Diary has obtained a leaked internal March memo from ABC news supremo Gaven Morris to all Q&A staff, in which he makes the intriguing claim and also suggests the old version of the show had been dominated by politicians who had “nothing to say”.
Morris’s memo says the audience returns from the changes are “profound”, with TV viewers up 25 per cent. “Q&A 2020 is fresh, surprising, interesting and really importantly, engaging new viewers and some old members of the audience who wandered away.”
There is no doubt that Morris, his current affairs boss John Lyons, Macdonald and new Q&A executive producer Erin Vincent have made radical changes to the show this year.
There is a much broader range of guests and even musical performances from talent such as the Wiggles and Paul Kelly; a more physically active host in Macdonald; and tweeted pre-show selfies with the panel.
#QandA is live with National COVID-19 Coordination Commission Chairman Nev Power, @sallymcmanus, @SimonLongstaff, economist Gigi Foster, and @jmcvernon https://t.co/DVM91zfCWJ
— QandA (@QandA) April 20, 2020
But the biggest change is undoubtedly that politicians, the one-time stars of the show, have a hugely reduced status on the new Q&A. In fact, they are being treated rather like someone with COVID-19, quarantined to separate 15-minute video interview segments with Macdonald, rather than being allowed to infect the show’s main panel.
This is a huge contrast to the Jones version of Q&A, whose entire premise was the sport of watching the average punter grilling senior politicians.
Media Watch Dog: It was once presented as the show where “you ask the questionsâ€. But on Q&A's Josh Frydenberg special, Tony Jones took control. https://t.co/2ON1DX4IDW
— The Australian (@australian) April 12, 2019
Morris goes further by telling Q&A staff the changes have been a big success.
“So many people are commenting about the quality of the discussion …. AND, the reduced involvement of politicians who have nothing to say.”
The increasingly diverse range of Q&A guests in recent weeks has included Matt Preston, The Bachelor host Andrew G, comedian Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann, Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis and, perhaps most radically, a full performance by the Wiggles of a coronavirus song. Meanwhile, for several weeks now, the main panel has been a politician-free zone.
This week, we're discussing education in the time of COVID-19 with Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth, @ProfLJP, @mscott, and @daviesLian, with a live cross to @DanTehanWannon. Submit a video question for the panel via the #QandA website: https://t.co/Ho4FHpzK74 pic.twitter.com/Nq9oruaVoQ
— QandA (@QandA) April 26, 2020
-
Mal blacklists 2GB
Unless you turned off your TV, radio and internet, it was hard to avoid Malcolm Turnbull’s great book-flogging tour for his autobiography, A Bigger Picture, last week. That is, unless you’re a 2GB listener.
Turnbull appeared in the studio for the ABC’s 7.30, before multitudes of socially distanced appearances on The Project, 3AW, ABC local radio and Facebook.
But alas, we were denied the sport of a combative Turnbull interview with Alan Jones, Ray Hadley or Ben Fordham.
Diary has confirmed this was no mere coincidence, but a conscious black-listing. Fordham tells us that when his producers put in a request, they were told by the Turnbull camp it was a “no to 2GB”.
The book makes no secret of his antipathy to Jones and Hadley, who he claims in the book are full of “vanity and megalomania” and contributed to his downfall because he wasn’t “in their pocket”.
Fordham has also shed light on the contrast between Turnbull’s current attitude to 2GB and his previous stance.
Back in early 2013, when Turnbull was shadow minister for communications, he approached Fordham through an intermediary, a senior magazine industry editor, seeking a regular spot on his 2GB show. The pair met for coffee at Pyrmont in Sydney’s inner city, where Turnbull confided in Fordham a fear that 2GB didn’t like him, and that he wanted to rectify that. Fordham’s blunt response? “I broke the news to him that I didn’t think he was worthy of a weekly slot, but I’d find opportunities where appropriate.”
-
Turnbull’s tirade tour
It’s increasingly clear Turnbull had media scores to settle during last week’s book-flogging tour.
