The big problem with the ABC

THE ABC is meant to provide an alternative to the commercial networks, but increasingly the public broadcaster is just copying them. That’s not good value for our money, writes Colin Vickery.

HOW much do I love my ABC?

That is the question I’m asking after the federal government put a freeze on the national broadcaster’s funding, resulting in an $84 million shortfall over the next three years.

ABC boss Michelle Guthrie was quick to express her disappointment and concern with the decision and said it could lead to a voter backlash.

But will it? When it comes to the television side of things, I think the ABC is all over the shop. There is plenty of room for improvement and more money isn’t the answer.

The ABC has always said that it doesn’t care about ratings. Instead, success is based on viewers absolutely adoring at least one of the shows that it screens each week.

If there is just one killer show on the ABC that you can’t do without and you would never see on one of the commercial networks, the philosophy goes, you won’t baulk at some of your taxes going into its coffers.

But more and more the television side of the ABC is aping channels 7, Nine and Ten — the very thing its charter says it shouldn’t be doing.

Let’s take Fridays at 7.30pm. That is when Seven screens Better Homes and Gardens and Ten shows The Living Room — two gardening and lifestyle programs going head-to-head.

So what has the ABC done? This year it has decided to expand Gardening Australia to an hour and switch it from Saturday at 6.30pm to Friday at 7.30pm — so now we have a three-way like-for-like battle.

Seven and Nine also have an hour of quiz programming each weeknight — The Chase Australia and Millionaire Hot Seat — leading into their 6pm news bulletins.

So what does the ABC do? It commissions its own one-hour-a-night quiz show, Think Tank, hosted by Paul McDermott, to lead into its 7pm bulletin.

The ABC has put Gardening Australia, with host Costa Georgiadis, up against Seven’s Better Homes and Gardens and Ten’s The Living Room.

Seven and Nine have breakfast shows Sunrise and Today so the ABC launches News Breakfast with Michael Rowland and Virginia Trioli channelling David Koch, Samantha Armytage, Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner.

And have you seen the on-air promotion for 7.30? That’s the one where Leigh Sales fawns over celebrities including former Beatle Paul McCartney — straight out of the Liz Hayes/Sixty Minutes playbook.

Instead of being an alternative to the commercial networks, the ABC is turning into a copy.

When the ABC does get a hit on its hands, such as The Doctor Blake Mysteries, which was averaging about 1.5 million viewers nationally, what does it do? Pop the champagne? Throw a party? No, it axes it.

A similar thing happened with its other standout hit, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, with Essie Davis as amateur sleuth Phryne Fisher.

The third season of the crime crowd-pleaser almost wasn’t commissioned despite it also getting about 1.5 million viewers nationally. Angry fans had to petition the broadcaster to get action.

What we’ve been served up in their place are drama duds Pulse and Newton’s Law and five- year-old repeats of Wentworth.

Friday night staple Harrow is so similar in concept to The Doctor Blake Mysteries — Ioan Gruffudd as crime solving forensic pathologist Dr Daniel Harrow instead of Craig McLachlan as crime solving Dr Lucien Blake — that you wonder why they bothered.

Stalwarts Australian Story, Four Corners and Gruen have their must-see episodes but are no longer appointment viewing. Q&A has turned into a self-congratulatory snooze fest.

Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery is a genuine original in the ABC’s schedule.

And I’d rather have burning hot pokers thrust into my eyes than suffer through another five minutes of the infantile Sammy J.

Rebranding ABC2 as a comedy channel full of repeats of Spicks and Specks, Absolutely Fabulous and Red Dwarf is hardly pushing the envelope.

So what is working? Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery, now in its sixth season, is a winner. Who knew that getting well-known Aussies to revisit the past would be such emotional viewing?

News and current affairs satire Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell can also be delirious fun. Hard Quiz, with Tom Gleeson, is good for a chuckle.

But after that I’m struggling. When I look through the ABC television programming schedule there is very little to get truly excited about.

It is mostly a mix of old titles past their best days and clones of shows I can see on the commercial networks.

In 2018, that isn’t good enough.

Colin Vickery is national TV writer.

@Colvick