Tom Gleeson on Taskmaster: The days of network stars are over
“I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn to say we were very fortunate that he wanted to do it,” Sarah Thornton, head of unscripted for Paramount Australia, laughs. She is talking about luring ABC star Tom Gleeson across to commercial TV a few years ago to host Taskmaster Australia on Ten.
“The will was there,” she says of Gleeson’s motives. “But obviously, he’s very connected with the ABC. A lot of conversations were had between networks and management – and we got there eventually. I think comedy won in the end.”
It has clearly been a successful marriage. The fourth season of the show launched last Thursday to a total audience of 800,000, second in its timeslot only to the Thursday night football. It’s a good earner for all involved, but it wasn’t the cash that initially drew Gleeson across from the national broadcaster.
“It wasn’t the money,” Gleeson says to Mumbrella. “If it was the money, I would have gone into the jungle [on I’m A Celebrity…] more than once. I would have already been in Dancing with the Stars, which I haven’t been, so it was never about that.”
Rather, it was the respect afforded to the original UK version of the show that made him think it would work in the Australian market.
“Taskmaster is, within comedy circles, a really well-known brand, and comedians have a lot of respect for it,” he says.
“In the Edinburgh Fringe, in years gone by, people started to have credits on their poster, ‘as seen on Taskmaster’, because it was this big deal. I was fully aware of the show … it’s highly regarded.”
Ten fosters a large community of comedic talent across a number of programs.
The Project runs six nights a week, with a rotating cast of guest comedians, while three different shows created by the Working Dog team — Thank God You’re Here, Have You Been Paying Attention, and The Cheap Seats — have offered weekly opportunities for exposure over the past few years.
Last month, Ten launched Sam Pang Tonight, a risky late night format that hasn’t worked successfully in Australia since Ten launched Rove Live in 1999. The show has launched well, clearing a million viewers in its first two outings.
It was a doubly risky play for Ten, because it acts as a promotional vehicle for a star not exclusively tied to the network. Like Gleeson, Pang straddles two free-to-air channels, also hosting The Front Bar on Seven. “We love Sam,” Thornton says. “We’re super lucky to have him with the network.”
Likewise, the Working Dog team produce the Logie-winning comedy Utopia for ABC. Last year, Shaun Micallef hosted two different shows that aired simultaneously across SBS and the ABC, plus appeared in Apple TV+ series Time Bandits.
So, are the days of the network star over?
“Talent should be on the shows that are best for them, rather than being tied to a network, ” Thornton says. “I think it’s the future, to be honest with you.”
The less contractual red tape the networks need to deal with, the better.
Nine’s highest-earning network signing Karl Stefanovic has been off-air for two weeks now, without prior public notice to the Today audience. A Nine spokesperson told news.com.au he is on “scheduled leave” but the tabloid speculates it is a power play to protect his $3 million-a-year contract, as he enters into negotiations with new CEO Matt Stanton.
In short: it’s a bit of a mess. Over at Ten, things seem more relaxed. Thornton reasons that restrictive contracts aren’t good for either party.
“In some ways it gives us the ability to cast the right person on the right show, rather than casting, you know, based on network lines,” she says.
“Obviously it makes sense to have network deals with talent who are busy on shows year round. But, I think, especially with comedic talent, giving them the ability to move between networks is a great thing.”
Sarah Thornton
Taskmaster’s success helped Gleeson’s profile at the ABC, while 6.30pm reruns of his Hard Quiz act as a trigger to remind viewers to switch to Ten at 8.30pm. Keen-eyed viewers will have noticed that the ‘ABC Entertains’ channel put a re-run of Hard Quiz in direct competition with last Thursday’s Taskmaster launch, so it’s not all peace and love.
“Their success with him is our success,” Thornton says. “So I think there’s a very collegiate approach to that. But also, you know, the comedians that we cast as the contestants [on Taskmaster] often have affiliations with other networks – we have no problem with that.
“Ultimately it’s just about having the best people on the show, if you can.”
As far as Gleeson is concerned, there’s little operational difference between the networks.
“It’s actually not different at all,” he says. “I almost don’t want to say this out loud, because it might change, but no one tells me what to do at either network, so that’s pretty good to me. I get no notes, really, from either show.” He is aware how his reputation might be swaying this.
“Maybe they both know that if they tell me not to do something, it’s the exact thing I’ll zero in on, so they’re better off not saying anything,” he says.
