\n\t\t\t\t\tABC execs defend the use of documentary hosts as a way to bring an audience to a topic. But are there new ones too?\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Last week at the Australian International Documentary Conference, a question was posed to ABC\u2019s top documentary execs about drawing upon the same pool of hosts.<\/p>\n
Kelrick Martin, Head of Indigenous at ABC: \u201cI mean, who doesn\u2019t love Tony Armstrong? Come on!<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ABC has to use whatever leverages and advantages it can to try and bring an audience. And as we said, you know, the audience challenge is there. We can\u2019t deny that it\u2019s not there. So there are absolutely people who audiences gravitate toward. I think if it\u2019s the right fit, then it\u2019s sometimes can be a match made in heaven. You have to get the right host with the right piece of content. For me, I think that it\u2019s absolutely something that we shouldn\u2019t deny. But I think we\u2019re always open to new voices and new faces, and not necessarily just always gravitating toward the same people.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly in the First Nations Space, we\u2019re always looking for new and emerging people to put in front of the camera. Always looking for well known people. Portrait Artist of the Year getting Miranda Tapsell on board as a presenter, I think was a fantastic idea. There\u2019s always new people to discover, and I think that that\u2019s something we\u2019re absolutely open to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panel was pressed on the pathway for new documentary hosts outside of comedy?<\/p>\n
Kelrick Martin: \u201cFor us it\u2019s social media. We\u2019re absolutely attuned to the people that are out there having a huge impact in the social space. I think that we\u2019re very mindful of how they\u2019re connecting with people, and we\u2019d like to see ways in which those connections can also be replicated through our broadcast content. Certainly from our team, we\u2019re absolutely looking in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jo Chichester, Commissioning Editor in the ABC\u2019s Documentary & Specialist: \u201cWe did a documentary last year called Civic Duty with Annabel Crabb. It made absolute sense if we wanted to do a story about democracy and the robustness of Australia\u2019s democracy in our electoral system, why wouldn\u2019t you do that with Annabel Crabb? You know, that\u2019s her wheelhouse. Also she\u2019s very popular. I know not everyone loves Annabel, not everyone loves every presenter, but she is someone who will engage an audience, and an audience will come in just to watch Annabel translate that story.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd also Annabel has incredible relationships and access to the kind of people we wanted to interview. A host does a range of things for the audience. It messages to the audience the type of experience that they\u2019re going to have, which might encourage them to tune in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalita Corrigan Commissioning Editor in the ABC\u2019s Documentary & Specialist added, \u201cWe\u2019ve just done a three part series with Shaun (Micallef). Shaun just brings an intellect and a passion and an authenticity that you can\u2019t capture. Not everybody has that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows the engagement that he has in the topic, and the passion and how he\u2019s there for the audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s bringing a different audience to a really difficult topic that if you were to do as a straight ObDoc, it would be a difficult watch. I think he helps make something that\u2019s really polarising or depressing (entertaining).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC execs defend the use of documentary hosts as a way to bring an audience to a topic.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-530881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530881","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=530881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}