ABC Chair wants "the ABC to go after younger viewers" - but when?
The ABC wants younger viewers, listeners and readers. But when the effort will begin is yet to be seen. While cultural change at any organisation takes time, it feels like we hear a similar sentiment at the ABC every year with little change.
At its 2025 Upfronts, where a new year of programming is unveiled, the ABC returned to the well of established shows. Instead of any Hungry Beast-style show that featured new talent, the organisation renewed its existing shows with existing talent.
Spicks & Specks is back, still hosted by Adam Hills (54), Alan Brough (57) and Myf Warhurst (51). Hard Quiz is returning, hosted by Tom Gleeson (50). Gruen is also returning, hosted by Wil Anderson (50), Russel Howcroft (59) and Todd Sampson (53). The Weekly with Charlie Pickering comes in with one of the youngest hosts at the ABC, Charlie Pickering (47), returning to skewer politicians with friendly, milquetoast comedy.
Shaun Micallef’s (62) Eve of Destruction is also returning, with the host joking in its first season that "two years ago I resigned from television to make way for bright new young talent here at the ABC. As it turned out there wasn't any, so I'm back doing a new show."
36-year old Guy Montgomery, host of Guy Montgomery’s Spelling Bee, was first seen on New Zealand TV. The host had to prove his abilities and format before being allowed on ABC's airwaves with co-host Aaron Chen (29).
There was no word on whether breakout hit Fisk, featuring Kitty Flanagan (56), Marty Sheargold (53) and Julia Zemiro (57) would be back. Question Everything, another show fronted by the ABC's safe-bet Wil Anderson (50), rather than just giving the gig to Jan Fran (38), wasn't confirmed either.
As TV Tonight reported, ABC Chair Kim Williams spoke at the National Press Club this week on the ABC's age-preferences:
“As Tom Gleeson’s scriptwriters at Hard Quiz forever remind us, the ABC’s audience tends to be older than average. Some of us with less hair even than he has,” he said.
“This has been the case for so long now that people think it is inevitable and irreversible.
“But it is only inevitable if we don’t do anything to reverse it.
“Now I admit I am given to saying there is a new fifty-year-old and sixty-year-old born every minute. However, I want the ABC to go after younger viewers, listeners and readers on every platform as a vital part of our civic duty.
“Not because I don’t appreciate the audiences we already have ¬– we love our audiences — but as a matter of intergenerational equity. The ABC is for all our citizens, no matter what their age. And because reconnecting with the young is now an urgent democratic and cultural imperative. It is a core aspect of our being owned by all Australians.
But the still ABC doesn't trust its younger talent, and it doesn't highlight almost any untested talent either. The days of the ABC fronting a brand new show with relatively young hosts in hosts in their 20s, like The Election Chaser (2001), The Glass House (2001) or Good Game (2006), are over.
The ABC also still fails younger talent. Youth broadcaster Triple J doesn't even produce podcasts for its flagship breakfast, lunch or drive shows anymore, leaving the content as an ephemeral terrestrial-exclusive.
Meanwhile commercial podcast networks are huge in Australia, with Listnr and Nova Podcasts giving much younger talent space on the airwaves and on podcast apps. Triple J hosts that are likely paid less than commercial counterparts aren't even given the digital exposure that a public broadcaster could provide.
PBy Patricia KarvelasIn 2022 when the ABC gave Fran Kelly (64 at the time) a variety talk show, similar to Micallef's, it complained that criticism over the host was ageism. Ita Buttrose, ABC Chair at the time, pointed to the “ignorance of youth” when asked about the criticism. The show was axed that year due to poor performance, even on terrestrial TV and presumably on ABC iView. As Osman Faruqi pointed out:
Buttrose went on to say that “a lot of our comedy shows are hosted by wonderfully young people”, but didn’t name a single one. That’s because there aren’t any. There is not a single ABC TV comedy or panel show hosted by anyone under the age of 35. Of course, it’s not the ABC chair’s job to know the entire programming slate off by heart, but claiming “a lot of shows” are hosted by young people, when that isn’t true, is a problem.
Osman Faruqi
While the ABC should still obviously give older talent hosting positions and would criticise a post like this as being ageist, it seems that it only airs on the safe side with these decisions. And giving hosting positions to mainly established, older talent is itself ageism.
What's also strange is the lack of commercial pressure the broadcaster faces while still playing things so safe. And just how much better some commercial shows, like 10's The Cheap Seats, have been at giving new talent the time and space to grow as presenters, while having to ensure they can fund shows with audience numbers and advertising.
In 2023 the former AUNZ Director of Production at Netflix, Chris Oliver-Taylor, joined the ABC as its first Chief Content Officer. Around the time he joined he described a similar need for the ABC to consider itself digital-first:
“A fundamental challenge we must recognise are that our audiences are declining on our broadcast platforms and the initial growth of our digital products has now slowed on both ABC iview and ABC listen. Today’s re-organisation of our content teams puts us firmly on a digital-first footing,” he said.
Yet at ABC 2025 Upfronts the organisation showed that everything old was apparently new again. Which is fine. But the ABC should stop pretending it is actively considering younger audiences when commissioning shows, and not be surprised when a younger audience grows up with no fondness or care for the ABC at all. Which could be difficult the next time a political party threatens ABC funding.
