They may be first-time colleagues, but Charlie Pickering and Annabel Crabb banter like they’ve worked together for years.
The new co-hosts of ABC talk show Tomorrow Tonight admit that while they’ve always admired one another’s work from afar, they’ve never had the chance to work together.
That is, until now.
When TV WEEK spoke to the new on-air duo, their chemistry was palpable.
“I’ve had contractual provisions that have previously spared me [from working with Charlie],” Annabel, 45, jokes.
Charlie, 41, fires back: “Actually, if Annabel is going to be in the building, I generally have to leave. But I will say she’s been undermining this project from the start.”
“Charlie actually made the set out of decoupage!” Annabel says without missing a beat.
Charlie and Annabel are excited to be working together.
Jokes aside, the pair are excited to be working together.
“I can only speak for myself, but it’s just terrific,” Charlie says.
Annabel is, in turn, a fan of Charlie’s TV work.
“Charlie is very funny and a great entertainer,” she says.
“But I love how everything he does is useful in some way.”
The new series will see The Weekly With Charlie Pickering host and the Kitchen Cabinet host joining forces to lead a panel discussion.
The panel will comprise comedians and high-profile Australians talking about a news idea that hasn’t actually happened.
In other words, it will explore the “fake news” phenomenon that has become a part of our vernacular thanks mostly to US President Donald Trump, who regularly uses the term as a political weapon.
The show will air several segments to create a fake news story, and in the process create imaginary moral dilemmas.
Tomorrow Tonight is set to change our views on fake news.
Tomorrow Tonight will show how easy it is to get caught up in a news story or situation − even if it isn’t real.
In the pilot episode filmed in September, both Charlie and Annabel were stunned how they, and the panel, became so easily invested in the fake news situations.
“It’s amazing how quickly you can get into the head space of a story when you’re given all these visual cues,” Annabel says.
“In one way, it’s a real demonstration of how powerful fake news can be.”
“Once you actually do the job of instilling doubt in people, in what they see with their own eyes, then you can win them over to a particular side.”
“That’s a really dangerous entity.”
The scope of the fake news topics won’t be limited to politics, either.
“The most interesting stuff in the world isn’t politics,” Charlie points out.
“It’s real things that affect you on a day-to-day basis.”
