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Common Sense on the case of George Pell

New Foxtel / TEN series won't hold back on dissecting big news stories, says producer.

The very first episode of the new Foxtel / TEN series Common Sense won’t hold back on the big agenda topics to be debated by its newly-cast participants.

As Producer David McDonald explains, “There’s probably an assumption that Pell will be in there. The results of the Census, which is interesting for a first episode, to have a snapshot of Australia. And Trump, god bless him, is at it again.

“They would be 3 off the bat I think you can expect to see.”

Local butchers, hairdressers, removalists, real estate agents and retirees are amongst the ordinary Aussies who are about to become television stars.

What Gogglebox does for TV viewers in the home, Common Sense will do for news junkies in the workplace. David McDonald, who also produces the former, acknowledges the similarities for the latter, and happily re-applies the production methodology.

Like its counter-part the show is on a tight delivery, shooting footage as late as possible in order that its news stories are as fresh as possible. But McDonald hopes what he has learned on the fore-runner gives his new prospect a fighting chance.

Gogglebox, apart from sounding like the worst idea on television, was at least going into a landscape where there wasn’t anything else like it. Now this is coming into a space that has Gogglebox and Travel Guides. But you could argue they are popular,” he explains.

“So there will be something to compare it to now.

Common Sense is a little bit of everything. If you think of the sections of a newspaper, there’s the headlines, the world, the human interest stories, entertainment and sport on the back page.”

Newspapers, radio, television and online form the basis of the topics which will be dissected by a cast from Sydney & Melbourne. They range in ages  from 21-92 and tick various boxes on the socio-economic and ethnicity front.

“I hope the audience identifies with them, and they see themselves or someone they know,” McDonald continues.

“We wanted it to be as broad as we could, so there is age and experience at one end and youth and enthusiasm at the other, mixed in with different economic backgrounds.

“We’re totally at the mercy of what happens in the news”

“We’re totally at the mercy of what happens in the news. Sometimes a slow news day may be better because they have to fill up their pages with something, so you get more interesting, obscure stories.

“We have to hit the stories that everyone’s talking about, and has made a big splash during the week.

“But if a really big story hits it dominates everything and you get nothing else for a couple of days.

“Sometimes on Gogglebox it’s the more obscure shows you might not know that are the most fun to watch. For the audience part of the enjoyment is ‘What the hell is this?’”

But Common Sense also has to work as television. Is he confident the show can maintain enough visuals when the source material includes newspapers, radio & online?

“Even with online content, so much of it is embedded with video and visuals. But it’s even amusing sometimes to hear them reading out the articles. You can just read the first paragraph of an article and you’re already off, commenting about it.”

“If it becomes big enough it would be fairly obvious if we weren’t doing it”

McDonald is also conscious of the fact that if there is big news about either of the two networks -like, say going into receivership- then the show will have to consider going there too.

“It’s one of those things that I think we have to do,” he admits. “If it becomes big enough it would be fairly obvious if we weren’t doing it. There has been that approach with Gogglebox, so I hope there hasn’t been bias there in what we’ve done. It’s a case by case basis, depending on what it is.”

And lastly, will we ever get to a point where Gogglebox is reviewing Common Sense?

“I don’t think they will ever be on air at the same time!” he laughs.

“That’s when I would have to pull the pin and say ‘This is ridiculous!’”

Common Sense airs 7:30pm Wednesday on Lifestyle and 8:30pm Thursday on TEN.

11 Responses

  1. Still have not completed watching as the wife got tired and went to bed half way through – She would never have done that through Gogglebox – I’ll finish the rest over the weekend

    For what I watched – I found it pretty soulless – very contrived with how the news came through – I’m sure the characters would be fine if they were on Gogglebox instead of this – but unfortunately they’re not getting much to play with and as a workplace show – as I read from David elsewhere – there’s not much work going on – doesn’t sit right

    1. It seems they are filmed on their break, or possibly after hours, but there is a perception of no work getting done which I think is a problem. Removalists should be carrying furniture and talking, not sitting around. But to achieve this you need a crew and roving cameras and that then works against the fly on the wall / fixed rig that works well for Gogglebox.

  2. I’ve often heard TV being called old media. That image is reinforced by the pic of the four hi-viz workers with the printed newspaper. Newspapers are such “old media” that not even I buy them anymore and I am 58 years old.

  3. Real life vs un-real life. Commenting on the un-real, ie TV, is easy, the other can be more personal and in some cases your views could follow you the rest of your life.
    “Left on the cutting room floor.” How not to offend Rupert, the Billionaire owners, the advertisers, the litigious, the religious extremes, various Pollies and most of all, the viewers with OzTAM boxes. A bit of controversy is good for a show but I wonder how much we will get to see.

  4. In my workplace people just repeat what the morning radio shock jocks said word for word. I wouldn’t want to hear it a third time on the TV.

        1. While yes I agree you can do that, but there’s something different with Gogglebox, TV is a great equaliser, shows can bring people together sharing opinions on storylines/contestants, theories on characters and plot points.

  5. Will check this out. Be interesting to see how they manage to pull this off. Making fun of MKR is one thing. But molestation is a tougher topic.

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