After 17 seasons, more than 500 episodes, and a long run as one of the ABC’s flagship current affairs programs, Q+A has being axed.
The program had been due to return to air in August following a hiatus in May. But the ABC has today confirmed it has pulled the pin, ending the show’s recent Monday 9:35 pm slot, which it had occupied since 2023.
“We’re very proud of Q+A’s great achievements over the years. The team has done a terrific job, including a strong performance during the federal election campaign,” he said. “Discontinuing the program at this point is no reflection on anyone on the show,” said ABC director of News, Justin Stevens.
“We always need to keep innovating and renewing, and in the two decades since Q+A began the world has changed. It’s time to rethink how audiences want to interact and to evolve how we can engage with the public to include as many Australians as possible in national conversations. We’ll be working on how we can continue to foster engagement of this nature in an innovative way”.
“Many extremely talented and dedicated people have worked on Q+A, as presenters and behind the scenes,” Stevens said. “I sincerely thank them all, and everyone who has contributed as audience members and panellists.
“I want to call out current Executive Producer Eliza Harvey and presenter Patricia Karvelas. They are hugely talented journalists who have done an outstanding job with Q+A in recent years.
“On top of hosting Afternoon Briefing, presenting the popular Politics Now podcast and writing analysis for the ABC NEWS website, Patricia also recently reported for Four Corners, and we’ve now asked her to do more for Four Corners as time permits.”
New projects from ABC NEWS include embedding Your Say as a permanent initiative to drive audience engagement in communities throughout Australia.
During the federal election campaign Your Say received almost 30,000 online submissions, 36 per cent of them from outside the capital cities, plus thousands of talkback calls on local and regional radio. Hundreds of Your Say contributions were used by News teams and its insights informed the questions put to politicians and the topics for the ABC’s leaders debate.
“Your Say ensures we have a strong framework for putting the public’s views, concerns and questions at the heart of our journalism, complementing our daily commissioning and reporting,” Stevens said. “We’re keen to see what else we can do with this.”
ABC NEWS is also investing in producing more news documentaries. Building on the success of individual high-end programs such as Killing Season and Nemesis, it will soon advertise for the new position of Executive Producer, Documentaries & Specials.
“We’re excited about being able to produce additional high impact, premium news documentary programs to complement the ABC’s strong factual slate,” Stevens said.
First airing in 2008, Q+A was created by Peter McEvoy and modelled loosely on the BBC’s Question Time. Long-time host Tony Jones led the program for over a decade before stepping down in 2019. A series of guest hosts followed until Hamish Macdonald was appointed in 2020.
Stan Grant took over in 2022, but his time in the role was marred by relentless racist abuse directed at him and his family. His emotional departure sparked national conversation around the toll of media scrutiny and public racism.
“To those who have abused me and my family, I would just say — if your aim was to hurt me, well, you’ve succeeded,” he said at the time. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I must have given you so much cause to hate me,” he said.
“I will get back up. And you can come at me again, and I will meet you with the love of my people. My people can teach the world to love”.
“I need a break from the media. I feel like I’m part of the problem and I need to ask myself how, or if, we can do it better.”
“Too often, we are the poison in the bloodstream of our society.”
Patricia Karvelas, host of RN Breakfast, stepped in as a temporary replacement and became the show’s official host in 2023.
Karvelas said she had immensely enjoyed being part of the program.
“Spending time with the audience members who came to Q+A late on a Monday night has been the best part of this job,” she said. “They have always been the reason for this show and I’m forever grateful to them for coming on national TV and having the courage to ask questions of powerful people.”
Grant’s departure is not the first controversy to rattle the show, Q+A remained a lightning rod for public debate. At the end of 2023, an episode focused on the conflict in Gaza attracted 987 complaints when, given the controversial nature of the debate, the episode was recorded in an empty studio with no audience.
Karvelas opened the episode by acknowledging the “difficult and sensitive discussion” to come, highlighting the police presence outside ABC’s Melbourne studio. “We believe in your right to ask questions, and that is a right we will always defend,” she said.
The panel featured Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts, former Australian ambassador Dave Sharma, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network head Nasser Mashni, AIJAC national chair Mark Leibler, and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. While civil for the most part, the debate flared into tense exchanges between Mashni and Leibler. At one point, Karvelas stepped in to de-escalate: “Deep breaths, deep breaths, and I hope the country is having one too.”
Critics on social media accused the show of imbalance, with several viewers saying pro-Palestinian voices were interrupted or marginalised. “Francesca is the international legal expert, and she was completely disregarded,” one viewer wrote. “They effectively attacked Nasser on live TV.” Others expressed frustration that trauma in Gaza was not adequately acknowledged.
Though once a staple of national political conversation, Q+A has struggled to retain its audience. After shifting from Monday to Thursday nights in late 2020, ratings tumbled. The show averaged just 250,000 metro viewers in 2021, a sharp decline from 468,000 the year before. Even after returning to Mondays, audience numbers failed to rebound. One 2023 episode pulled just 84,000 metro viewers.
Karvelas helped lift the show’s ratings in recent months, with a May episode drawing 377,000 metro viewers, one of the show’s strongest performances in years. But despite signs of revival, it appears the momentum came too late.
The ABC has yet to confirm the show’s cancellation publicly, but if the reports are accurate, it will mark the end of one of the broadcaster’s most ambitious, and most scrutinised, experiments in live public discourse.
