Jono and Ben sign off
On a nostalgia-filled evening, the comedy duo managed to hold it together for their last show – until a certain news anchor got up to speak. Eleanor Black was behind the scenes to see their reaction.
It was Mike McRoberts who finally tipped them over the edge. Until the Newshub 6pm co-anchor jumped up and gave an impromptu speech at the end of the final taping of Jono and Ben on Tuesday night, hosts Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce were darkly cheerful.
They made lots of gags about losing their primetime slot after seven years on Three and indulged in video-replay storytime. The studio audience, fed on beer and boxes of crackers, lapped it up.
And then McRoberts, who had goofily posed as a rogue Rebel Sport employee and as a ‘‘news shrub’’ for them, got emotional.
‘‘We have loved having you as colleagues, and having you on our channel and being such a big part of Three,’’ McRoberts intoned in his best Serious Newsman voice.
‘‘I have loved it every time I’ve been asked to be part of [the programme]. We love you and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing you perform and we are all feeling it today.’’
‘‘Damn, Mike McRoberts made me cry,’’ said Pryor, the more visibly upset of the two hosts.
McRoberts returned to his seat and the guys, now wet-eyed, had to redo the final sequence, in which Stan Walker, clad in the world’s sparkliest tracksuit, led a rousing rendition of Laura Daniels’ final parody song, Goodbye Forever.
This week’s last Jono and Ben came six weeks after it was announced that the comedy show had been axed, having lost half its audience in three years.
In 2015, when the show aired on Friday nights, it pulled an average of 135,000 viewers in the advertiser-friendly 25-54 demographic. This year, in the Thursday night timeslot, that average had dropped to just 68,000.
Core fans remained loyal, and a petition to ‘‘save’’ the show was posted on Change.org last month.
‘‘If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that petitions don’t work,’’ said Pryor. ‘‘Thank you for your 16,000 signatures but they mean f... all.’’
Up against that ‘‘ratings juggernaut’’ Police Ten 7 on TVNZ2, the pair accepted that people would rather watch pixellated images of drunk drivers than tune in to see their un-pixellated faces.
The final programme was a nostalgia trip, with the hosts’ family and friends in attendance and the sharing of what felt like a few too many clips from their 200 episodes.
‘‘If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that petitions don’t work. Thank you for your 16,000 signatures but...’’ Jono Pryor
We relived the time Pryor vomited beneath the Eiffel Tower after eating steak tartare, the time they sailed a bouncy castle across Lake Taupo, the time Pryor crashed a digger into Boyce’s house, etcetera.
The two best segments were contributed by the third and fourth members of the cast, Laura Daniels and Guy Williams.
Having shot a hilariously over-the-top video for
Goodbye Forever, Daniels came onstage wearing an evening gown and clutching a bottle of Moet, and
plonked herself on an audience member’s lap to reminisce.
Guy Williams, whose brother Paul also made a brief appearance, taped a surprise ending to his seven-year Sonny Bill Williams saga.
In the first-ever episode of Jono and Ben, Guy Williams turned up at a press conference where the rugby player announced he was going to play for Japan, and memorably sang I’ll Say Goodbye (Even Though I’m Blue).
Williams stalked his hero in person and online, poking fun at his short-lived boxing career and even following him to Japan.
Three years ago the sportsman blocked Williams on Twitter.
‘‘I’m trying to redeem myself and prove to Sonny Bill that I really am a nice guy and sometimes I push the joke too far,’’ Williams told
Stuff at the time.
‘‘It’s genuinely affecting my life. People were posting on the [Facebook] wall for one of my gigs that they won’t come to my show because of what happened on Twitter.’’
He needed a happy ending, and he got it. Sort of. Williams blew significant budget on flying to Japan again for the last programme, tracking down Sonny Bill – on tour with the All Blacks – in a hotel lobby.
‘‘I just want to say sorry,’’ the comedian said. ‘‘You don’t really need to say sorry,’’ replied a bemused Sonny Bill. ‘‘I haven’t really been thinking about you, to be honest.’’
Then Williams sang for his ‘‘best friend’’ again: ‘‘Is it too late now to say sorry? ‘Cause I’m missing more than just your body...’’
Asked off-camera what he would most miss about the programme, Williams said, ‘‘the free Hallensteins suits. Every week I got a new one. I’m sorted for court appearances for the rest of my life.’’
Also popping up on the final programme were Suzy Cato, Mark Richardson and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who played makeup artist to Laura Daniels, getting into character as the PM.
‘‘The teeth are a little bit much,’’ remarked Ardern.