Eight male media personalities to front Ten’s Pilot Week
Network Ten has revealed the lineup for its inaugural Pilot Week, with eight male comedians and media personalities to appear in the locally-produced one off programs.
The week – which will see a number of local programs launch a pilot episode and put them to an audience vote – will be hosted by broadcaster and 2DayFM radio co-host Grant Denyer and Studio Ten co-host Angela Bishop and will run from August 19 across Ten and WIN.
The week will run from August 19
Ten’s lineup includes recently announced Trial By Kyle, a half-hour narrative comedy by Dave O’Neil, a half-hour show with ‘opinion, insight and laughs’ from former politician Sam Dastyari and a Saturday night show featuring Rove McManus.
Other comedians to appear include Rhys Darby, Stephen Curry, former 2DayFM breakfast host Harley Breen and Troy Kinne.
Viewers will be asked to participate and share feedback through Tenplay and social media.
Beverley McGarvey, Ten’s chief content officer, described the week as a “fantastic array of unique and entertaining programs”.
“Pilot Week for us, represents a substantial investment in unique and local production, and further cements Network Ten’s role as the innovator of Australian commercial television,” McGarvey said.
Network Ten’s executive general manager, revenue and client partnerships Rod Prosser, added: “We are the first commercial broadcaster to be doing anything like this. Pilot Week is an exciting initiative that propels Ten’s position as an innovator.
“It continues our commitment to offering creative, multi-platform and innovative opportunities for advertisers and brands, and makes up part of our strongest schedule of programming over the coming months. It is a fantastic way for us to be supporting the local industry on and off screen.”
The week has already been criticised for its lack of female presence.
Triple M drive show host and comedian Jane Kennedy took to Twitter to sarcastically congratulate the men who have the opportunity to pilot their own shows.
https://twitter.com/Jane_L_Kennedy/status/1020874025839427584
https://twitter.com/Jane_L_Kennedy/status/1020882730639224832
2DayFM breakfast co-host and comedian Em Rusciano added to Kennedy’s rant, calling it “poor form”.
Sally O’Donoghue, ABC’s manager for iview and internet broadcasting called it “pretty staggering”.
https://twitter.com/SallyOD/status/1021152994098757632
Mumbrella has approached Ten for comment.
The full lineup:
Skit Happens – Nothing is safe from a Skit Happens parody, when the nations up-and-coming comedians join forces for Network Ten’s first sketch comedy in 12 years. Skit Happens is produced by CJZ.
Dave – Funny-man Dave O’Neil opens the doors to his crazy life in a half-hour narrativecomedy. Expect laughter, tears and the appreciation of not being Dave. Dave is produced by Studio Bento.
Kinne Tonight – Comedian Troy Kinne ditches the stress of modern life, bringing hard-working Australians a fast-paced half-hour of laughter. Kinne Tonight is produced by Kinne Productions and Big Yellow Taxi Productions.
Drunk History – Rhys Darby and Stephen Curry pour themselves a drink in the international hit comedy format that takes Australia’s rich, and often surprising history and re-tells it through the words of our most loved comedians and entertainers. Drunk History is produced by Eureka Productions.
Taboo – Taboo has broken audience records in its country of origin, Belgium. The premise is as confronting as it is simple. The very funny Harley Breen spends five days and nights with members of a disadvantaged group in society and uses the experience to perform a stand-up routine about them – with the subjects sitting in the front row. Taboo is produced by Lune Media.
Trial By Kyle The toughest cases, biggest celebrities and genuine disputes can only be settled by one man, radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands. As Kyle carefully unravels each case, former The Bachelor Australia star and criminal lawyer Anna Heinrich is on hand to assist in forensically analysing the evidence.Trial By Kyle is produced by Screentime Australia.
Disgrace! The world is full of disgrace and outrage. Shunned politician Sam Dastyari and the team behind Gruen and The Chaser manage the latest outbreak of outrage in a half-hour of opinion, insight and laughs. Disgrace! Is produced by CJZ.
