Speaker 1: TV panel shows facing extinction. To comment further on this,
Speaker 1: media commentator Managing director of Media Stable, Nick Hayes, Morning Neck,
Speaker 1: thanks for doing this.
Speaker 2: Good morning Mike.
Speaker 1: Good to be with you now. Q and A got
Speaker 1: axed although this is very ABC. It was actually picking
Speaker 1: up in the numbers, I believe, but got axed anyway,
Speaker 1: and Ten's decided to end the project and people have
Speaker 1: been predicting the end of ten for a very long time.
Speaker 1: The drum was given the chop. So the sports panel
Speaker 1: shows they're going great, but political discussion panel shows not
Speaker 1: so much. Why do you think are they too dull?
Speaker 2: What is it? I don't think necessarily it's dull. I
Speaker 2: think it's mainly come down to cost, cost of putting
Speaker 2: programs together. Let's have a quick look at the project.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of paychecks that have to sit on
Speaker 2: that panel. You know, anything between four and sometimes five
Speaker 2: panel members on the project, and it's not cheap TV
Speaker 2: to do. When the project first kicked off, it was
Speaker 2: almost a spin off off the panel. Do you remember
Speaker 2: the panel, Mike, yes, I do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2: That was a ripper of a show that was a
Speaker 2: once a week show and it was a very sort
Speaker 2: of comedy, different look at news and a little bit
Speaker 2: of fun. A lot of show business around it as well.
Speaker 2: But when the project kicked off it was a Monday
Speaker 2: to Friday then went on to Sunday. It was originally
Speaker 2: only used and filmed out of Melbourne now Melbourne and Sydney,
Speaker 2: and it just became a very costly program to put together.
Speaker 2: There's up to one hundred staff members that were involved
Speaker 2: in the project week by week, and fifty of them,
Speaker 2: as we know now, are going to lose their jobs
Speaker 2: and fifty of them will be moved around. It is
Speaker 2: just a costly program to put together.
Speaker 1: I tell you what I don't mind. I do seek
Speaker 1: it out on Channel ten and that's that show, the
Speaker 1: Cheap Seats. Have you seen that? I guess you have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have. I'm looking forward to hearing or seeing
Speaker 2: myself on there one day. No, it's a little bit
Speaker 2: of fun, it's a bit's comedy again. But I think
Speaker 2: sometimes it, Mike, could be interesting to you from your listeners.
Speaker 2: I think that I've spoken to many people around the
Speaker 2: country around the sort of the fall of the panel
Speaker 2: shows is that they saw the projectors being in verta
Speaker 2: Commas two woke a lot of them didn't like Wali Dali.
Speaker 2: They liked the sort of the former presenters that were there,
Speaker 2: the Charlie Pickerings that carry Bickmore's, the Dave Hughes's, the
Speaker 2: original format, but they tended to look at the show
Speaker 2: as being a little bit dealing with issues that were
Speaker 2: probably more First Nations. They were probably to do with
Speaker 2: the environment. They felt like they were being talked down to,
Speaker 2: and that was one of the problems. I suppose that
Speaker 2: a lot of viewers were turning off, and the numbers
Speaker 2: were certainly dwindling. In the heyday of the project, it
Speaker 2: was eating one point one one point two million people,
Speaker 2: but it was well below that.
Speaker 1: Talking about what you get and the wokeness, you would
Speaker 1: be aware of the fact that Greg Gutfeld, with his
Speaker 1: show on Fox in the US, is out rating the
Speaker 1: other high profile late night talk shows. He's got more
Speaker 1: viewers than them put together as far as I know,
Speaker 1: but he's certainly outrating them all. But they're all pretty woke.
Speaker 1: They're the old style American format, which I'm not saying
Speaker 1: is a bad thing, but the stuff that Gutfeld puts
Speaker 1: to air, I couldn't see executives here allowing that.
Speaker 2: Could you No, Definitely, I think there is a term.
Speaker 2: I know, we use woke a little bit, we use
Speaker 2: right wing, we use conservative media quite a lot. I
Speaker 2: think the Australian media can't really handle that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: If it's doing very well, it's because it's appealing to
Speaker 2: a particular audience, an audience that either feels it hasn't
Speaker 2: been heard before, or is looking for an audience that
Speaker 2: he wants to know almost you know, that rubber necking.
Speaker 2: When they see an accident, they just can't take their
Speaker 2: eyes off it. It's that kind of attraction that they
Speaker 2: just want to go, what are they going to say next?
Speaker 2: Shock jock? You know? So the death of the shock
Speaker 2: jock in radio happens, and I think that Australian media
Speaker 2: doesn't really cope well with too much shock. There's not
Speaker 2: a lot of substance there. And at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, we just want to be educated, informed, or
Speaker 2: at least given some views to help us form our
Speaker 2: own opinions. And that's the beauty I think of Australian
Speaker 2: media is that we do provide a lot of that.
Speaker 2: People have got choice, it's where to go. In America
Speaker 2: it's a complete different game in particularly with the present
Speaker 2: sitting over there. He's encouraging a different format, he's encouraging
Speaker 2: different views.
Speaker 1: Yes, mind you, it does depend a lot on the host.
Speaker 1: I think I remember going to see Johnny Carson live
Speaker 1: way back and he just understood the medium so well.
Speaker 1: In fact, the night I went to see him live,
Speaker 1: I thought, I've come on a quiet night. But when
Speaker 1: I went back to the motel, because you know, it
Speaker 1: was recorded for live, as they say in America, but
Speaker 1: when I went back to the motel, it was exactly right.
