2 days ago
BREAKING NEWS ABC Q+A is officially axed - as host Patricia Karvelas' next move is revealed
Q+A, one of the ABC's flagship current affairs and news programs, has officially been axed after 17 years on air.
The show went on a mid-year break in May and was scheduled to return in August, but sources confirmed it won't be airing again.
The ABC's news director, Justin Stevens, said the show had a major impact on the national discussion in Australia.
'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.
'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.'
Host Patricia Karveles will be redeployed to Four Corners, and will continue hosting the Afternoon Briefing show.
'Patricia also recently reported for Four Corners, and we've now asked her to do more for Four Corners as time permits,' Stevens said.
It will come alongside a number of planned redundancies across the national broadcaster.
Changes at the ABC come just months after Hugh Marks stepped into the role of managing director, succeeding David Anderson, who served for six years.
Marks had previously signaled a significant shake-up, describing the need for 'a program of renewal and invigoration' in comments he made back in December.
The show has come under fire over the last few years, after churning through different hosts following the departure of Tony Jones, who left in 2019.
Q+A has seen several changes in its hosting lineup, first with Hamish Macdonald, David Speers, Virginia Trioli, Stan Grant and most recently Karvelas taking over as host.
The number of episodes was also cut by ABC staff in 2024, going from 40 episodes a year to just 24.
Q+A also was shifted from its usual slot of Monday night, to Thursday night, a move that was eventually reversed by the ABC.
The show has also seen its ratings collapse in the last five years.
From a peak 600,000 viewers in 2020, Q+A crashed to a low of just above 200,000 people tuning in across the five major capital cities in April 2021.
In August 2023, during the show's 'Garma Special', Q+A received its lowest ratings ever, with fewer than 84,000 metro viewers.
Daily Mail Australia's Political Editor Peter Van Onselen called out the show's collapse in 2023 and said it would not be missed if it didn't return to ABC's roster in 2024.
In an opinion piece for The Australian, Van Onselen pointed out Q+A had received just 203,000 views nationally at that time.
'With numbers this woeful coupled with how out of touch with mainstream Australia the program has become, it really needs to be put out of its misery,' he wrote.
'There have been enough failed reboots to justify finally axing it.'
Van Onselen said cracks started to appear after Tony Jones stopped hosting following a decade in the role from 2008 to 2019.
'It wasn't all that long ago that the program was vibrant and interesting, with discussions well led by former host Tony Jones,' he wrote.
'I remember appearing on it at the time. Ratings regularly hit the one million mark, which precipitated the discussion about changing its time slot.'
Van Onselen lashed the show for not being informative enough and hosting discussions that were 'one-sided, uninteresting and rarely funny'.
He claimed it was the ABC's 'stubbornness' that was saving the show from being axed for good but that a replacement would be welcomed.
Q+A's last episode this year was aired on May 19.
The news comes just one day after Network 10 cancelled The Project, co-hosted by short term Q+A star Hamish Macdonald.
That show had been running for 16 years.
The Project, had been in a ratings free-fall since Carrie Bickmore left her seat as host at the end of 2022.
It will wrap up in three weeks after airing more than 4500 episodes.
