Shaun Micallef to compete on Dancing With The Stars
Shaun Micallef will be competing in the 2025 edition of Dancing With The Stars, ensuring the comedian will appear on three shows across three networks within a year.
Micallef ‘s surprise turn on Seven’s shiny floor dancing competition was announced at Seven’s upfront in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon.
This follows the launch of his chat show, Eve of Destruction, on the ABC in August, and Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey in SBS the following month.
Longtime fans of Micallef can be heartened by his recent action; when announcing the end of the ABC’s Mad as Hell in 2022, after 15 seasons, the comedian mentioned he “felt it was time for someone younger to take advantage of the resources and opportunities on offer”, adding “I’m turning 60 in a week for fuck’s sake”.
Speaking to Mumbrella in August, Micallef explained the difference between working on commercial TV as opposed to the ABC has mainly to do with the beats of the show, and the structure the ad breaks enforce.
“I think the construction of the shows is the thing that’s challenging,” he explained, “because on a commercial network, obviously, what you’re doing is providing a lure for people to sit down and sit through ads. That is the financial and economic imperative of the show.
“So having to construct something that over a commercial hour has four ad breaks in it affects the narrative, it affects the pacing and the timing and the momentum, whereas on the ABC, where you don’t have to have those islands of advertising, you can afford to do. If it’s a half-hour show, you do it. It’s a good, solid run. You can build it in a pure way, whereas you have to kind of crank up the energy four times from a starting position, from a stopped position, I suppose, on a commercial network.
“That’s really the only difference I’ve found. You can be also a little more esoteric, I think, on the ABC, and even to a certain extent on SBS, whereas on the commercial networks, there’s a slight worry from management that you might be alienating a section of their demographic if you introduce topics that are a bit rarefied and strange – I still do them, I don’t care. I still throw them in.
“Talk About Your Generation was a commercial program on Channel 10 that did very well, and it was as strange as anything I’ve ever done on the ABC.
“If it works, they’ll let you do what you want.”
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
Have your say