The Glass House (2001 TV series)


The Glass House was a half-hour Australian comedy talk show which screened on the ABC from 2001 to 2006.
It was hosted by stand-up comedian Wil Anderson, and co-hosted by fellow television and radio comedians Corinne Grant and Dave Hughes. Two additional guests joined the regular cast each week, including musicians, politicians, actors, radio personalities and other celebrities of varying calibre, such as Young Australian of the Year winners and Olympic athletes. Regular guests included comedians Adam Spencer and Akmal Saleh, netballer Liz Ellis, Play School host Rhys Muldoon, musician Pinky Beecroft, and music critic Molly Meldrum. The show thrived on taking regular shots at, among others, Shannon Noll, Amanda Vanstone, Naomi Robson, Shane Warne and Peter Costello. The format of the programme is similar to that of the BBC series, Have I Got News for You.
The show was pre-recorded in front of a live audience in the ABC's Sydney studio on Tuesday evenings. During the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the show was taped inside the Melbourne Town Hall. The program initially screened on Friday nights, but suffered from an inconsistent timeslot, resulting in humorous TV spots, for example 9:30 Friday...probably. In 2005, The Glass House shifted to a more reliable timeslot on Wednesday at 9:35pm.
The show was recognised by the AFI Awards in 2005, winning Best Light Entertainment in the Television category, and beating long-time rival and ABC stablemate Enough Rope. Also in 2005, The Glass House was voted Most Under Acknowledged TV Show in one of the categories for the satirical TV Fugly Awards.

Segments

The show opened with "Ahead in The Glass House...", where an upcoming segment is announced followed by a few seconds of out-of-context news footage, usually taken from an interview of an Australian political figure.
The main part of the show began with Anderson seated on steps at the front of the stage, who begins with "Welcome to the Glass House, the program that asks the question...", the question concerning an event from the past week. Anderson will then joke about one to four unusual stories and introduce Corinne Grant, who enters from the camera left. Grant starts off with a pun on Anderson's name and performs a similar, but shorter monologue. Anderson then introduced Dave Hughes who enters from the camera right, and usually begins with "This week I'm..." and followed by an emotion, usually 'angry', ad-libbing his concerns. The two guests are announced and greeted by Anderson while the panel assembles at the boomerang-shaped table.
Regular segments included:
Other segments:
Closing segments:
The show ends with two segments performed by Anderson:
On 31 October 2006, the ABC announced the program was cancelled and the final episode of the series would go to air on 29 November 2006 as a one-hour special. Anderson mentioned on the show that they may look at Network Ten as a possible home for the show in the future.
The ABC decision generated public interest, with suggestions the decision may have been politically motivated. Dave Hughes stated that "We have had our best ratings ever,".
The cancellation occurred in the same year as the ABC's decision not to publish the biography of Alan Jones and followed revelations the ABC had begun a new investigation into bias in its programs. The decision occurred one day after NSW senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells told ABC executives under their questioning that co-host Corinne Grant had been guilty of a serious conflict of interest because she was the public face of the ACTU's workplace relations campaign.
Numerous online groups and petitions were created in an attempt to keep the show on air. Although the move came in the middle of Federal Government attempts to force changes in the management and policies of the ABC to remove perceived bias, then Prime Minister John Howard said he did not ask the ABC Board to axe the show.
The final episode was ranked the week's 10th most watched show nationally with 1.15 million viewers, which also provided the highest ever ratings for The Glass House.