This year’s US election race has given ABC’s Planet America more content than it know what to do with, and that’s saying something given it has two television shows and a podcast.
“It is actually a problem. When we make a show, we go, ‘Okay, what are we not covering this week?’ Because there’s too much!” Chas Licciardello, who hosts alongside John Barron, tells TV Tonight.
”We need our own channel, that’s what we need!”
This past week has include a Democratic National Convention, with names including Oprah, Stevie Wonder, P!nk, Presidents Biden and Obama. The 2024 campaign has also seen President Biden bow out, an assassination attempt on Trump and the nomination of Kamala Harris.
“The conventions obviously are designed for TV, so they’re very easy to cover in that respect. But also the nature of our show is that we’re often last with the news,” he says.
“The story might be four days old by the time we get to it.
“But our game is ‘Okay, you know this story. You’ve read four tweets about this story. Let me tell you what you don’t understand about it, or what you think you know, but it’s wrong.’”
“9:00 is good for the ego, but in reality, I’d prefer just to have a steady timeslot”
Planet America has screened since 2012, factoring in breaks sometimes between 6-9 months. This year intense attention on the battle has led to an earlier timeslot on Wednesdays.
“For those who follow TV schedules closely, they would notice that there was a time earlier this year when we were on at 10:00 on Wednesday. And now it’s after 9:00 which is good for the ego, but in reality, I’d prefer just to have a steady timeslot when people know they can tune into us. I know lots of people tune into iView these days, but to the extent that they watch on TV, I’ve always thought regularity is better.”
The Wednesday episode is first to run, drawing the biggest audience, and adopting the broadest editorial approach.
“The Wednesday show is designed for people who barely have any knowledge about the topic at all. But they like the show of American politics.… they like the colour, the horse race. They don’t like talk about policy,” Licciardello explains.
“Friday has less bells and whistles, less graphics, less clips. It’s just me and John sitting around, nerding it out a bit. We’ll spend 20 minutes talking about a topic, rather than four minutes.…. that’s definitely a show for people really into American politics and that’s why it’s on the ABC News channel.
“Then for the people who are really into it, you’ve got the podcast. That will be me spending 60 minutes breaking down a Supreme Court case (for example). That one’s only for the academics.
“We make the point of not recycling anything”
“We might sometimes cover the same topic, but much more in depth. We make the point of not recycling anything from Wednesday to Friday.”
There are explainers for viewers, graphics, interviews and opinion and even the odd sketch such as a recent parody of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.
This year has also included podcaster Melanie Wicks as a new addition.
“This is the first time we’ve had someone who isn’t me or John as one of the people on the show. Who knows what’s going to happen after this election, but with the kind of interest we get, we’re hoping that we’re going to be back in the future. It’ll be nice to just ease in a third host, bit by bit, and that’s what Melina is.” he explains.
“I’m kind of a weird mongrel form of libertarianism”
Screening on ABC News, the show must also adhere to ABC editorial standards.
But Licciardello says he has no issues with providing balance to the show.
“That’s pretty easy for me, because I’m not really a Democrat or a Republican. I’m kind of a weird mongrel form of libertarianism,” he laughs.
“There are some very, very, shall we say, ‘excited’ people who watch our show who are looking for examples of bias. I think most people don’t have too much of a problem with anything I come up with, because I’m a bit in the middle.
“But basically the way John and I work is when one of us says something, the other person then will jump in and usually take the other side. It’s just a natural thing. It’s not like we’re specifically going, ‘We must do this for editorial policy.’ We just feel like it’s good programming in general. You don’t want to be cheerleaders.”
“We certainly get our share of complaints”
But neither is the show immune to viewer complaints.
“We certainly get some, but it’s usually not about bias. It’s usually about some opinion we say they just they find offensive for some reason,” he continues.
“We certainly get our share of complaints that go all the way to the ABC Ombudsman… but it’s never too serious.”
Licciardello believes an Australian perspective on US politics is justified because Australian politics often follows suit and it serves as a fascinating psychological study.
“The number of times I see an Australian politician just pull out a move which I saw in American politics six months earlier, it’s pretty frequent. It’s pretty obvious where they are getting their ideas from!” he hints.
“But if you care about politics and the actual improvement of people’s lives, it’s universal. The stuff they’re doing in American politics applies to Australia just as much as America…. and when they’re arguing about policy, these are the arguments we’re going to be having in Australia one day soon as well.”
While some viewers initially questioned the show’s place on ABC in its early years, Licciardello notes they stopped after 2016 -when Trump took power.
“It doesn’t matter who the participants are, the war continues”
If Trump wins in 2024, the show is all but guaranteed plenty more content to come, but even if Harris wins there is still bound to be a binfire of political fallout.
“My personal view is that America is going through an era where there’s basically a non-stop partisan war, and it doesn’t matter who the participants are, the war continues. I feel like, whether Kamala Harris is President or Trump is President, you’ll get the same kinds of warring going on,” he suggests.
“I think that whoever Trump is replaced by is going to get loved by the same people and hated by the same people, and the show will go on.”
That means many more long hours glued to screens to select material, edit it, and offer a very Australian perspective on an international soap opera. There’s no let up in sight.
“This is my life, 24 hours a day at the moment. Until the election, this is all I’m doing. If we get renewed, then I assume we’ll keep on doing the two shows a week next year as well. Certainly, history suggests that there’s always a lot of interest at the very beginning of a new administration, when all the gossip happens,” Licciardello adds.
“If I can get a break, then I’ll try and make another show!”
Planet America 9:30pm Wednesday on ABC
Planet America: Fireside Chat 8pm Friday on ABC News
links to content on ABC
TV Tonight
