Ten names Pilot Week shows

Australia’s Network Ten is to screen eight pilots, featuring a mixture of comedy and talkshows, over one week.

Rove McManus

The on-camera talent includes Rove McManus, Dave O’Neil, Troy Kinne, Rhys Darby, Stephen Curry, Harley Breen and former Labor senator Sam Dastyari.

Pilot Week, an Australian first, launches on Sunday August 19, with viewers encouraged to participate and give their feedback via on-demand service tenplay and social media. Audience reaction, social buzz and ratings will help decide which shows will be commissioned for 2019.

Prodco CJZ has a double chance with two pilots. Skit Happens will provide a showcase for up-and-coming comedians while Disgrace! will see Dastyari stir the pot in a half-hour of opinion, insight and laughs.

Roving Enterprises’ Bring Back… Saturday Night will see McManus and young and old performers – acts, bands and TV faces – strive to break down the conventions of entertainment and variety television.

Radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands and criminal lawyer Anna Heinrich will aim to settle disputes in the Judge Judy-style Trial By Kyle, produced by Screentime Australia.

Adapted from the US Comedy Central show, Eureka Productions’ Drunk History will see Rhys Darby and Stephen Curry recount historical events while pretending to be inebriated.

Lune Media will produce Taboo, an adaptation of a Belgian format that will follow Harley Breen as he spends five days and nights with members of a disadvantaged group and then performs a stand-up routine about them – with the subjects sitting in the front row.

Dave O’Neil will star in Dave, a half-hour narrative comedy produced by Studio Bento, while fellow comedian Troy Kinne will front Kinne Tonight, produced by Kinne Productions and Big Yellow Taxi Productions.