If 2010 taught us nothing else – and it hasn’t – it’s that the Australian public have a voracious appetite for politics. Especially car crash politics, which the NSW state political scene seems to have in spades. As an excellent piece of programming, Prime7 have announced that it will produce a unique regional television event in the lead-up to the 2011 NSW Election. Keneally vs O’Farrell. The best part is they are asking the viewers of regional NSW to be involved, giving them a real voice in the process. From the press release:
‘THE BIG ONE’ will be unlike any other pre-election program. For the first time, voters will set the agenda and decide what questions are asked – not the politicians, not the spin doctors, and not the journalists.
PRIME7 invites viewers to participate in THE BIG ONE by nominating the questions (via PRIME7.COM.AU) they want answered by the Premier and the Opposition Leader.
Executive Producer and PRIME7 Network News Editor John Rudd said, “Voters in regional New South Wales don’t give a damn about traffic jams in Sydney and trains that don’t run on time. So we’re asking our viewers to tell us the regional issues that they want fixed. Then we’ll grill Ms Keneally and Mr O‘Farrell for the answers. We’re calling the show THE BIG ONE because there’s never been an election program on anything like this scale.”
Making the announcement, PRIME7 Chief Executive Officer Doug Edwards said, “This public affairs initiative once again demonstrates PRIME7’s leadership in local news across NSW. PRIME7 was the only network to televise weekend news bulletins in southern and central NSW during the flood crisis to ensure our audiences were fully appraised of the threat, and with this program, we will be the only regional television network to provide a conduit between the people of regional NSW and the state’s political leaders.”
“As a responsible broadcaster, we simply couldn’t let the NSW state election pass without putting regional issues under the microscope and ensuring that the views of the people of regional NSW are heard. We’ve put together a talented television public affairs production team for this program, ably led by our News Editor John Rudd.”, Doug Edwards added.
The Big One: Keneally V O’Farrell – Coming soon, Prime7.