By
Glenn Dyer


In the world of commercial television it’s not so much a battle
of new ideas as a battle as to who can rip off the best ideas from
overseas. Hence the hosts of Seven’s Sunrise
show have copied a gimmick that has worked well in the US for more than
a decade and installed windows behind David Koch and Melissa Doyle.

The idea, one presumes, is that viewers can watch as passers-by in Sydney’s
Martin place press their faces against the glass and marvel at the
magic of television, thus creating an extra special aura around the presenters. So
what was going on yesterday morning when some loon held a TV screen up
to the glass? And why was it showing the rival Today show on Channel Nine?

According to today’s SMH Kochie and Doyle were “as surprised as their cereal-munching audience when a
man appeared behind them on air yesterday morning…”

“Initially the prank was thought to be the work of a Nine stooge,” the paper reports.

Sadly, by
having that bloke out there and not watching Today at home probably
halved their audience, or conversely, more people saw Richard Wilkins on Seven
than were watching him on Nine,” a Seven publicist tartly asserted.
But it soon became apparent that Nine had nothing to do with the stunt. The
prankster turned out to be Chaser writer Chas Licciardello, the man
famously “embedded” with the Coalition during the last federal election
campaign.

Details have not been confirmed, but Chas and his Chaser mates are
working on a potential new TV series for the ABC.

You can check out a clip of the incident here.