Insiders (Australian TV program)

Insiders is an Australian news and talk television program produced by ABC News, and hosted by David Speers, airing at 9am Sunday mornings on ABC TV, ABC News and on demand via ABC iview.

History 
The program debuted on 15 July 2001, and was hosted by Barrie Cassidy for 18 years until his retirement in June 2019. Similar in format to  Sunday morning talk shows in the United States, Insiders analyses and discusses Australian politics with the use of a panel of political journalists and columnists and interviews with prominent politicians and commentators.

Broadcast on ABC on Sunday mornings at 9am, the program also features many regular commentators from various Australian media outlets and think tanks. The show is part of the ABC's Sunday morning line-up, commencing with Insiders, followed by Offsiders, a sports program initiated and formerly hosted by Cassidy, and now hosted by Kelli Underwood.

Fran Kelly hosted Insiders while Barrie Cassidy was on long service leave, and Chris Uhlmann, prior to his move to the Nine Network, also hosted the show in Cassidy's absence.

In March 2019, Cassidy announced he would be leaving Insiders after the 2019 Australian election and after eighteen years in the hosting chair. His last show was on 9 June 2019; regular fill-in presenters Fran Kelly and Annabel Crabb alternated hosting duties until the end of the year.

In June 2019, David Speers was announced as Cassidy's replacement from 2020.

In June 2020, the program received criticism for having an all-white panel discussing the Black Lives Matter movement. An investigation by Junkee discovered that there seemingly had never been a person of colour on the panel in the show's history. Consequently, ABC journalist Bridget Brennan accepted an invitation to be on the following week's program, seemingly becoming the first non-white person to ever appear on the Insiders panel. Addressing the criticism, Speers admitted the previous week's edition of Insiders lacked an important perspective and that the program needed to do better in having more diverse insights into political debate.

In May 2023, it was announced that the show would relocate from ABC's Melbourne studio to Canberra later in 2023. The first episode broadcast live from Canberra was broadcast on 9 July 2023.

Format
As a Sunday morning talk show, the original format of the program usually started with Cassidy discussing the political issues of the week, followed by an interview with a current Australian political figure, usually an Australian politician. Each week in the studio, Cassidy discusses current political issues with a panel of three commentators/journalists of varying political perspectives.

The 2007 series included small changes to the format of the show: re-ordering the segments, commencing the program with the political interview, followed by "Your Shout". Paul Kelly's discussion (this segment was discontinued in 2010) was then used as a starting point for the panel discussion. "Talking Pictures" continued to provide a break point within the panel discussions, with the show concluding with its customary sign-off where Cassidy asked the  three panel members for their "final observation and predictions".

In 2011, the usual program format began with a brief monologue from Cassidy followed by a brief video summary of the major events of the preceding week. Cassidy then reviewed the Sunday papers with the studio panel before moving on to the studio guest. If the guest is present in the studio the interview is introduced by a short video clip relating to the first interview question. The interview usually lasts until midway through the hour and is followed by a video clip which concentrates on events surrounding a major news topic of the week. This was followed by a panel discussion between Cassidy and his studio guests. Cassidy introduced "Talking Pictures" towards the end of the hour, which is followed by more studio discussion. The show usually wound up with Cassidy introducing amusing or otherwise interesting media clips followed by an observation or prediction from each panel member before Cassidy ended the show with a final media clip or two.

The program's editor, Huw Parkinson, has produced dozens of video mashups compositing the faces of political figures onto films and other pop culture footage. Parkinson's videos won him a Walkley Award for multimedia storytelling in 2015.

Since David Speers became host the format has remained relatively consistent, with an opening edited video compilation that frames the weeks key events, opening remarks and discussion with the three panellists, a look at the Sunday newspaper stories followed by a political interview of around 15 to 20 minutes in duration. The discussion returns to the panellists for around 20 minutes then breaking to a prerecorded Talking Pictures package (hosted by Mike Bowers with a weekly guest), then returns to the studio for closing comments and observations.

Regular segments

Your Shout
The Your Shout segment (which was dropped in 2010) gave a member or group of members of the public a chance to air a grievance or present opinions about topical political issues that concerned them, in a short, pre-recorded segment shown during the program.  It appears that the program attempted to ensure that the members of the public selected from week to week represented a broad range of political opinion and were spread across different parts in Australia.

Talking Pictures
Presented by Mike Bowers, the Talking Pictures segment analyses political cartoons and photographs featured in the nation's newspapers, magazines and news websites from the previous week.  Regularly appearing cartoonists and photographers have included Warren Brown, Bill Leak, Geoff Pryor, Bruce Petty, Alan Moir, Peter Nicholson, Mark Knight, Jon Kudelka, Matt Golding, David Pope, Paul Batey, Cathy Wilcox, Sean Leahy, Fiona Katauskas and Alex Ellinghausen.

Poll of Polls
Presented by Andrew Catsaras, the Poll of Polls segment aggregated and reviewed political polling from the previous month. This segment commenced in February 2012, appearing during the last week of each month in 2012, moving to the first week of each month in 2013.

The Curve
Presented by Casey Briggs, The Curve started in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic providing weekly analysis and information graphics of infection and hospitalisation rates. The segment has evolved into other subject areas including electoral polling analysis called The Crunch and the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.

Commentators and panellists

Regular panellists

Former panellists

References

External links 
 

Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming
ABC News and Current Affairs
2001 Australian television series debuts
2010s Australian television series
English-language television shows
Australian Sunday morning talk shows
Television shows set in Melbourne
2020s Australian television series