After 18 years on Australian television, ABC’s Q+A will wrap up as the national broadcaster turns its focus to new, more contemporary ways of fostering civic engagement and public debate.
While the show remains off-air for now, the ABC has confirmed it will not return beyond 2024.
In a statement today, ABC Director of News, Justin Stevens, said the decision to discontinue Q+A was not about performance, but about relevance in a changing media landscape.
“Discontinuing the program at this point is no reflection on anyone on the show,” Stevens said.
“It’s time to rethink how audiences want to interact and to evolve how we can engage with the public to include as many Australians as possible in national conversations.”
Justin Stevens
First of its kind
Patricia Karvelas has been the permanent host of the show since 2024, after filling in for Stan Grant who unexpectedly departed the show in 2023. Since her appointment, the show has been subject to speculation about the ongoing viability of the show with a ratings slide.
Karvelas, who balances hosting Afternoon Briefing, the Politics Now podcast, and contributions to Four Corners. will now take on more long-form assignments for ABC NEWS.
“Spending time with the audience members who came to Q+A late on a Monday night has been the best part of this job,” Karvelas said.
“They have always been the reason for this show and I’m forever grateful to them for coming on national TV and having the courage to ask questions of powerful people.”
The show began in 2008, the brainchild of executive producer Peter McEvoy and hosted by then-Lateline host Tony Jones. The first episode aired with an hour-long appearance by the then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, but the following week it commenced with the standard multi-guest panel format.
In 2010, the show added graphics presenting tweets from the viewing audience who used the #qanda hashtag on Twitter.
As a live program with a panel discussing hot-button news stories, the show was regularly a source of unexpected news events, whether they be controversial statements made by panelists, or shoes being thrown at former Prime Ministers.
With almost 600 episodes filmed, the show has had a large number of notable guests – a whos who of politicians, journalists, cultural leaders, and business people. Regular guests on the show throughout its 17-season run have included Tanya Plibersek, Christopher Pyne, Barnaby Joyce, and Malcolm Turnbull. Malcolm Turnbull’s leather jacket made fewer appearances on the show than its outsized cultural notoriety may otherwise suggest.
A shift in strategy
Instead of Q+A, the ABC plans to ramp up other forms of audience-driven content.
Chief among them is Your Say, a relatively new initiative that will now be embedded as a permanent tool for community feedback. The broadcaster said Your Say had already proven its impact during the last federal election, generating nearly 30,000 submissions, more than a third of which came from outside metropolitan centres.
The insights gathered fed into talkback radio discussions, online stories, and even helped shape the topics asked during the network’s federal leaders debate.
“Your Say ensures we have a strong framework for putting the public’s views, concerns and questions at the heart of our journalism,” Stevens said. “We’re keen to see what else we can do with this.”
ABC NEWS will also grow its long-form documentary slate, building on the success of The Killing Season and Nemesis.
A new Executive Producer role for Documentaries & Specials will soon be advertised, as the public broadcaster doubles down on premium, issue-led content across platforms.
“We’re excited about being able to produce additional high impact, premium news documentary programs to complement the ABC’s strong factual slate,” said Stevens.