Bring Back… Saturday Night Rove McManus is on a mission to bring back Saturday night entertainment. A chance to reflect on what Saturday night means to Australia – then and now. Young performers will bring back the best of the past and performers of the past are challenged with reinvention. Sketches, guests, music and nothing but feel good moments as Rove finds the comedy and laughs by breaking down the conventions of entertainment and variety television. Join his quest to reunite Australia’s greatest acts, bands, and television faces in a generation bending live television show. Bring Back…Saturday Night is produced by Roving Enterprises.
Maybe it’s more to do with demographics. Ten already does well with female audiences with The Bachelor/ette (in Paradise), Masterchef etc. Maybe they’re looking for something to appeal to a male audience, hence why all these are male driven.
The programming boss is a woman after all. If you have a show idea Jane, maybe set a chat with Bev?
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Bev is this an oversight? From what I know of you – you’d be mortified by this. Just admit the mistake and get some non white male talent up there too.
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Context is everything. @Damien could be right.
I’m all for gender equality but that doesn’t mean everything has to be politically correct. Let’s just hope it was a conscious decision. Let’s also hope that appealing to a male audience doesn’t have to exclude women as a given either. It is a complex environment, but being deliberate and planning with equality in mind across the board is what counts.
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Mumbrella equally reports female digital site for Channel Nine too… it goes both ways, so don’t get sucked into outrage here.
https://mumbrella.com.au/nines-future-women-site-officially-launches-530810
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So having viewers vote on a mish-mash of “new” programs makes Ten an innovator.
In all other TV Networks around the world you have skilled people who could make a decision about what programs would work and what wouldn’t. They’re called heads of entertainment/drama/etc and programmers.
Seems that Ten has given up trying to make its own decisions. Probably a good thing with the track record of those running the place. But really…
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Pretty sad for Rove that his rebooted variety show has to “compete” with a bunch of people who have never had their own shows in order to possibly get a run…
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Thanks for that insight Damien. Particularly the bit about Masterchef being for women. We should all be staying home to learn how to cook, after all. Definitely not for a Male audience, Masterchef, with its FOUR male hosts.
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I thought Rove had proven how desperately unfunny he was on that thoroughly bad radio show he was booted off in Sydney..? Without the safety net of writers and pre-taped TV segments he’s just a very average, rather witless, privileged white guy.
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The ABC did this in 2016, so not very innovative (probably why they used the specifics of “commercial channels”. ABC ended up developing Ronny Chieng: International Student and The Letdown, but well done Ten you are supporting local talent, albeit only male talent.
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We can only hope that Ten will commission eight female-hosted comedy pilots next year.
This said, if Ten had commissioned the one eight-episode series fronted by a man, no-one would have noticed his gender. Just as it has commissioned numerous female fronted dramas with many more episodes than this in recent years.
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Both Kinne and Franklin have had their own series before, and most of the others have been on air in various guises.
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And even with the writers he isn’t that funny. Neither was Mr Somers of course. Yet people like Nick Richardson and Laurence Mooney haven’t got a show at the moment…
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I don’t believe I said Masterchef was for women. I speculated that it may rate well among women (along with their other stripped reality franchises) which is why Ten could be looking for a hook for a male audience.
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Oh dear. Knee jerk outrage and PC blinkers working brilliantly here.
International women’s day, women’s this, women’s that, and most of us rejoice, a pissy comedy show with eight men, and a few posters get disgruntled and a number of hens start squawking.
The world is made up of people, so many women so many men, and a number of others who identify or not with one or the other or both or neither. Let the world be.
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The only reason for outrage here is that Kyle is getting another go at a TV show. Did we lose the tape of the last show he fronted? Ten, just show 22 minutes of grass growing, it would be more interesting.
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If a network won’t take a punt on diversity as part of a ‘pilot week’ scenario then what hope is there? A number of these could have gone straight to series based on the experience of the individual – Rove, Kinne, O’Neil, Sandilands – and their success could have been tested in the usual way. Surely pilot week is a chance to try things that are new, different or simply diverse? And as for ‘viewer voting’, Ch 10 have already made most of the decisions for the broader audience – many people will have no interest in any of the programs, leaving them with the particular demographic they actually want. As a network in rebuilding mode they had a rare chance to play both safe and risky with a stack of formats – what a terrible missed opportunity.
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Seriously – Jane Kennedy is part owner of Working Dog !??!
that produce are you paying attention and Russel Coight – if she wants a more balanced representation in front of camera perhaps she could start at home.
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