Chaser's Royal Wedding special pulled

[Miss Chicken]

I thought that this belongs more in Misc rather than TV and Media because it is more of a political topic.

I know that several of our Australian members will be very disappointed with this news.

Just two days before Prince William and Kate Middleton are due to tie the knot, ABC TV has been forced to cancel The Chaser's one-off live coverage of the event due to what it says are restrictions imposed by the royal family.
The Chaser's Royal Wedding Commentary was due to air on ABC2 from 7:00pm AEST on Friday, offering viewers a satirical take on the royal wedding.
But now the live special - promised to be "uninformed and unconstitutional" - has been reluctantly pulled due to restrictions imposed over the Easter break.
ABC TV was initially advised by the BBC, and subsequently by Associated Press Television News (APTN), there were no coverage restrictions that would prevent The Chaser's wedding commentary.
But new conditions of use issued by APTN over the Easter break state footage cannot be used "in any drama, comedy, satirical or similar entertainment program or content".

Rest of story here.


I think the Royal Family has totally lost their sense of humour (if they ever had one)


I wasn't planning to watch the Chaser's show because it is on ABC2 and I can't watch digital TV as I don't yet have a set top box. I had actually considered buying one so that i could view this show, I am now glad that I didn't.

My best friend, who is a great Chaser fan, is very disappointed at this news.

 

[DimesDan]

Big fucking woop!

Good on the Royal Family (and given my view on them, I hardly utter those words) but at least they're trying to restrict the media circus this bloody wedding is causing.

Roll on Friday afternoon and it will all be over. (Well apart from the opinion pieces and the anaylisis and all the other shite that occurs after, just like a football match actually!))

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

heard about this early. It's quite doubtful I will be watching anything with the Royal Wedding at the moment. I still think it's sucks.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Isn't the whole thing streaming on the web? Not the same quality as broadcast obviously, but can't they bypass the BBC footage and work with that?

 

[Deckerd]

There are hundreds of TV companies from all over the world, using their own footage. The ban is just for live coverage. Everyone's entitled to edit it and mock it to their heart's content after the event.

 

[Jono]

Not bothered by this, I found the last thing the Chaser did (which I think would be "Yes we Canberra!") to be mostly mediocre. I had no plans to watch it apart from maybe general channel surfing if it was on and I was watching TV.

Anyway, I'm saving all my TV watching for Sunday when Masterchef starts.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My main beef with it is they are allowing the Dame Edna coverage to continue on one of the commercial stations. I just cannot see why they can disallow the Chaser commentary because it is satirical or comedic but allow the Everage coverage (which will be comedic).

I had no plans to watch anything to do with the Royal Wedding but my friend told me the Chaser team was doing a show and I said to her that I might watch it. She told me I couldn't because it was on ABC2. She said you need to buy a set top box saying I could buy one for $49. I asked her if I buy a set box top will I better reception on ABC1. She said I would so I said I would probably buy one this week. My ABC1 reception isn't that good though I get perfect reception for the commercial stations.

But I forget all about buying one when I was out yesterday.

 

[M'Sharak]

From the article cited by Miss C:

The Chaser's Julian Morrow says the team accepts the ABC has been put in an "impossible position by people acting on behalf of the royal family".

"For a monarchy to be issuing decrees about how the media should cover them seems quite out of keeping with modern democratic times... but I suppose that's exactly what the monarchy is," he said.

"It's traditional for the condemned to appeal to the monarch for a stay of execution, so that's what we're going to do.

And The Chaser has indeed written a letter of appeal to the Queen.

 

[Captain_Nick]

But for the Chaser this 'wedding' would not have appeared on my radar. Nice to see the boys are still employed. I understand Craig Reucassel is going to be hosting the Australian version of Balls of Steel, I love that show

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Seems like this wedding could USE a little satire.

 

[Pingfah]

Big fucking woop!

Good on the Royal Family (and given my view on them, I hardly utter those words) but at least they're trying to restrict the media circus this bloody wedding is causing.

No they aren't, the media circus is exactly what the Royal Family want. If they didn't create a media circus to captivate half the planet they wouldn't be doing their jobs.

What they don't want is people making fun of them, which is the only reason they've done this.