Sky News’s respected chief news anchor Kieran Gilbert, who had a reasonable relationship with Turnbull over the years, tells us he tried to line up an interview with the ex-PM about the book, but encountered radio silence. First, he reached out through Turnbull’s publishers. Then he went through former Turnbull staff members, but still he heard nothing back.
That may not be a surprise, given Turnbull wasn’t shy in several interviews last week in highlighting his beef with Sky.
"I've told the truth... and if people feel that description is unflattering to them, perhaps they should have behaved better at the time." Former Prime Minister @TurnbullMalcolm has denied his new book is a "revenge plot" against his political enemies. #9Today pic.twitter.com/9tylTIWHK7
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) April 21, 2020
In his interview with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell on Thursday, he even claimed Sky and 2GB both had a “Turnbull-hating tradition”.
Turnbull also saved plenty of personal serves in his many interviews for Sky CEO Paul Whittaker, even claiming that Whittaker had conspired with Tony Abbott for the government to lose the federal election.
In an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne’s Rafael Epstein, Turnbull said: “Paul Whittaker, who was then editor of The Australian, now in charge of Sky News, subscribed to the Abbott agenda, which was to bring down my government, with the expectation that we would lose office, and that Abbott would come back in opposition as leader.”
Turnbull made a similar claim in his interview with 7.30’s Leigh Sales on Monday night without naming Whittaker, instead mentioning one of News Corp’s “most senior executives”.
Despite that, 7.30 still sought comment from Whittaker, who gave a pointed response: “Mr Turnbull appears to blame everyone for his demise, apart from one notable exception.”
-
Stokes on the move
If you’re a billionaire, own a TV network, newspapers and a private jet, getting around COVID-19 quarantine laws is just that bit easier than for the average pleb.
Diary hears Seven chairman Kerry Stokes has now locked himself down in Sydney for an extended stay. But not before Stokes was able to shrewdly negotiate a path through a lively few weeks commuting between the US, Perth, Canberra and Sydney.
Seven finally confirmed last week that Stokes had successfully talked WA authorities into allowing him to spend his two-week quarantine in his stately Dalkeith home, and not in squalid Perth hotel isolation. This followed Stokes’s return to Australia on a private jet on April 8 from his penthouse at Beaver Creek (in the COVID-19 hotspot of Colorado) where the coronavirus had detained him longer than expected.
But a fortnight ago, when this column first got wind of his return to Perth, it was a firm “no comment” from Seven to Diary about whether Stokes was spending his quarantine in a hotel or his own home. By last Thursday, Seven confirmed “Mr Stokes and his wife received an exemption because Mr Stokes recently underwent a medical procedure”.
Just about the minute he escaped his Dalkeith quarantine, Stokes was on the move once more. By Friday, two days out of quarantine, Stokes had jetted down to Canberra for Saturday’s national Anzac Day ceremony at the Australian War Memorial, where he is chairman.
Despite WA’s move earlier this month to strictly close its borders, Diary is told Stokes was given the green light to depart Perth. WA apparently allowed him to leave, but not come back in at this point. We’re told he will instead base himself in Sydney for some months.
After Anzac Day, Stokes was able to make the short commute from the ACT to Sydney, where most of Seven’s serious business goes down. Hopefully, given widespread travel lockdowns, that will be the mogul’s last trip for a while.
-
Peak COVID-19?
There has been unprecedented levels of TV coronavirus coverage in recent weeks. But weekend coronavirus “specials” are finally on their way out. Diary can reveal both Seven and Nine are biting the bullet on ditching Saturday night coronavirus news programs, in favour of the return of light entertainment and movie content.
This coming weekend, Seven is set to run its last Saturday night special edition (for the time being) of The Latest, with Michael Usher and Melissa Doyle, with future weekends to go back to screening movies in the timeslot.
Similarly, Nine has ditched its special Saturday night late news bulletin, also to free up the schedule for some more escapist entertainment. However, the Saturday night 7pm A Current Affair “specials” will remain.
Senior network sources at Seven and Nine say that with the current levelling off in coronavirus cases, people are now looking for new Saturday night fare. But don’t rule out a return of weekend specials in the future.
