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All’s fair in ambush journalism and dodgy game shows?

Foot-in-door and ambush interviews are the staple of early evening public affairs shows (both of them). When it comes to getting a good interview, or putting someone on the spot, both ACA and TT have made an art of this.

The game show contestants who today accompanied ACA (or vice versa) during a live Sunrise broadcast, are naturally upset over not getting their cheques from National Bingo Night. The show had questionable practices on a number of counts, including distributing bingo cards in newspapers for a show that was pre-recorded not live, and edit inserts that showed other numbers rolling down the bingo tube rather than the one that was pulled out.

But all game show contracts include a clause that says if an episode doesn’t air then no money is awarded. Fair or not fair, it’s been standard practice for years. In 2004 sorry participants on TEN’s The Resort were left floundering after the reality show set in Fiji was pulled after a handful of eps. Their prize was supposed to be the funds supplied by guest bookings.

For ACA to confront David Koch and Melissa Doyle on air was more than cheeky. What would Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson have made if Today Tonight had dragged angry Mint viewers to one of their OB broadcasts?

But wait – Nine chose to axe The Mint on the very same day it attacked National Bingo Night’s tactics. How timely. Could Nine have realised it too had a show that was less than exemplary?

As Today Tonight also pointed out, today was also the day that ACMA slapped ACA across the wrist for lack of accuracy on QTQ9.

Speaking of accuracy, the ACA website which plugged its own story tonight, had a few more inaccuracies too: National Bingo Night was not “a late night bingo rip-off.” It was actually an early evening show at 6:30pm.

Must be thinking of The Mint?

4 Responses

  1. Funny thing is 7 only were the broadcasters of this program the producers were FOX WORLD AUSTRALIA.
    Its the producers responsibility to pay the contestants not the broadcasters. Of course ACA wouldn’t dare take on the might of news corp!

  2. I agree ACA was stupid for bringing up the people that havent had there episodes screen. But what about the guy that missed out on the car when the numbers that rolled down werent his. He is the guy that has been forgotten about.

  3. ACA are always going over the top with their stories and its unfair! They really have no right to do it because, thought it may be fact, it doesn’t is far too one-sided.

    I’m sure that if I accidentally tapped someone with my bag whilst going on the bus, they would put me up as a woman basher, want me to go to jail and send their people into my Uni class just to make it look like they are big!

    I hate the show with a passion.

  4. Fascinating escalation in the war between ACA and TT. One can only hope that the ACA crew remembered that there are a number of episodes of ‘1 v 100’ that haven’t made it to air yet – have those contestants been paid yet?

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