“But Channel Ten just let me run amok, and ABC let me run amok, and so yeah – there’s no real difference at all.”
Despite having different motivations, both networks ultimately need viewers.
“The ABC pretends to not care about ratings,” Gleeson says. “At the same time, it’s still a measure as to how engaged the audience is with the content, so it puts you in a more comfortable position [to be rating well]. Also, if the ratings fall off a cliff at a certain time slot, because the show’s started and it’s not firing, you’ve got to start to listen to that.
“But, at the same time, it’s not the only metric that they use.”
Ten’s stable of (non-exclusive) comedic talent.
This flow between networks doesn’t just benefit comedians. Last October, while promoting Ten show Dessert Masters, Melissa Leong spoke to Mumbrella about juggling three different projects across three networks. Aside from the baking program on Ten, she was hosting docu-series The Hospital: In The Deep End on SBS, as well as working with Foxtel on its UFC coverage.
“I’ve come from a freelance background,” the former journalist said. “So for me, I treat every gig, every season, every assignment as a privilege and a joy. And so, I just go where the jobs ask me to go.
“We know that the landscape of programming changes all of the time. And I just focus on what I do best, which is bringing stories to life, having fun on television. I get paid to be a little silly as well – and I’m just going to stick to my lane.”
She also saw little difference in the networks.
“I got my start in television on SBS,” she said. “So I’m very familiar with them as a network and they are a wonderful network to work for. I’ve been given great opportunities to work with tremendously talented people, who believe in letting me do what I do, and also teaching me and showing me the way. And so, working for SBS was great – as is working for Network Ten.”
Melissa Leong
Shaun Micallef worked across both SBS and ABC in 2024, and has previously worked at all three commercial free-to-air networks, with varying results.
He told Mumbrella last year, it is never the network at fault if something bombed.
“Everybody’s always trying their best,” he said, of making TV. “You watch some shows — and I’ve been involved with them — where they’re awful. They’re just terrible. And that’s not because they intended it to be like that. It’s just that at some point something fell off and something was compromised.”
He too, sees very little difference in the stations.
“I have been fortunate, I guess, in the back half of the 30 years that I’ve been on TV, for people to trust me to a certain extent.
“They’ll go, ‘Yeah, OK. We’re not sure about that, but we think you can do what you’re claiming this will do. It hasn’t always worked out, but if the ship went down, at least it was my ship.
“So I haven’t noticed that much difference.”
The ABC’s remit, and funding model means they are slightly more risk averse, Micallef explained. But, only slightly.
“The great strength of the ABC is that what they’re supposed to do in their mission statement is offer up things that aren’t available on the commercial networks, to have material and content that will satisfy the audience that they can’t get anywhere else,” he said.
“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.”
Shaun Micallef
Often, oddball ideas once restricted to the ABC can flourish on commercial stations.
“Talkin Bout Your Generation was a commercial program on Channel Ten that did very well,” Micallef said of his 2009 hit. “It was as strange as anything I’ve ever done on the ABC.”
That show saw Micallef slowly taking liberties with the panel-show format, until it resembled an episode of The Goonies. It was the highest-rating show on TV throughout the back end of 2009 and most of 2010, and it wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t have the earlier training ground of his ABC show.
“Yeah, it was very strange,” he recalled of his Network Ten program. “If it works, they’ll let you do what you want.”
Through Taskmaster, Ten is still giving national exposure to the next generation of comedic talent.
“It’s clearly a good platform for them all,” Thornton says. “I think it’s a really great show for new comedians, because we always try and have some comedians that are a discovery for the viewer.
“You get to know the comedians in a way that no other panel show enables you to get to know comedians. Normally on a panel show, comedians come on, they do an episode or two, and then you don’t see them again.
“Whereas with this, there’s a real chance to get to know them over the course of the ten weeks. You see a side of them you wouldn’t normally see, and connect with them in a way you don’t normally connect with them.”
Thornton also explains the format of Taskmaster gives the opportunity for a broad range of comedic styles.
“You get sketch comedy, you get slapstick, you get real physical comedy, you can have musical comedy, and you also have this kind of real personal, visceral experience from the comedian.
“It a really great platform for comedy – and I’m so glad that we’ve got it in Australia.”
Taskmaster airs on Ten and 10Play at 8.30pm on Thursdays.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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