The Chaser election specials
| The Chaser election specials | |
|---|---|
 The Chaser Decides Logo | |
| Genre | Political satire |
| Created by | The Chaser |
| Presented by | Charles Firth (2001, 2004) Andrew Hansen (2004, 2007) Dominic Knight (2001) Chas Licciardello Julian Morrow Craig Reucassel Chris Taylor |
| Country of origin |  Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Running time | Approx. 27 minutes per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC TV |
| Release | 23 October 2001 – 28 November 2007 |
| Related | |
| CNNNN The Chaser's War on Everything | |
The Chaser Decides (formerly known as The Election Chaser) is a Logie Award-winning Australian political satire based comedy program produced by The Chaser. The show provides commentary on Australian federal elections and has been broadcast in 2001, 2004 and 2007 on ABC TV. In July 2010, the ABC announced that the Chaser team would produce a series of specials in the lead-up to the 2010 election, with the series to be called Yes We Canberra!.[1]
2001 series
The show was the first television production of The Chaser team, which had been running their satirical newspaper The Chaser since 1999. An ABC personality, Andrew Denton found the boys and offered them a contract with the ABC and they went on to produce The Election Chaser, which first aired on 23 October 2001. It was based around the 2001 federal election and was presented in the form of an election tally room, similar to the regular ABC election coverage. The presenters (panelists) were Charles Firth, Julian Morrow, Chris Taylor, Craig Reucassel, Chas Licciardello and Dominic Knight. The show was nominated for "Most Outstanding Comedy Program" in the 2002 Logies but lost to The Micallef Program, which also ran on the ABC.[2][3]
| Episode No. | Original Air Date |
|---|---|
| 1 | 23 October 2001 |
| 2 | 30 October 2001 |
| 3 | 6 November 2001 |
| 4 | 13 November 2001 |
2004 series
Since The Election Chaser, the Chaser team had gone on to produce CNNNN, a spoof of various 24 hour news networks, which ran in 2002 and 2003. CNNNN won the 2004 Logie for "Most Outstanding Comedy Program". With the 2004 federal election looming, The Chaser team decided to produce another series based upon The Election Chaser. The show was titled The Chaser Decides and ran at the timeslot of 9:00 pm Thursday from 24 September 2004 to 14 October 2004.[4]
The show was presented again in a national tally room, but only had four presenters in Morrow, Reucassel, Taylor and Andrew Hansen. Licciardello and Firth did reporting roles while Knight stayed on as a writer. The show was hugely popular and won the 2005 Logie award for "Most Outstanding Comedy Program".[5]
| Episode No. | Original Air Date |
|---|---|
| 1 | 24 September 2004 |
| 2 | 30 September 2004 |
| 3 | 7 October 2004 |
| 4 | 14 October 2004 |
2007 series
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Following the second series of The Chaser's War on Everything, the Chaser crew produced two episodes of The Chaser Decides based on the 2007 federal election.[5] The two episodes replaced the War on Everything in its timeslot for 21 November and 28 November 2007.[6] The format took the same as the 2004 series.
| Episode No. | Original Air Date |
|---|---|
| 1 | 21 November 2007 |
| 2 | 28 November 2007 |
2010 series
For the 2010 federal election, The Chaser will be appearing in five episodes of the retitled Yes we Canberra!. Four episodes will air before the election date on Wednesday's at 9.45pm and one episode after the election in that timeslot. It will be The Chaser's first television in almost a year after the third and final season of The Chaser's War on Everything in 2009.[7] Yes we Canberra! premiered on the 28th July 2010, with the election to be held on Saturday the 21st August. As part of the format it is supposedly part of news program Lateline with the Chaser team being there to warm up the crowd for Tony Jones (news journalist). To this effect the show is held on the set of Lateline with Tony Jones making guest appearences.
| Episode No. | Original Air Date | Mal Award | Ratings[nb 1] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 28 July 2010 | David Barker[8] | 1,493,000 (3rd)[9] |
| 2 | 4 August 2010 | ||
| 3 | 11 August 2010 | ||
| 4 | 18 August 2010 | ||
| 5 | 25 August 2010 |
Notes
- ^ Metropolitan viewers, numbers in brackets indicate nightly ratings position.
References
- ^ Chaser team back for election, ABC News, 12 July 2010.
- ^ "Logie nominations for 2002". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2002-04-03. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Awards from the 2002 Logies". The Daily Telegraph. 2002-05-03. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "ABC Television: Program summary - The Chaser Decides". ABC Television. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b "Chaser announces election specials". Brisbane Times. 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-11-18.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ The Chaser's War on Everything Episode 24 of Season 2. Broadcast on 14 November 2007.
- ^ http://blogs.abc.net.au/abc_tv/2010/07/yes-we-canberra-the-chaser-returns-to-abc1.html
- ^ http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2010/07/yes-we-canberra-july-28.html
- ^ Knox, David. "Week 31". tvtonight.com.au.