‘Erratic, dangerous, stupid’: The Planet America hosts have picked their winner
Settling in to their lavish Oval Office set, a far cry from the standard news desk draped with the American flag, from which they covered the 2012 Barack Obama re-election, Planet America’s odd couple of US political commentary, ABC journalist John Barron and Chaser prankster Chas Licciardello, are primed for their fourth US election live special. They’ve had their robust debates over the years, many spilling off-air. But this time, they are in furious agreement about one thing: the most likely result.
“Any sensible prognosticator would say, ‘The data tells you there’s no way we can tell [who will win], it is too close’,” says Licciardello, a self-described “massive data nerd”. “But if I was putting money on it, I would say that [Donald] Trump is probably going to just pull it out. But we will see.”
Planet America hosts Chas Licciardello (left) and John Barron say even though the election is a close call, they are predicting a Trump victory.
Barron “wouldn’t put money on anyone”, but expects the same.
“Thrown together” by mutual friend and fellow Chaser Julian Morrow, who Licciardello says was “sick to death of having both of us in his ear talking about American politics and wanted us to talk to each other instead”, the pair clicked immediately.
“Chas and I have similarities in terms of our life trajectories, our interests and our values, but our brains function quite differently,” says Barron. “I come at this from a more traditional journalistic background; Chas brings the X factor.”
They acknowledge a Trump victory may make for entertaining television.
Donald Trump at a campaign event in Detroit on Friday, watching a video of opponent Kamala Harris.Credit: AP
“We learnt from the first Trump act that he’s constantly doing things that are making news,” says Barron. “The unexpected, erratic, often highly unorthodox, even dangerous, stupid – he does all of those things. There will also be things we have never seen before. It’s going to be fascinating. It is the biggest story in American politics since Watergate.”
Licciardello prefers talking about American politics sans Trump. “But what Trump gives you is twice the audience – people who don’t watch your show otherwise,” he says.
The pair have been accused of pro-Trump bias. When in June, a senior Democrat appeared on the program to deride President Joe Biden’s performance in the first presidential election debate, some viewers were angry at the suggestion Biden should drop out of the race.
“A lot of people’s response was, ‘How can you even suggest that?’,” Barron says. “They said, ‘Biden had one bad moment in a debate in a 50-year political career. Donald Trump is a racist, a fraud and a liar, and you’re declaring him the winner of this debate?’. Well, we just had to say, ‘We saw what we saw. Biden was terrible. We called it and a lot of people didn’t like to hear that, but frankly, our experts were right, and we were right’.”
The program attracts up to 200,000 Americans to YouTube replays of some of the most-watched episodes on ABC iview.
“We have a lot of comments from Americans along the lines of, ‘Why can’t American news do what you guys do?’,” says Licciardello.
Local viewers have long pleaded for a “Planet Australia”.
“Yes,” Barron says. “Australia needs a show like this, that looks at what’s happened but also puts it in historical context, and goes into the data. And our response has always been, ‘That’s great and I reckon it’ll last one week!’. Because you’d be walking into a minefield. Both sides would hate you. I say this partly as having spent three years working in the ABC’s fact-checking unit.”
And so they will remain firmly on their foreign “planet”, ditching the trappings of the Oval Office for an entirely new “classified” studio set for 2025.
“We want to understand the US system and how it is that they come to elect somebody like Donald Trump or Kamala Harris or Barack Obama,” says Barron. “Australians want to know because, ever since 1942, if America goes to war, Australia pretty much goes to war. If America’s economy crashes, Australia’s economy crashes. So every now and then, we want to send a ‘Please explain’ letter.”
Planet America – US Election Special is on Wednesday, November 6, 8pm, ABC News; and 9.30pm, ABC.
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