David Speers will host a new panel show on the ABC just seven months after Q+A was axed following an 18-year run.<\/p>\n
The broadcaster said the show, to be called ABC National Forum, would explore pressing news topics with politicians and experts to appear before a live studio audience.<\/p>\n
The first episode would be delving into \u201cthe lives and experiences of Jewish Australians, including issues arising from the Bondi terrorist attack\u201d, news director Justin Stevens told staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cListening to one another is essential to strengthening social harmony and fostering a more cohesive nation,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ABC has always found new ways to engage with the community and facilitate \u2018town square\u2019 conversations, as the national broadcaster is uniquely well placed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers, who hosts Insiders and was one of Q+A\u2019s rotating hosts between 2021 and 2023, said in a statement the show would allow Australians to come together \u201cto share their knowledge and experiences, hear from others and better understand each other\u201d.<\/p>\n
The ABC\u2019s managing director, Hugh Marks, said the new show reflected the ABC\u2019s commitment to bringing Australians together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat responsibility is at the core of our role as the national public broadcaster, and we\u2019re proud to continue investing in content and services that serve and connect our community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Marks hinted about the development of the show at Senate estimates in December when he said the ABC needs to get back a \u201ctown hall\u201d format which had been \u201clost\u201d over the long run of Q+A.<\/p>\n The former ABC managing director Mark Scott extolled the benefits of the ABC being a \u201ctown hall\u201d in 2009; and in 2024 incoming chair Kim Williams revealed he had aspirations for the ABC to be a \u201cnational campfire\u201d.<\/p>\n The weekly flagship discussion program Q+A was launched in 2007 by executive producer Peter McEvoy and host Tony Jones and was highly influential<\/a> in its early years, showcasing tweets on a live TV screen for the first time and consistently generating newspaper coverage.<\/p>\n Announcing the axing of Q+A in June, Stevens said it involved the \u201closs of talented colleagues\u201d but the cancellation was \u201cno reflection on anyone on the show\u201d.<\/p>\n It had been hosted by Patricia Karvelas since July 2023 when Stan Grant stood down<\/a>. The ABC appointed<\/a> Grant as the full-time host of the program in August 2022, a year after Hamish Macdonald quit and was replaced by rotating hosts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Speers will host a new panel show on the ABC just seven months after Q+A was axed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-442773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}