EXCLUSIVE:
ABC axed the chat show Franklyhosted by Fran Kelly after only one season.
An ABC spokesperson confirmed: “Frankly won’t be back this year,” production sources advise TV tonight had been cut.
With guests including Adam Goodes, Sandi Toksvig, Wil Anderson, Colin Hay, Shaun Micallef, Natalie Imbruglia, Tim Minchin, Myf Warhurst, Magda Szubanski, Richard E. Grant, Joel Creasey, the show was widely well received, with many viewers who even asked why it’s longer.
“That’s the constant comment! People stop me on the street. There’s probably only one person I’ve talked to out of hundreds, who hasn’t said it needs to be longer. If you check Twitter, everyone says it needs to be longer,” Kelly said TV tonight last year.
But the show was also commissioned by former entertainment director and ABC specialist Michael Carrington, who left the station last July. It was screened on Fridays, traditionally an evening with older viewers on a station that already distorts age.
This led to some controversy in the press questioning whether ABC should cast a younger performer for the role, despite emerging talent hosting other ABC shows.
Kelly said last year that the show was based on her experience in music and journalism.
“I too, frankly, have spent most of my life in times where women struggled to be heard and seen. I am grateful for the opportunity to have a voice and for that voice to be heard and seen on ABC. I feel like I’ve earned this chance and I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a show like this, let alone one starring a woman… Wendy Harmer and The big concert? It was a very different show than this.
