Aussie female stars take to social media to slam Network Ten for it’s male-dominated Pilot Week line-up
AUSSIE female stars — including Jane Kennedy, Magda Szubanski, Meshel Laurie and Wendy Harmer — have slammed Channel 10’s Pilot Week line-up saying it is too male-skewed, but the network has hit back saying it is proud of doing something different.
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CHANNEL 10 says it is disappointed in reaction to its Pilot Week line-up after criticism from prominent Aussie female stars that it is too male-skewed.
Ten unveiled eight shows — mostly comedies — that it will be trialling from August 19, with viewers getting a say in which programs could go to series.
But celebrities including Jane Kennedy, Magda Szubanski, Meshel Laurie and Wendy Harmer took to social media to slam the selection.
Ten’s Pilot Week includes shows fronted by Kyle Sandilands (Trial By Kyle), Sam Dastyari (Disgrace!), Dave O’Neil (Dave), Rhys Darby and Stephen Curry (Drunk History), Harley Breen (Taboo), Troy Kinne (Kinne Tonight), Heath Franklin (Skit Happens) and Rove McManus (Bring Back Saturday Night).
The Bachelor Australia star Anna Heinrich was the only woman announced in Ten’s Pilot Week media release — working alongside Sandilands on Trial By Kyle.
“Oh look. How exciting for all these men,” Kennedy, part of Ten’s Have You Been Paying Attention! team, tweeted.
“There’s a lady in this picture with the remote control so she can watch all these clever funny men who have the opportunity to pilot their own shows.”
Szubanski posted: “We hoped after Kath And Kim things would change. But no. Women still can’t get a guernsey”.
COMMENT: Ten needs to do better than this
Laurie, who hosted the 2011 season of Ten’s Can Of Worms, tweeted: “I’m over it. Can’t be bothered spending my time and energy begging for a seat at the table where I’m not valued.”
Ten program chief Beverley McGarvey, who commissioned the eight Pilot Week shows, has hit back saying she is proud to be doing something different.
“The reaction’s probably not surprising but we are a bit disappointed,” she said.
“I suspect it is about providing context. We (Ten) have 21 new shows on air this year and Pilot Week is eight of them. On Pilot Week obviously there is a really amazing mix of male and female behind-the-scenes people — executive producers and show-runners.
“On screen most of the shows have strong female participants where possible. If Drunk History goes to series it will have a different narrator for every story. Lots of women will be involved in that.
“Anna Heinrich has a very strong role in Kyle’s show. She is the lawyer and the voice of reason.
“With the sketch show (Skit Happens) we are looking for new female comics.
“Although Taboo is fronted by Harley Breen the four participants — three paraplegics and one with artificial limbs — are the stars and two of those are women.
“What we were looking for in the process was ideas that we wouldn’t otherwise commission. We were trying to be bold in our commissioning.”
Ten’s new female-led drama Playing for Keeps — with Madeleine West, Olympia Valance, Annie Maynard and Isabella Giovinazzo — is currently filming in Melbourne.
Ten recently made headlines for poaching Jennifer Keyte from Seven to read its evening news service in Melbourne. Late last year Lisa Wilkinson switched from Nine to Ten to host The Sunday Project.
“We have so many shows on the schedule that are fronted by women and so many amazing female executive producers running our shows,” McGarvey said.
“When we look at our (programming) slate there are strong female voices at the top of our shows.
“In areas we are under-represented we have gone out looking for female voices. We went out and looked for female-driven narrative comedies and we found three.
“Two of them are extremely high-profile in terms of the women attached but they are not going to be part of Pilot Week. If they do make it to pilot it will be next year’s Pilot Week because the lead-time on narrative comedy is about 18 months.”