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SBS to wrap Struggle Street a week early

SBS doubles up on episodes next week as social media questions the wider controversies.

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SBS has announced it will conclude controversial doco series Struggle Street next Wednesday, a week earlier than originally planned.

It will screen both second and third episodes back to back from 8:30pm.

In a statement SBS advised, “Due to the significant public interest in the series in the lead up to its broadcast tonight and in consideration of participants who bravely tell their stories, SBS has decided to fast track the series’ which will now conclude in a two hour program next week.”

The first episode aired last night and trended on Twitter with many praising it for shedding light on the disadvantaged:

https://twitter.com/Fluffula/status/595905379390754816

But some still found cause for criticism:

Yesterday the show continued to attract headlines with a protest outside SBS headquarters in Artarmon and questions about whether producers manipulated scenes for dramatic effect.

Radio station WSFM questioned whether a fart which has since been excised was actually a sound effect.

Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali said a scene depicting residents collecting metal for money later shows them buying junk food with the cash, but accused program staff of buying them the food, while the residents spent their money on bread and milk.

“That does not come through in the story,” he said.

“All the way through we have lots of evidence of the wrong and unethical treatment by Keo Productions, and SBS need to own up to the investigations.”

SBS, which has agreed to investigate allegations with producers, said it stood by the program.

“SBS and Keo Films continue to be focused on working closely with, and supporting participants of this documentary as we have throughout the entire production process, as well as liaising with community leaders. We take our responsibilities in supporting the participants very seriously.”

24 Responses

  2. Without having seen (or, really, wishing to see) the series: To be fair to SBS they _do_ have a history of making / comissioning short docu-drama series where ep 1 is basically shallow exploitative “ha-ha-look-at-the-stereotypes!” crap – before turning that around in ep 2 to take a good hard look at the reasons/people behind the stereotypes, and exploring the issues that create / sustain the situation in the final ep. It’s practically a house style for them, and they’ve copped flack for it before too.

    Not saying that’s the case here, but it’s worth considering that the later eps may bring it back home…

  3. I thought it was an interesting show, but the government really needs to look at who is getting benefits and how they are being spent. people buying alcohol, drugs and cigerettes should be cut off.

  4. So SBS has it’s biggest ever show , and what does it do? Burn the rest of the series off in one double episode. Whoever made this decision should be sacked , but they won’t be , because they work at SBS …the Special Broadcasting Service for Special people.They can’t handle the success and frankly don’t have a clue. More evidence that SBS is a sheltered workshop for alleged TV people who can’t really make it in the real world.
    If you don’t believe me why doesn’t someone report on the role playing workshops and HR stupidity that governs their internal organisation? How’s that for a great doco series – Inside SBS – it will make Struggle Street look like Hamlet.

  5. Bit disappointing they have decided to end the series next week.Would have been handy ratings for them.I think they should show this show in schools and show how much of a impact taking drugs does to people and family.The dad is a interesting case has he gone down this road because of his drug use when he was a truck driver??It’s certainly possible…You can see why they didn’t want it aired because truth does hurt

  6. People complaining about this show are the ones not willing to confront the hard truth of what goes on in Mount Druitt and other disadvantaged communities. I saw the doco last night and it was pretty much spot on. If you can’t bare the truth then don’t watch. The doco was about bringing into focus the tough struggle a lot of these families have to deal with to make ends meet. Nothing fictional about it.

  7. Really bizarre decision to shorten its run given the continuing free publicity and the resultant ratings last night. Would have thought that they’d be going thru the cut footage to try to squeeze another ep or two out of it. Then plan on going back out to those people and doing a follow-up to see whether their lives have been changed by all the exposure and whether it’s for the better.

  8. SBS’s head of content who is really a spin doctor described it as “observational documentary”. Sorry but with its heavy duty, judgemental and unsubtle narration and its inability to really weave a story it had more in common with tacky current affairs shows. It is a very low point for SBS for documentary and I would be asking the commissioning editor to explain why it was commissioned. We have some really great observational documentary filmmakers but this company is not one of them. It is really sad to see SBS descend to this crappy style to deal with very vulnerable people. It is voyeuristic poverty porn. How about next week they do one on Egyptian émigré Muslim dole bludgers. I’m sure the managing director of SBS would be thrilled to see this.

    1. I disagree, finally SBS are going a little more mainstream and will capture more advertising $$ with shows like this. It is far more realistic than that contrived, politically driven nonsense “goback” series. Big step forward for SBS I think

      1. Go Back was pretty good and also rated well.

        If they had any sense, they’d lift their game with their Acquisitions and show a little vigour with how they programme.

  9. I think SBS shoul have another rethink. They should see how much footage they have got and create another 7-8 eps and run it all through winter. They should even commission the producers to get back out there with the cameras and get some more stories

  10. How could you not sympathise with Ashley and his partner? Working class family, he had an accident and is now suffering early onset dementia. Some of the others are making poor choices. And the problem is their kids will most likely end up on a similar path.
    It was great to see Reality tv. No manufactured drama, just real people and the struggles that some people in this country face.

  11. Agree with Neil and Reuben. There were some great characters in there with some really raw stories, and it was really interesting to see a side of life that I do not know but is so close to home.

    However, rather than let the people speak for themselves and tell their story the makers of the program thought they could do it better. The blokey condescending voice over was terrible. “That’s how you do it here in the Druitt”. So painful to listen to at times.

    It wasn’t just the voice over though, to me it just seemed to lack any real point, no matter what the makers or SBS now claim.

    Certainly not worth all the attention it’s gotten.

    1. Yes, David Field’s narration is patronisingly ghastly.
      Very sad to see the participants so downtrodden and utterly without hope but many appear to be their own worst enemies.
      Don’t know what all the fuss has been about really.
      Yes, some parts were unneccessary but overall SS wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined.

  12. I told myself I wouldn’t judge any of the people on the show, but found there were a lot of untruths being told by some of the participants. It was quite a sad situation for most of them. Some people should just not have kids.

  13. This should be shown in schools to show kids what happens to your brain when you do drugs. It was awful. I put barely watch it to the end. Several times I almost switched off in disgust. I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone on that show. At least “housos” is funny

  15. I would be furious if I were the producers. SBS has absolutely no backbone which is why their current management have found themselves in their deepest ever ratings hole.

    SBS commissioned this knowing full well what would be covered. There was nothing all that sensationalist about it either.

    Whoever the reactive SBS exec who’s shortened the ratings halo effect for SBS should be sacked.

  16. I should qualify this by saying that I haven’t seen it yet but the unsubtle/trashy narration/voiceover seems to be the biggest problem. If you can ignore that, it sounds like the show is shining a light on people and circumstances that TV usually ignores, which is a good thing.

  17. This is not a documentary … it is at best ‘dramality’. A true documentary would not have wall-to-wall voice over that objectifies the contributors and cast aspersions on their lives. Be interesting to see a breakdown of the budget – hard to believe this cost 1 million dollars of taxpayer money for 6 months of shooting with a single shooter/producer… SBS where has the rest of the money gone? Any why are we funding foreign production companies to make stories for our national broadcasters?

  19. I thought it was lazy story telling. This story has been told numerous times before and will be told numerous in the future. While it is good to continue to put such images and stories in our faces to remind us of its existence, the producers should be looking to take the matter further to get behind some of the reasons why these problems exists. There were glib rationales provided (ice, locational prejudice), but no real exploration of why these occur.

    As to these people on Struggle Street, there but for the grace of God, goes I.

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