A show about looking for love on the spectrum, a drama about Vietnamese-Australian families and two new series headlined by international names Jenna Coleman and Rachel Griffiths are among the programs on offer from ABC and SBS in 2019.
The public broadcasters have stretched their tight budgets to produce some fresh and diverse content for next year, hoping to stem the flow of viewers to streaming services such as Netflix and Stan.
Coleman heads an award-winning cast that includes Asher Keddie, Ewen Leslie and Alex Dimitriades in a new drama series The Cry, based on the novel by Helen FitzGerald. It is a BBC One production made in association with the ABC, Film Victoria and Creative Scotland. It screened on the BBC last month.
The former Dr Who actor plays Joanna, whose baby disappears in Australia while she is visiting from Scotland on family business, triggering a psychological breakdown.
In ABC’s Black B*tch (working title), Griffiths plays the Australian prime minister, who sees a political advantage in appointing an Indigenous woman, played by Deborah Mailman, to the Senate. But her cynical plan blows up in her face when the new appointee refuses to play.
Love on the Spectrum, a four-part factual series on the ABC, helps people on the autism spectrum find a partner by putting them through relationship coaching and letting them loose on the modern dating scene.
SBS, which unveiled its schedule at an event at Barangaroo in Sydney on Tuesday, has commissioned a four-part drama about the unresolved war trauma suffered by generations of Vietnamese migrants.
What a team! @JaniceKPetersen, @yumichild, @Jan__Fran, @MarcFennell, @adamliaw, @Craig_Foster and @LucyZelic at #sbs2019 pic.twitter.com/hrm1UpkTG4
— SBS Australia (@SBS) November 20, 2018
The director of TV and online content, Marshall Heald, said the channel thrived on telling stories that explore complex issues.
“At SBS, we tell stories and show people on screen that you don’t see anywhere else, giving a voice to communities that would otherwise go unheard,” he said.
The very modern problems of cyberbullying and sexting are tackled in another new SBS drama that uses teenagers and non-actors to tell the story. The Hunt is about what happens in the lives of four teenagers when a nude photo is shared and a scandal erupts.
SBS is right on charter with its new factual offerings. My Family Secret, hosted by Noni Hazlehurst, delves into the multicultural background of Australians; Australia in Colour uses archival footage to show Australia’s multicultural face; and in Medicine or Myth, brain surgeon Charlie Teo tests traditional medicine and family remedies.
The ABC news and current affairs slate will remain the same next year but the daily panel show The Drum has been given a new prime-time slot at 6pm, leading into the 7pm news. Hosted by Julia Baird and Ellen Fanning, The Drum will be repeated at 7pm on the news channel.
Thrilled @ABCthedrum is moving to 6 pm in 2019, to run for a full hour on the ABC. And equally delighted to be sharing hosting duties with this top bird & terrific journalist @ellenmfanning. Feeling v. lucky to be part of #thedrum team headed by the excellent @anniewhiteabc pic.twitter.com/yMNQbDvINB
— Dr Julia Baird (@bairdjulia) November 19, 2018
The Drum will replace the early evening quiz show Think Tank, hosted by Paul McDermott, which has been dropped from the 2019 slate.
There are two new shows on the ABC’s news channel: one hosted by Patricia Karvelas from 4pm weekdays before she swaps studios at 6pm to host Drive on Radio National, and a new morning segment from Monday to Thursday hosted by Jeremy Fernandez and Karina Carvalho. Stan Grant’s show A Matter of Fact has been decommissioned.
In a second blow for the Chaser team, the ABC has declined to commission a Chaser election special for the first time since 2001. In July the broadcaster cancelled The Checkout, the consumer-affairs show produced by the same team.
Charles Firth from the Chaser told Fairfax Media he did not buy the ABC’s reasoning that it did not have the money to fund a show.
“The ABC is an institution in crisis, and it’s a very deliberate thing that’s happened,” he said.
“This decision, along with lots of other decisions … should leave everyone in no doubt that the Liberals have done their work on the ABC and it’s not the institution it once was.”
The ABC denied the group had approached the broadcaster about an election special.
There are some interesting documentaries on both broadcasters. Blue Water Empire, a three-part dramatised documentary series about the culture and history of the Torres Strait Islands explores the arrival of the Europeans, the influence of missionaries and the impact of the second world war.
The phenomenon of pre-wedding photography is uncovered in China Love, which traces the transformation of Chinese weddings from the dour state event they were 40 years ago to the billion-dollar industry they represent today.
SBS is developing and commissioning 15 original short-form programs, both scripted and unscripted, for SBS On Demand, in a diversity initiative intended to give underrepresented communities a voice.
An experiment to test whether the health of older people can be improved by mixing with young children has resulted in Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, a documentary in which pre-schoolers meet retirement-home residents for a regular social event.
ABC favourites Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell, Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery and Anh’s Brush with Fame all return, as do SBS shows Who Do You Think You Are?, Secrets of Our Cities, Marry Me Marry My Family and Struggle Street.
