was particularly pleased with the mix of couch guests such as Adam Goodes / David Hardy / Big Freedia / Sandi Toksvig and the ‘bromance’ that instant emerged between Wil Anderson / Dr Jordan Nguyen / Colin Hay.

“The feedback that I’m getting on social media was that audiences liked the range of guests. On one week we ended up with a comedian, a climate scientist, an actress, and screenwriter.

“Last week, we had Tim Minchin, one of the world’s greatest cricketers Wasim Akram and Lisa Blair, who sailed solo around Antarctica,” she continues.

“Probably the loveliest thing for me, as I look back on this eight weeks, is the feedback from the guests.They all clearly have enjoyed it. Quite a few would stay around in the green room, which was lovely.”

The show launched amid a blaze of headlines around ABC not giving the role to an emerging talent, but Kelly prefers to let the product speak for itself and for the audience to discover the show.

“I’m glad it quietened down. I’m glad I could just get on with what I was trying to do with Frankly, and I’m glad it’s worked.”

“Everyone says it needs to be longer”

But there has been one frequent reaction, which even Kelly can’t deny: viewers say the show is too short.

“That’s the constant comment! People stop me in the street. There’s probably only one person who I’ve spoken to out of hundreds, who hasn’t said it needs to be longer. If you check Twitter, everyone says it needs to be longer… I was on talkback radio the other day and the Melbourne host said, ‘They’re all saying the same thing: I love it and it’s got to be longer!'”

Whilst Kelly is hopeful of a 2023 return, ABC TV execs are yet to embark on those conversations.

“I’m hoping we’ll be back next year”

“I’m hoping we’ll be back next year. I think it’ll just get better and better. We can see the audience numbers slowly building. They’ve gone up basically every week since week two, and the social media is going gangbusters,” she says.

“I’m getting nothing but positive feedback. But these things are a process. I’m learning these things are commissioned in seasons.”

The season final wraps with Vika & Linda Bull singing with house band The Fanatics.

“We’ve got a bit of a Christmas theme with an advent calendar at the end of the show, but I won’t say any more than that!”

Frankly airs 8:30pm Friday on ABC.