Broadcast news
Yet again, there has been so much for Charlie Pickering and his team on his ABC show The Weekly to pick over this year.
“I thought last year was full on and weird, but this year somehow topped it which makes my job harder and easier,” Pickering said.
That “job” is his annual look back at everything that happened, along with his team from The Weekly, for The Yearly.
The hardest part is whittling down what to put in to the show after a fairly erratic and eventful year in current affairs.
“There’s a lot of material, so the challenge is choosing which stories to tell. We have some amazing stories this year, like the Australian cricket team cheating by rubbing sandpaper on the ball. That was only in March,” he said.
It’s hard to believe when reminded of stories like this that they did happen mere months ago. But Pickering and his team are going to remind us of every major news story going right back to the start of 2018.
“The first big news story of the year was when everyone in Hawaii got sent a message saying a nuclear bomb was coming from North Korea. Really, that level of ineptitude set the tone for the rest of the year,” he said.
Of course, the year isn’t over yet, which Pickering is keenly aware of.
“I hope there isn’t another leadership challenge before we film The Yearly. I’d like to think one is enough for this year, but I can’t guarantee it and we have a back-up plan if someone challenges again,” he said.
But he’s pretty sure he’s got a handle on US President Donald Trump’s output for 2018.
“I feel like the Trump story of the year has played out by now,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, he’s going to do something in- sensitive and stupid every single day, but we’ve learnt to ignore a lot of it which is good.”
The antics of the US President, though, have been ripe for the picking.
“Trump’s high points of the year, I think, were having a summit with Kim Jongun where he played a movie trailer about the future of the world and got Kim to sign a non-binding agreement that he hasn’t stuck to, I think that was pretty magic,” he said.
“And then he had a summit straight after that with Vladimir Putin where he did a very good impression of a dog who rolls on his back and asks someone to tickle their tummy. He took a nice submissive position so everyone knew who the most powerful person was.”
However, it hasn’t been all pratfalls and doom m and gloom; Pickering has already ready decided on his top good-news news story of the year.
“The best story of the e year and the one that gave me the most hope was the Thai i soccer team stuck in the cave and the fact that the world pulled together, and profesrofessionals made good decisions, sions, and they got the kids out,” t,” he said.
Alongside the news stories, ories, Pickering is also joined d by a team of popular professsionals with many Weekly favourites making an appearance for the end- of-year round-up.
“Every year we add d more and more of our famous friends to the show. Kitty (Flanagan) will be back for her final episode. Tom (Gleeson) will be back,” he said.
This is our fourth year and I feel like word is out that it’s a good thing to come by and kiss goodbye to a weird old year.”
Charlie Pickering is fast approaching his favourite time of year, where he gets to pick apart 12 months of major news stories on his annual show, The Yearly. He reminds DANIELLE MCGRANE about some of the year’s biggest and most interesting stories.
The Yearly Wednesday, 8pm on ABC