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The Checkout returns to ABC1 for bigger second season

checkout logoConsumer affairs show The Checkout will return to the ABC on February 20 with an expanded run and a bigger creative team and has challenged fans to create its promos in a customer testimonial style.

Presenters Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel and Kirsten Drysdale return together with Kate Browne from Choice for the season, which will feature 20 half-hour episodes of the show, which takes on and exposes brands for scam marketing and shoddy customer service.

In the sights of the show for its second season are taxi fees and competition; superannuation funds; and product labelling.

Highlights from season one:

ABC TV’s acting head of entertainment Sophia Zachariou said in a statement: “After The Hamster Decides, it’s a relief to see Julian and Craig back on the consumer affairs beat. I’d much rather see them put their energy into hassling big corporations. They can’t sue.”

A number of regular segments from season one will return, with a number of new segments for viewers to look forward to as well including ‘As A Guilty Mum’ – A Brand Power style infomercial uncovering marketing tricks playing on parental weaknesses and ‘Product vs Packshot’ – showing some of Australia’s most lovingly photographed products as they look in real life.

New segments for this season include ‘The Checkout Dictionary’ – a consumer-friendly guide to the meaning of marketer-friendly terms like “Fresh”and “Australian Made”; ‘Right On’ where lapsed lawyer Julian Morrow takes an annoyingly detailed look at the Australian Consumer Law and how you can use it to your advantage; and The Catch – revealing the qualifiers some products put on their packaging like the mountain bike that is “not intended for off-road use”.

Presenter and executive producer Julian Morrow said: “If working on The Checkout has taught me anything, it’s don’t make claims you can’t live up to. So, for the record, we guarantee that Series 2 of The Checkout will…actually, no comment.”

In promoting the 2014 season, the show has a new user-generated campaign which is seeing “satisfied customers of the show” create promos for the program. Viewers are recording short videos explaining their experiences and reading out the program channel listings. Selected viewers will have their videos aired on ABC TV, including in prime time.

Each of the promos feature the slogan for the new series “Don’t get ripped off, watch The Checkout”.

The Checkout is a Giant Dwarf, Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder and ABC TV co-production.

According to the ABC, the first series of the show averaged 1.3 million viewers. The final episode of season one rated 882,000 for ABC1 in the overnight ratings from OzTam.

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