★★★★★ 0/5

Axed: Frankly

ABC execs opt not to renew Fran Kelly's Friday night chat show after one season.

14
Leave a comment

EXCLUSIVE:

ABC has axed chat show Frankly, hosted by Fran Kelly after just a single season.

An ABC spokesperson confirmed, “Frankly will not be returning this year,” while production sources advised TV Tonight it had been axed.

With guests including Adam Goodes, Sandi Toksvig, Wil Anderson, Colin Hay, Shaun Micallef, Natalie Imbruglia, Tim Minchin, Myf Warhurst, Magda Szubanski, Richard E. Grant, Joel Creasey, the show was largely well received, with many viewers even asking for it to be longer.

“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,” Kelly told TV Tonight last year.

But the show was also commissioned under former ABC Director Entertainment & Specialist Michael Carrington who departed the broadcaster last July. It screened on Fridays, traditionally a night with older viewers on a broadcaster which already skews older.

That led to some press controversy questioning whether ABC should have given the role to a younger performer -despite emerging talent hosting other ABC shows.

Last year Kelly said the show was drawing upon her experience in music and journalism.

“I also, quite frankly, have spent a lot of my life in times when women were fighting to be heard and seen. I’m thankful for the chance to be able to have a voice and for that voice to be able to be heard and seen on the ABC. I feel like I’ve earned that chance and I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.

“It’s a long time since we’ve had a show like this at all, let alone one fronted by a woman….. Wendy Harmer and The Big Gig? That was a very different show to this.”

14 Responses

  1. I’m surprised. I would have thought they’d try one more season in a hour format before axing it. The production cost difference between doing 30 mins or an hour in this format is negligible. Plus they made a big investment with that set. Someone at the ABC obviously didn’t like it or thinks the money can be better spent.

  2. I wasn’t wild about Frankly, I think Fran Kelly’s talents are better used in news and current affairs, I do agree she’d be a better Q&A host than Stan Grant(assuming that show survives into 2024).
    I’m OK with the ABC keeping Friday nights for British crime dramas, like Silent Witness or Line of Duty(will the ABC ever screen the final two seasons?).

  3. A chat show’s success depends on it’s guests. The first couple of episode had some guests with interesting things to say, but after that it was pretty boring and the same. Even though the internet killed rational debate and facts more than decade ago, the ABC is never going to give up on it’s pretence that QA is doing something more worthwhile than just pushing the ABC’s agenda.

  4. Just swap hosts with Q&A – immediate boost to Monday ratings, no change to Friday numbers but 50% reduction of Stan building up his brand (before the inevitable switch to Sky). Call it Stankly.

  5. Let me get this straight, Q&A survives with ratings lower than Frans, and she gets axed. Move her to Monday nights and lets have some fun with it…

  6. More often than not the age card gets played. One thing I have noticed over the years with some talk shows is there a quite a few with gay males at the helm…..Graham Norton, Paul O Grady (RIP) Allen Carr (was on ABC) Andy Cohen name a few but few gay females like Fran or Ellen ……shame on the ABC and so much for diversity. I’m one “Not Happy Jan”.

  7. The biggest comparison that was made is that it’s like The Graham Norton Show. The format was described as being similar. It’s a bit of a mismatch when there are also academics and guests with serious issues to talk about, but the show had a light-hearted, humorous feel.

    I think a talk/chat show that could be hosted by an up-and-coming younger female presenter/comedian could work well. Though it should be spontaneous and off-beat with aspects like audience interaction and sketches. The guests should be fun and entertaining. I say a female presenter because talk shows are saturated with male hosts.

    Where it falls flat is the educate part of the ‘entertain, educate and inform’ mantra. It becomes preachy like indoctrination. There’s a time and place for education and informing, but not at the expense of entertainment. Otherwise, it’s just One Plus One with a studio audience and a house band.

  8. “That led to some press controversy questioning whether ABC should have given the role to a younger performer -despite emerging talent hosting other ABC shows.”

    What other shows? The Weekly, Hard Quiz, Gardening Australia, Spicks And Specks, Zane Rowe Takes 5, Media Watch, Q+A, Australian Story, Insiders, Back In Time For The Corner Store, Question Everything? I’d argue all of those shows are not emerging talent.

    I’ll give you Tony Armstrong as a recent example of the ABC giving new talent a show (Great Australian Stuff), but the ABC used to give 20-something talent a chance on big shows like The Glass House, Good Game, The Chaser, Hungry Beast, Tonightly. The latter was 5 years ago.

    Since then Channel 10 has done more for emerging talent with The Cheap Seats, which is a great show that shows you can still give new talent a chance.

    1. Many of those are legacy shows but a lot of commentary overlooked Under 40s presenters Alex Lee, Jan Fran, Marc Fennell, Courtney Act, Dylan Alcott, Kirsten Drysdale, Zoe Norton Lodge, Namila Benson and then there are Kids TV shows…

      1. Oh yes please! Give Courtney Act a chance hosting a variety chat show and it would be fabulous!
        She’s already proved she is a wonderful interviewer on One Plus One. Her live production number performance earlier this year for the Sydney Pride Concert was oozing showbiz and proved what a fabulously entertaining performer she is. Can sing live. More than proved she can dance on Dancing With The Stars. A true all-rounder.
        Chuck in Stephen Curry as a co-host for his ad-lib prowess and brilliant comic timing as a recipe for success.
        The last key ingredient is broadcast it Live!!! Take away the safety net of a pre-record and an editor and both of these performers would raise it to another level of energy knowing they have to shine first time with no re-takes and pickups. That just sucks out the energy.
        Frankly was good but lacked the energy of a live show and had very obvious editing during the interviews.
        “Courtney & Curry” and make it Live. I’d definitely watch that!

  9. On pain of repeating the obvious, it was too short, but I also thought it looked like a big production that cost a lot of money that frankly the ABC does not have. At the time it struck me as a pay-back to her for her years of service.

    She is a good journalist and interviewer and I thought that she should have been given her own series of “one on one” shows. I liked the fact that the ABC gave different interviewers their own series to allow them to explore people and topics of interest to them. Fran could do the same with her strong leanings towards feminism and possibly music. I particularly like the Kurt Fearnley series as he had predominately a sporting focus, but he also had a number of interesting and (then) unknown people working in the area of disability and diversity. He has developed into a good communicator and advocate.

Leave a Reply