Well, it doesn't have to be the same to fit the same niche. I think it has a similar audience of cynical university-educated people who think commercial TV news and 'current affairs' is dumb and/or sinister, and so is the politics that performs for it. You're right that it's not always smart criticism itself, but like Sean I have pretty low expectations for politics on TV generally and it feels good to sit back for half an hour and see them enrage the likes of Today Tonight. Last season I think they pretty well humiliated them, first provoking Channel 7's Today Tonight to spend more than half a show spewing outrage about them, then turning down an offer to move to Channel 7.
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> I know people who like them, certainly, or think they're clever. But whatever you make of TDS's politics The Chaser would never have managed any Australian equivalent of the undermining of McCain's rhetoric or the conversation with Obama. I've heard the argument that this is because Stewart claims an earnestness that would never carry in Australia - it would just be mocked right back - and The Chaser (like the D-Generation etc in earlier versions of the same satirical comedy) is what Australians will permit. But I don't think that's a very good reading of either Stewart or The Chaser.
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That's interesting - surely the existence of the ABC makes the TV landscape a lot different though - plenty of earnestness there, and not relegated to PBS's little corner in the US. Of course, the frustrating thing about the ABC is its devotion to 'both sides of the story' now matter how stupid, and a timidity in the face of conservative complaints that make it preemptively conservative - just like the BBC. The Chaser is probably about the limit of what the ABC can handle. Meanwhile execs at the commercial networks seem to have heard how American youth get their news from comedians, so we get 'The 7PM Project' and 'Good News Week'.
Mike