Jordan Peterson to appear on ABC’s Q&A program
Jordan Peterson — often a target of vitriol from those on the left — has received an offer to appear on the ABC’s flagship panel show.
Jordan Peterson has received an offer to appear on the ABC’s panel show, Q&A — and he has accepted.
The Australian understands that Peterson has agreed to appear on the show live from Melbourne, on Monday, February 25.
It will be Peterson’s first appearance on Q&A, after the program was, lamentably and controversially, unable to accommodate him during his sold-out lecture tour in 2018.
Peterson last week returned to Australia for a second series of sold-out lectures based around his runaway bestseller, Twelve Rules for Life: an Antidote to Chaos.
As The Australian reported on Saturday, he had not been scheduled to appear on Q&A during this year’s tour, either.
Peterson, a Canadian psychologist, is a controversial figure, having been accused of misogyny, transphobia, racism, and bigotry.
He says he merely speaks common sense about the differences between the sexes.
He shot to fame around the world after a bruising intellectual clash with a Channel Four presenter, Cathy Newman.
She was accused of verballing him; he of holding his nerve in the face of left-wing bias.
Their stoush was over the gender pay gap: Peterson argues that if it exists at all, it is largely the outcome of choices made by mothers, who prefer to work part-time after the arrival of children.
Tickets for Peterson’s Opera House show on Saturday sold out in less than three minutes.
Several new shows, at venues around Australia, were later added, to accommodate fans.
Resale tickets to his free-form, unscripted lectures on the meaning of life are now changing hands online for more than $900 a pop.
Readers of The Australian were divided at the weekend over whether Peterson should accept an offer from Q&A, were one to be made.
“The problem is that on Q&A JP would be flat out finishing a sentence before Tony Jones cuts him off. It wouldn’t be worth his while — in fact it would be a great insult as he would be treated so rudely,” said one.
“Judging by past performance he’d knock them all into a cocked hat. They know it and he won’t be invited,” said another.
“JP doesn’t need to go anywhere near Q&A to get his message across. I am surprised by the number of Millennials who already know who he is, and what he stands for. In other words, they are fed up with the nonsense they have been indoctrinated with in the classroom, and are craving knowledge,” chimed another.
“If the Q&A gang could be made to shut up, listen and engage in civil conversation, it would be worth Peterson being there.”
It isn’t yet clear whether regular host Tony Jones will host the Peterson panel: he is stepping down from Q&A at the end of the year, and will do fewer programs than normal in 2019.
There was some support for Peterson appearing with one of the ABC’s regular stand-ins.
“This guy deserves his own Q&A. With (Virginia) Trioli,” said one.
Comment is being sought from the ABC.
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