The ABC has this morning announced the return of the Adland favourite Gruen to ABC TV on August 3 at 8.30PM.
Wil, Russel, Todd and a team of new and familiar faces are back to deconstruct our vast advertising landscape which gets more freakishly sophisticated every year we find ourselves around the Gruen desk.
Expect to see our panel of experts tackle topical local and international stories, as well as marketing and spin from the sublime to the ridiculous, to the utterly everyday. No topic is too big or small, too stupid or too serious to escape the Gruen treatment.
Fan favourite The Pitch returns as Australia’s top creative agencies battle it out over the thorniest briefs we can throw at them.
“Nine years after thinking ‘we really hope this oddball panel show survives its first week’, Gruen returns as one of the ABC’s best and most beloved programs. It’s a delight to welcome the team back. May they continue to call bullshit on the cynical messaging that surrounds us,” said ABC’s head of entertainment Jon Casimir.
Host Wil Anderson says, “Yes we missed the election, but knowing Australia we will have another one by the end of the series.”
In its many incarnations since it debuted in 2008: The Gruen Transfer, Gruen Planet, Gruen Nation, and Gruen Sweat – the show, produced by CJZ, has garnered various awards: the 2010 AFI Award for Best Light Entertainment Program; the 2012 AACTA Award for Best Light Entertainment Program; the Rose d’Or in 2013; and this year, the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Entertainment program.
When The Gruen Transfer returned last year in September with Anderson and ad execs Sampson and Howcroft, saw 947,000 people tune in to the show on, and came in fourth in the top 20 most watched shows from last night, according to OzTam preliminary ratings. The second most watched non-news show was Ten’s The Bachelor with 920,000 viewers, coming in seventh place.
