Erin Molan and Elon Musk made a TV show for Twitter. It’s as weird as it sounds

I think it’s fair to say absolutely no one had an Erin Molan and Elon Musk link-up on their 2025 bingo cards, but in a world where President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks resemble a MySpace top eight, perhaps we should’ve expected it.

Premiering on X this past Sunday, the show is called 69 X Minutes (a wink to the legacy media program 60 Minutes and the exact kind of joke I would’ve found hilarious in year 10) and was born out of – where else? – an idea posted by X owner Elon Musk.

The odd couple? Elon Musk and Erin Molan have teamed up for a new current affairs show on XCredit: Aresna Villanueva

Earlier this month, Musk asked his followers if “anyone wants to create a hard-hitting show on X called 69 Minutes? I will actually fund it!”

So, how exactly did Molan get the gig? Well, as much as I’d love to imagine Musk as a big NRL Footy Show guy (he would’ve loved the Crack A Fat segment), it appears to be a result of Molan’s increasingly visible profile on social media.

Until recently, the former Footy Show host anchored the Sky News program Erin at 5 and hosted 2Day FM breakfast alongside Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee. Both were cancelled last year. Since then, Molan has been using her sizable social media platforms, including X, to create and distribute conservative content.

Molan’s appointment was announced by Australian blockchain entrepreneur Mario Nawfal, who is listed as the executive producer of 69 X Minutes. Nawfal hosts The Roundtable Show, an internet talk show featuring guests like former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Hunter Biden, which regularly receives promotion from Musk.

With all that in mind, let’s jump into episode one, which begins with Molan delivering this line: “Welcome to 69 … (pause and camera zoom) … X … (pause) … Minutes. No, not like that! This is a news show.”

Admittedly, this is a strong opener; more current affairs shows should start with heavy-handed innuendos about oral sex. From here, we are told that 69 X Minutes will be “like everything on X, current, fast-paced and maybe just a little bit cheeky”.

Sadly, there’s no mention of whether it will also feature other hallmarks of X, such as cheeky posts from people you don’t follow, cheeky ads for products you don’t want, or cheeky clips of Kanye West selling memecoins in a swastika shirt.

The first segment examines the alleged corruption of the United States Agency for International Development. It features a conversation between Mark Moyar, a former USAID official turned whistleblower and conservative commentator David Pollack.

Given that 69 X Minutes bills itself as an “unbiased and raw” show, kicking things off with a segment criticising USAID, the organisation targeted by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, feels on the nose – biased, even.

Erin Molan on the set of 69 X Minutes.Credit: Screenshot

It’s difficult to argue with the raw bit, though. Despite a net worth of over $600 billion and a public promise to “actually fund it,” I suspect Musk has not broken the bank for 69 X Minutes. The studio set-up is fine; it’s just Molan sitting at a desk with a generic city backdrop behind her, but the rest of the show feels low-fi.

On several occasions, Molan promises we are being delivered “the truth straight from the front lines”. A more accurate take might be that we get a version of the truth, maybe even from someone’s cupboard. Almost every segment involves male commentators Zooming in from their homes, overlaid with YouTube clips.

I appreciate production values might be seen as a legacy media hangover, but let’s try to get the framing right on these Zoom calls.

An awkwardly framed interview between Danish Nagda, a St Louis physician who heads up a telehealth start-up, and Alex Patrascu, an AI filmmaker.Credit: Screenshot

Across the 69 minutes, segments range from a debate about the rise of AI in Hollywood to an examination of Argentinian President Javier Milei, the chainsaw-wielding libertarian who is a Musk favourite. There is also a fair whack of time dedicated to Trump ally Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton, who performs an unchecked monologue about activist judges.

While Molan is an experienced broadcaster, she doesn’t have a lot to do here; with no one-on-one interviews or panel discussions, it is presenting in the truest sense of the word.

It’s not until the closing remarks that she flexes her muscles, reminding viewers: “Stay sharp, stay sceptical and stay ahead of the spin.”

At the time of writing, the first episode had notched up 1.9 million views on X. Whether that constitutes a success remains to be seen, but with Musk famously unafraid of pulling the trigger, Molan appears rightly cautious.

In an interview with Mediaweek, the presenter said: “I haven’t locked myself into anything – whilst I enjoy it and it works, I’ll do it.”

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