The Living Room will return to Aussie screens for its new season on Friday, 26 March at 7.30 pm on 10. Hosts Amanda Keller, Chris Brown, Barry DuBois, and Miguel Maestre will also all be returning to the four-time Logie winning program.
Mediaweek caught up with 10’s head of popular factual Sarah Thornton and some of her team about the new season, how the pandemic affects lifestyle programming and taking the production of the program in-house.
What to expect from The Living Room in 2021?
Thornton said that this season injects more of the host’s personality into the show as they are able to get out and about more.
“I think there is a little bit more of a piece of each of them in the show. When we brought the show in-house it was really about capturing the heart and soul of the four hosts.”
The Living Room’s executive producer Ciaran Flannery also commented that viewers should expect this season of the show to be a bigger version than what they are used to.
“This season’s home renovations are the most stunning we’ve ever done, we’re not just helping families, but businesses and charities as well, and we are back on the road travelling all over the country.”
Ciaran Flannery
10’s partnership director of effect Tamar Hovagimian also said that the show will feature a more seamless integration of its commercial partners.
“In 2021, we have more partners on board delivering seamless integration that adds value for the viewer through informative ‘how-to’ segments, fuelling weekend DIY projects in The Living Room’s unique and entertaining way.”
Tamar Hovagimian
Taking The Living Room production in-house
This is the second season of the show that has been produced in-house by 10. Thornton joked that she wouldn’t recommend setting up a production company at the start of a pandemic.
“It’s been wonderful having the team working together in the office and move more freely around the world. This year we have become a bit more serious about our in-house production. We have got a second show on the go and are really excited about the team that we have managed to attract across to work at 10.
Flannery elaborated more on the production team that helped carry the show through its first year of in-house production.
“Caroline Spencer, our development executive, nurtured the new version of the show into life. Nicole Rogers, the supervising executive producer, has been exactly the leader the show needed, and she had the exceptional talents of Alenka Henry and Kate Witchard at her side.”
Producing a lifestyle program during Covid-19
Thornton said that largely the principles of lifestyle programming remain the same, pandemic or not.
“In the show, we should be reflecting the world back to people. And the core values of entertainment and information should be fused in a seamless way.
“The show will be going out into Aussie’s backyards, helping make certain aspects of their lives a little brighter and really reflecting the world in which we live back through the screen and through the eyes of our hosts.”
Thornton believes that lifestyle content like The Living Room helps fill the demand for people that want to explore Australia.
“Travel content has never resonated with me more or even content that incidentally gets me out and lets me see a bit of Australia. I think this is a moment of patriotism for us right now apart from maybe what is going on in our capital, where we have been stuck in Australia now for some time, but we love it.”
The Project
Thornton said that producing The Project during the height of Covid-19 was a moment in time that she won’t forget but has to give credit to Craig Campbell, Chris Bendall and their team for steering through an extraordinary year – especially considering most of them were in Melbourne during the peak of the pandemic.
“We had to work out how to keep The Project running in a pandemic and not go off air and then we were making a fast turnaround doc about what Covid meant to Australia. It really was a moment of crystallisation for me about what exactly we are trying to do here.
“I wouldn’t say it was seamless but the way that they transitioned to remote working and working in Victoria, which was particularly trying, I think it was a triumph in organisation and dedication from the team.”
How is The Dog House Australia production coming along?
Last year, 10 announced that it will be producing The Dog House Australia, based on the popular UK show The Dog House. Thornton said that besides from the flooding that has happened in NSW that production is going along brilliantly.
“We have a brilliant team with Sally Joyce as our co-executive producer who has come across from Foxtel and our series producer Samantha De Alwis, working with Nic Rogers our supervisor EP and a brilliant team of factual entertainment producers.
“We have commenced our build over at the Animal Welfare League and it’s going to be a beautiful show. We are mid-casting and the cast that is coming through has real heart and emotion, and the stories we have coming through deliver on that.”