Speaker 1: Although Johnny got very cross with a guest. A guest
Speaker 1: was pushing something political Johnny didn't want to know about,
Speaker 1: and you could see he was getting cross And so
Speaker 1: after the show had finished, Ed McMahon came out and said, oh,
Speaker 1: can we ask you to pretend that the show's starting again.
Speaker 1: So they started again, and when the show finally went
Speaker 1: to it did not include the guest that was doing
Speaker 1: what Johnny thought was inappropriate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, you know we've got we've got a
Speaker 2: very broad range of media here in Australia, and I
Speaker 2: think a lot of the criticism, particularly around abc Q
Speaker 2: and A, was coming from Sky News or coming from
Speaker 2: Sky as we refer to it after Dark, a very
Speaker 2: conservative approach to media. They would have a crack and
Speaker 2: the ABC's Media Watch would very much be looking at
Speaker 2: what's going on at Sky News, having little DIBs at
Speaker 2: each other and questioning their values. I suppose their bias
Speaker 2: if you like. We have that we have had in Australia,
Speaker 2: and the beauty of it I love about it is
Speaker 2: the fact that we can make decisions and choices as
Speaker 2: to who we consume. I get worried, Mike when I
Speaker 2: hear just someone just listening to one form of media
Speaker 2: or not really taking in all that is around. It
Speaker 2: just helps them shape fame and their opinion and position
Speaker 2: a little bit better. And that's the scary thing with
Speaker 2: social media, Mike, is the fact that a lot of
Speaker 2: people get into their silos and just think and hear
Speaker 2: and think that this is the one and only true
Speaker 2: message when there's just so much out there.
Speaker 1: Well, over the years I have advised my listeners to
Speaker 1: get their information from a variety of sources. I don't
Speaker 1: know whether my employers have appreciated me doing over or no.
Speaker 2: Well, no, you just think with Mike, Jeffries everyone. You're
Speaker 2: doing well listening to Mike, but you know in the
Speaker 2: morning they'll be listening across the other two GB programs
Speaker 2: and across the other spectrums of media that are out there,
Speaker 2: and just getting good sound information to be able to
Speaker 2: make your own choice and decision, because that's what we want.
Speaker 2: We don't want to be dictated to or told how
Speaker 2: to think or what to do. We just want enough
Speaker 2: information to be able to make our own decisions.
Speaker 1: Yes, I actually you've wrote that as a positioning statement
Speaker 1: for a radio station. When I was the PD, I said,
Speaker 1: we tell you what's going on, not what to think.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that. I used to work for a
Speaker 2: media monitoring company and we used to give you news
Speaker 2: you need, not necessarily news you want. And I think
Speaker 2: too much of us at the moment are just seeking out,
Speaker 2: particularly on social media, and the younger folk that are
Speaker 2: running around, they're just getting the news they want and
Speaker 2: not necessarily the news they need.
Speaker 1: What's reaffirming their views. By the way, here's a question
Speaker 1: without notice for you. But you took us down that path.
Speaker 1: You're on a media watch. I don't normally watch media watch,
Speaker 1: but I've watched it the last two or three weeks
Speaker 1: and it doesn't look like Media Watch to me. It
Speaker 1: looks like Linton Besse is giving you a digest of
Speaker 1: what he thought was the news during the week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Linton, since taking over, I watch it religiously market
Speaker 2: It's part of what I do. But yeah, it has
Speaker 2: taken on and it's almost getting a little bit too
Speaker 2: even the bias level. I suppose that he focuses on
Speaker 2: the commercial networks. He's really going hammer and tong on that.
Speaker 2: I've got to say, Linton, I know he'll be listening
Speaker 2: because they listen to everything. Yeah, I'm not a fan
Speaker 2: of the show at the moment, but I think he's
Speaker 2: also just trying to find his feet. There's a long
Speaker 2: track record of Media Watch that's been on and I
Speaker 2: think the program itself does hold a lot of media
Speaker 2: to account. In fact, many in the media will say,
Speaker 2: you've never been in the media unless you've been on
Speaker 2: Media Watch or been questioned. But look, I think they
Speaker 2: do a good job. Just a lot of media sometimes
Speaker 2: don't want to be how to account and I think
Speaker 2: we've got to hold everyone to account. And that's the
Speaker 2: beauty of media that we are regulated. We are looked
Speaker 2: at and look That's why I'll always get my news
Speaker 2: from mainstream media as opposed to social media, because I
Speaker 2: know what I'm getting. I don't know what I'm getting
Speaker 2: on the social media side.
Speaker 1: You're right about Media Watch. It's changed a lot over
Speaker 1: the years, and may I say it's come a long
Speaker 1: way from Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells that was its original
Speaker 1: BBC name. Did you know that?
Speaker 2: No? I did not, And I look at you know,
Speaker 2: I always laugh at the people that sort of well,
Speaker 2: I don't always laugh, but I sometimes question why people
Speaker 2: are so upset when they see themselves on there, and
Speaker 2: how they react and respond to it. I mean even
Speaker 2: I've had a text message from Lincoln regarding a particular
Speaker 2: segment that was on. You know, you deal and you
Speaker 2: work with it. But I also say, if we're not
Speaker 2: rocking the boat, if we're not rattling the trees a
Speaker 2: little bit, are we really doing our jobs anyway?
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, So I think it's sometimes it is a
Speaker 2: little bit of a badge of honor being a bit
Speaker 2: hearing on Media Watch. It's how you work and deal
Speaker 2: with them and how you respond to it is a
Speaker 2: real reflection of the brand.
Speaker 1: Nick, appreciate your time in comments. Thank you for coming
Speaker 1: on the program. Thanks by Nick Hay's media commentator, Managing
Speaker 1: director of Media Stable