Australian broadcaster, the ABC has announced and apologised in advance for the Chaser team’s new show, “The Chaser’s Media Circus”, an eight-episode series set to debut on Wednesday, 15th October.
“Looking forward a few weeks, we’ll definitely have to admit that in retrospect it could have been prevented,” said the ABC in a tongue-in-cheek media release. Each week, the show will look at the media spin cycle and transform it into a satirical game show.
“The Chaser’s Media Circus” will feature a mix of journalists, comedians and members of the Chaser team who will also be joined by “The Checkout”‘s Ben Jenkins, Zoë Norton Lodge and Scott Abbot.
“The Media Circus format is kind of like ‘The Hamster Wheel… of Fortune’,” said host Craig Reucassel. “It combines the Chaser team’s take on the week’s news and current affairs with the satirical comedy and media analysis of ‘The Hamster Wheel’ and chucks it all together in the form of games. For the Chaser team, news really is a game now.”
“We’re hoping it will be a new low in the decline of news into entertainment,” said executive producer Julian Morrow. “We can’t destroy news, but degrading seems achievable.”
Filmed in front of a live studio audience, teams will dissect the week’s news and media through games like Out of Order, where teams organise news stories in the order they appeared in a TV bulletin.
Other games include Press Pack, where a team member plays the part of a public figure at a press conference defending an embarrassing gaffe, and Evil Mastermind, where teams must decide whether a quote about “evil” is by Tony Abbott or a cartoon super-villain.
“It’s a shame that all the ABC’s good work for Mental Health Week (5-12 October) will be immediately cancelled out by the return of the Chaser team,” said ABC Director of Television Richard Finlayson.
“The Chaser’s Media Circus” premieres on the ABC on Wednesday, 15th October at 8.30pm.