One source used an appropriate Anzac Day analogy: “We’re doing the Kokoda Track here. There’s a plateau at the moment. But with winter coming, there could yet be more peaks ahead.”
-
V’landys-Marks bout
NRL boss Peter V’landys was taking the fight right up to his sport’s main media rights holder, Nine CEO Hugh Marks, last week.
V’landys entered the ring with Karl Stefanovic on the Today show on Marks’ own Nine network. And it was clear he was ready for battle on his adamant belief that, unlike Marks, the NRL season needs to start next month, no matter what.
In pugilistic comments clearly directed at Marks, who wasn’t as keen on a May restart, V’landys told Stefanovic: “This is like a boxing match. You take a few blows to the head, a few body blows but you save your best punches to the end.”
NRL Chairman Peter V'landys says the game WILL "absolutely" resume on May 28th. #9Today pic.twitter.com/g7Z20WSWGf
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) April 23, 2020
In the blue corner, Nine’s Marks had originally wanted to delay the start of the season to as late as July, which would have saved him millions.
But in the red corner, the NRL’s V’landys was having none of it. Stefanovic asked, seemingly on behalf of his boss: “If Nine says it’s premature … you’ll just plough on regardless?”
V’landys’ replied with a jab at Marks: “Why are we going to rob our fans and players because of scaremongering and alarmist rhetoric? The procrastination’s been taking long enough, and decisions will be made today.”
The NRL boss’s combative approach seemed to work: by the end of Friday, Marks had agreed to a May 28 NRL start date. But don’t rule out a rematch.
-
Robots at Nine
Are robot cameras the future of studio-based news shows?
Diary hears the question was being asked around the corridors of Nine’s Willoughby bunker last week, after Today’s recent coronavirus-driven switch from its normal studio to the cosier surrounds of A Current Affair’s former studio.
Before COVID-19, Today employed about 30 staff in the show’s actual studio, but that figure has now halved as social distancing forces the on-air team to be a leaner operation.
Indeed, necessity has quickly become the mother of invention. Today is quickly getting used to the new reality of robotic cameras, with just one roving cameraman left in the studio. But with cost “efficiencies” now the byword of a media industry looking to find savings, the disappearance of human-operated cameras in the Today studio is making some staff ever-so-slightly nervous.
-
Corona superman
They’re calling him the coronavirus superman.
Weekend Today host Richard “Dickie” Wilkins, NSW’s 171st case of COVID-19, never really showed any symptoms of the dreaded disease.
Wilkins, now several weeks out of quarantine, tells Diary: “I swear on my life — I’ve still not had a runny nose, a headache or a fever. And I’ve not had a Codral or a Nurofen. Not a thing.”
He’s been told he almost certainly caught the virus from celebrity couple Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, both of whom he caught up with backstage at the Sydney Opera House on March 7. But Wilkins tells Diary that the contact tracing indicates that he didn’t pass it on to anyone. That’s despite the fact that a succession of local media identities, including Ten’s Angela Bishop, Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa, and his on-air partner Rebecca Maddern, had to go into self-isolation because of their contact with him.
Dickie says his own quarantine in his Sydney harbourside home made him realise who his real friends were, with celebrity chef Luke Mangan even making the grand gesture of cooking up a “socially distanced” barbecue in his garage to help him through the isolation.
Meanwhile, Wilkins says he now has “Corona for life”. No, not the virus, but the beverage. Many of his friends decided to become comedians for a day with their choice of “get well” gifts.
The result? Eight cases of Corona beer are now clogging up the Wilkins residence.
Tingle jags plum new gig at ABC
High-profile ABC journalist Laura Tingle is leaving the 7.30 program, having been appointed the national broadcaster’s global affairs editor. She will assume the post mid-year.
Stan set to score big with EPL rights deal
Nine Entertainment’s streaming service Stan is believed to be on the verge of buying the highly prized broadcast rights to the English Premier League, in a deal that could be worth as much as $100m a year.
ABC management has fired a thinly veiled shot at the 12-year reign of executive producer Peter McEvoy and Tony Jones at Q&A, claiming the new Hamish Macdonald version is only now winning back viewers who had “wandered away” under the previous regime.