Is Barnaby Joyce worth $150,000 to Sunday Night?

Documenting the Barnaby affair costs less than making fictional TV drama, yet it's just as entertaining. So it's a no-brainer, really.

Emily Watkins

May 28, 2018

4

Compared to the peanuts most reality TV stars in Australia are paid for their 15 minutes of fame, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce's reported $150,000 is quite a tidy sum.

The Weekend Australian revealed Seven's deal with Joyce and his partner Vikki Campion on Saturday. The six-figure pay packet is hefty compared to the usual $11,900 it costs to produce an hour of news and current affairs programming, and doesn't even include the usual production costs that will still apply to the program. But if the episode of Sunday Night produces anywhere near the amount of drama the Joyce-Campion story has so far, it could be worth more to the network than the average $645,700 it costs to produce an hour of narrative TV drama in Australia.

Topics

Will Joyce ever answer for his environmental mismanagement?

Comments, corrections, clarifications and cock-ups

Crikey

Feb 04, 2019

6

Crikey readers discuss Barnaby Joyce's role in Australia's environmental troubles, the ongoing Melbourne University Publishing board scandal and the need for an international tax overhaul.

When the river runs dry, we will return to the scene of the crime

Environment

Irfan Yusuf

Jan 21, 2019

18

Residents at the trashed end of the Darling River are angry, jobless and unable to drink their own town water.

Looking to kill a scandal about your private life? Just tell the truth.

Politics

Tom Ravlic

Jan 18, 2019

9

Anthony Albanese recently announced that he and his wife of 30 years, Carmel Tebbutt, had split. No drama. No media chase. This kind of simple and erudite statement is far too rare in Australian politics.