Rove’s gone. The Project’s been axed. Radio isn’t what it used to be at night. And your aunty is still sharing Graham Norton clips on Facebook… where’s our version?
There was a time when Australia did late-night shows really well. You could turn on the TV late at night and there was Rove asking Kylie Minogue who she’d turn gay for. Or Don Lane and Bert Newton years before that. At one point, it was our thing. Chat shows. Variety. Celebs making fools of themselves on the telly.
Now, it’s slim pickings. If Harry Styles lands in Sydney or an Aussie act drops an album, what happens? Morning TV? Breakfast radio? A seven minute junket slot? There’s options, but there’s no choice. There’s no destination for these stars like there is in the US and UK.
So, I made one. The Mitch Churi Chat Show.
Earlier this year, I was let go from a dream radio gig with ARN. I won’t lie, it was pretty devastating. And yet, as anyone who’s been lucky enough to work in media knows, redundancy is almost part of the gig. Everyone has a story about being let go. That doesn’t make it hurt any less, but it does free you up to take on something new.
I’ve been doing this for years. Radio, podcasts, TV appearances, talking to celebs, it’s literally my job. And so making a chat show has always been the dream.
So, here’s my crack at it!
What happened to the Aussie late-night chat show?
The history is long. In the 1950s it was In Melbourne Tonight with Graham Kennedy running the show. He basically invented the role of TV host here. Then came The Don Lane Show in the ’70s and ’80s. It was a real product of the times.
In the ’90s there was Steve Vizard’s Tonight Live, which thrived on being a bit messy. But the one that mattered most to me was Rove Live.
Rove wasn’t just a program. It was the place. Pink. Hugh Jackman. Britney Spears. Everyone stopped by. There were sketches, running gags, live performances. It made Monday nights feel alive!
I’ll never forget the show where he asked Australia to turn their living room lights on and off again, all while live-streaming the view of Sydney Harbour into the studio. He counted down from three and all of a sudden the entire harbour lit up like a Christmas tree. It was the moment that stuck with me forever!
The impact of his show, that magic you only get with live TV or radio, the sense of community and shared entertainment. I fell in love with the format… it gave Australian audiences that sense we were part of the bigger picture.
When Rove ended in 2009, the whole genre more or less died there, other than The Project, which was one of the last shows that still booked big stars for a chat.
Commercial radio at night used to be a place for this too. I had my show on KIIS. There was Smallzy’s Surgery. Both gone.
The nighttime space was a hub for artists before they blew up. I interviewed Sabrina Carpenter in 2020, years before her now stellar rise to fame. The same with Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa, to name a few. They all called into my radio show before they hit it big. Those days are long gone.
Yes, we have brekkie TV, it is its own thing. Weather, cooking, promo junkets. Fun, sure, but it doesn’t let celebrities show who they really are. Chat shows do that, they let people relax. They let comedians play. They let stars show personality in a way that actually lands with Australians with a drink in their hand.
Meanwhile, everyone here is still consuming that kind of content. Graham Norton clips flood TikTok. Your mum or aunty or uncle shares them on Facebook. James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke has been a staple. Even Call Her Daddy is everywhere, whether or not you listen to podcasts. These shows drive culture. They create those shared “did you see that” moments. Instantly clippable.
Introducing, the Mitch Churi Chat Show
The Mitch Churi Chat Show is my attempt to give Australia the late night chat show I know audiences are after. It’s part podcast, part late-night show, and inspired by the greats: David Letterman, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and John Oliver, to name a few. I even have a desk inspired by Andy’s Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, and a mug with Conan O’Brien‘s face on it.
The format is late night for the vodcast era: we air two weekly episodes, digesting the pop culture that week, with rotating spots for guests. It’s fast and chaotic and not afraid to be different week by week.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Late night is dying. Look at The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, only six weeks ago announcing that it was cancelled by CBS after over 40 years on air, plus Jimmy Kimmel Live! being pulled from the air indefinitely just this morning. There are less late night chat shows in the US than ever before, with viewership dwindling…. on terrestrial TV… where is it working? THE INTERNET! The beautiful, scary, ever-expanding internet. Why? Because the audience is still there.
Gone are the days where in order to be successful in entertainment and media you need the approval of an executive sitting in a shitly lit board room with too many chairs. Honestly, why do board rooms have so many empty chairs? With social media, the audience is yours for the taking, and with that comes creative freedom. The audience, the listeners and the viewers are your boss, and that only improves the product for everyone.
I’m working with Acast Studios to distribute the show, but the IP is mine. The vision is mine. The set is bespoke based on my design. The show is intentionally shot in a TV studio that we built and can change depending on the guest we have coming in. It’s such a different experience from my KIIS days. Everything went through layers of approval. Countless edits and notes from people who’ve not made content for the internet EVER. Everything had to align with the overall brand — I get it, but you are a cog in a large, commercial machine. With this, if I want a guest, I can book the guest. If we run over, we keep rolling. If I want to do a bad Jojo Siwa impression, I will (and did, on the first episode… many times).
We are launching our first episode with Tyra Banks (gag, I know) and we recorded the episode this week. Her final words were “Mitch. I’ve lived in Australia for two years now. This country needs this. Keep going, this is going to be huge”. She also said her fave show to binge in Aus is Border Security, so… that was kinda iconic.
Look, I’m not reinventing the wheel. Breaking it down like this has been fun, but I feel like I’ve over-contextualised the whole thing. Long story short: I miss the chat show format and I want The Mitch Churi Chat Show to be the destination for local, emerging and global-level pop stars to feel at home when they come Down Under.
Long live the chat show!
Mitch Churi is a comedian, podcaster, interviewer, actor and TV presenter. You can listen and watch The Mitch Churi Chat Show on Youtube, Apple and Spotify, with two episodes dropping each week. And you can follow the journey on his socials — @MitchChuri and @TheMitchChuriChatShow.
The post MITCH CHURI: Aussies Love A Late Night Talk Show. So Why Did They All Disappear? appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
