Micallef’s show had everything – a band, musical guests, omgfamous interviews, humour that was properly funny, a competition (such as it was), novelty segments, the works.

Its only error was being too intelligent for the type of people 9 wanted watching, e.g. my parents. ‘That Michael-F show is stupid’ etc.

i was a huge fan of “under melbourne tonight” in it’s day – when i lived in melb. lots of melbourne’s finest hosting little segments and competition like “send us a bottle of whisky”. the boxcutters “send us mars bars” reminded me of that.

that said, i’m happy to concur with adam d. three cheers for micallef.

a panel of hosts – biggsy, josie, marieke too perhaps? this could only be late night teev.

jebo, who are you?! You know that only Ch31 would come close to touching a show with that line-up…

Getting back to the original question: I think the idea of the host doing a song from time to time smacks of Daryl Somers – something I never want to see again.

If it’s going to be a chat show, it’s bound to go at least partly the same way as most others, in terms of format – even Micallef Tonight followed the tried-and-true format. I think the discussion should concentrate more on content, and the only thing I can offer in that vein is NO FLUFF PIECES, PLEASE! If I want sycophants I’ll watch Richard Wilkins or Angela Bishop.

how about tony biggs in to host….something? he could pull off both serious and comedy, could probably get wonderful acts to play if there were to be a musical segment.

a panel of hosts – biggsy, josie, marieke too perhaps? this could only be late night teev.

Speaking of Josie Parrelli, she has a show coming up in the Fringe festival in Melbourne. Check the programme closer to October 5th for details.

Personally, I’m waiting for Kermit the Frog or Basil Brush to make a late-night comeback.
Working ‘blue’, of course

MordWa’s got an excellent point about presence. You might be rubbish, your jokes might belong in the 1950s, but if you have considerable charisma and serve your demographic well, you don’t need much else.

Having said all that, I was going to deliver a golden proposal for a weekly chat show but got stuck at nominating a host.

Ensemble cast working together, with different combinations taking the lead as and when they have something funny.

I realise that it’s a huge strain on the writers’ wrists, but if Tonight shows can be done here and overseas in the past, why not now?

I would prefer less plain interviews and musical acts, but sometimes you’ve gotta plug/fill.

The most important aspect: surprising yet comfortable. You need the wow factor of “didn’t expect that” with an element of “…and that’s why I like to end my day watching these guys…”

And why is it that daytime shows hit the mark so effectively, but late night can’t? Say what you will about Kerrie-Ann K, Bert Newton (ver 10.0), or any of the others who in recent years managed hours and hours of live TV, several days a week. Now, I don’t *like* their shows, nosiree I don’t – but there’s no question they have a solid idea of the show they are/ were trying to be and hit that mark pretty effectively.
Sure they’d need to be tightened up and tweaked for a late night audience, but who’s to say KAK couldn’t adjust?

It seems for whatever reason the local audience just flat out prefer panel-type late night shows (previously the Panel, the Fat; currently Spicks&Specks, RockWhiz, various ‘Footy Shows’, whatever crap Paul McDermot hosts this year)
I’d suggest there’s probably enough to have one of them, most nights of the week.

Also – Dave Letterman and Jay Leno are Late Night Hosts. As per ‘the Late Shift’, being a Late Night Host is all they’ve ever wanted to be. They lust after and covet the role. Who in Australia has wants to commit themselves so completely to becoming a talk show specialist? Rove, obviously, but who else?

So what’s the point of difference in following the standard Letterman/Leno format? Obviously it didn’t work at 9 – they never cared if Letterman was airing at 4am…

The Daily Show is an excellent example of comedy/news – presented by a genius – but it’s not what we’re looking at here.

Let’s tighten the boundaries a little – it’s a 1 hour, weekly show.

Zingers are dead. ‘Bad joke! [pause for applause] [cut to band leader] [drum sting] [cut back to host] [5 seconds of awkward grinning] Another bad joke! [rinse, repeat]‘

Corny ‘news’ segments that follow one sentence of actual news with a poor joke/pun are dead.

Britain seems to have the right idea at the moment. Your Paul O’Grady, your Graham Norton, your Jonathan Ross. They all feel modern, they’re slick, they’re tightly constructed, and you don’t have to like either the hosts or their guests in order to lazily sit through half an hour or so.

The other obvious example would be The Daily Show: probably not technically a chat show, but close enough that it carries roughly the same vibe.

I don’t mind Letterman, for example, but every night of the week? The things that irritate me about his style are what make me watch him only occasionally.

Similarly with Denton, I really love the format and how incredibly well prepared he is as an interviewer, and how seemingly effortlessly (with good editing, no doubt) he leads the subject and us through a probing but entertaining conversation, but it would be much too much five nights a week.

I reckon a network brave enough to try this sort of experiment, and fortified enough to let it run for a few months to build its audience, perhaps tweaking it here and there, could end up with a valuable piece of (late night) real estate.

Let’s up the risk factor and start with five relative unknowns: why not foster new talent as long as we’re experimenting. I guess experimenting is the keyword. I don’t want just something I’ve seen elswehere. I want to be surprised. If I don’t like it I can try tuning in the next night; that host’s style might suit me better.

Also, let’s have some women hosting!

Monologue
Walk to Desk
Segment
Guest 1
Guest 2
Musical Act

Include a band, announcer. No shitty 1960′s barrels etc… I love late night shows and the American formula is the best.