Mitch McTaggart's must-see special on 2023 TV concludes a Project joke was the target of an orchestrated campaign, fuelled by media clickbait, and ultimately unsupported by Network 10.
�I always stress at the start of the year that there�s never going to be enough things happening and I won�t be able to make an hour of content,� says The Last Year of Television host Mitch McTaggart.
�But this year, either we�ve gotten really good at finding stuff, or TV�s getting more silly. And I think it�s probably a bit of both.�
McTaggart�s mostly-snarky kaleidescope of 2023 television will dissect everything from panned biopics, to baffling programming choices, all the way to the fallout of a joke on live TV.
Screening just days before the curtain falls on 2023 is both a challenge and a jackpot for McTaggart, whose work previously appeared on SBS and Channel 31.
�We try and offer up something new as best we can, because we�re coming in at the tail end of the year. So here�s some stuff that you�ve probably forgotten, rather than rehashing what you already know,� he explains.
�The rule that we have is if Media Watch covers it comprehensively or if The Weekly talks about it at length, then unless we can find a new angle it�s been done.
�We like to watch Charlie Pickering�s Yearly to see if there�s any crossover and through no deliberate attempt they�re really quite different. So I think that�s quite fun. Two review shows can comfortably co-exist and offer up something completely different.�
Indeed many �highlights� posed during our interview did not make the cut: ABC�s King�s Coronation coverage, Kerri-Anne in the jungle, Stan Grant quitting ABC, Ben Roberts-Smith, Bruce Lehrmann trial, the Writers / Actors strikes in the US�. the list goes on.
�You�re mentioning a lot of things I�ve wrestled with. We mention the Coronation, but just in passing, because at the end of the day, I think we�re doing a Comedy show. But to have to unpack a lot of the genuinely distressing things� there�s really a set number of things that we can do of that tone. It�s a tough one, you�re making me really question what we�ve got in there right now!� he concedes.
�Random highlights, there�s the Jesus joke on The Project, that was a phenomenal storm out of nothing. We do a huge piece on Jesus joke on The Project from start to finish. What happened, how it happened, and just what went wrong -if anything. The Warnie telemovie of course. The Spotlight Trans special � bafflingly horrible. There are so many amazing pieces of television. I�m using amazing in a very broad sense there. It�s wild times.�
And TV flops like Blow Up?
�I like how they made blowing up balloons seems life or death.�
The FIFA Women�s World Cup success?
�We cover Channel Seven not broadcasting the Welcome to Country. That was glorious. That was one of our slight rule breaks, given Media Watch had covered that one. But we found a funny joke that we really liked so we kept it.�
Daryl Somers auctioning a Gold trophy at the Logies?
�I was laughing so much at that�. just the fact that nobody else was laughing in the room made it funnier.�
McTaggart also finds time for some of this year�s scripted television.
�Last King of the Cross cops a bit of a mention. We have The Claremont Murders in there, largely forgotten. North Shore, Black Snow, Riptide, Heat, Deadlock, Scrublands,� he continues.
Yet there�s also room to applaud some of this year�s drama storytelling (but you�ll have to tune in for those).
Since his move from SBS to Binge, how does McTaggart incorporate Foxtel commentary? Might FBoy Island get skewered for claiming it is �empowering women�, perhaps?
�There�s not a lot of Foxtel-Binge stuff, through no other reason other than there�s so much stuff that happened on Free to Air. This is where I always find myself in a bit of strife, because I�ve filled up the air time from the overwhelming amount of baffling behaviour on Free to Air,� he insists.
Is there any sign of industry putting forward content for inclusion, given Gogglebox producers are inundated with suggestions and footage?
�We�re very much a fringe kind of show. I think a lot of people would rather pretend we don�t exist. Which is great. It means that we never really have an obligation to include something. We can focus genuinely on the stuff that we want to talk about, which I think works for our tone,� he adds.
�I�d be very curious, though, to see what, what kind of clips people would start putting in front of me if they wanted to be included. I think because we�re maybe a little more -what�s the right word here- scathing than Gogglebox�.�
The Last Year of Television Thursday December 28 on Binge / FOX8
