Australian Shows That I’m Excited About Starting and Returning Shows This Week

I’ve noticed that there is no mention of any Aussie shows on TVMaze, so I thought I would be the first. I’m a huge fan of Australian shows and look forward to new shows and shows returning. I could talk about so many Australian shows, but I thought I would just narrow it down to just two. The two I’ll be looking at in a bit of detail is The Masked Singer Australia and Gruen, which are airing this week.

First up, The Masked Singer Australia starts on Sep 23 on Channel 10 and continues on Sep 24. First of all, if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard of it. The Masked Singer is the international phenomenon that began in South Korea. The American version was hugely successful and quickly garnered a second and third season. I watched Season One of the US version and have even watched the sneak peak of Season 2. All I have to say is wow, the level of detail in the costumes and the time and effort is beyond ridiculous. Here’s a first look trailer at the Australian version you can check out.

I’m looking forward to the Australian version because I want to see the costumes and who’s under them. The performances shown in the trailers are so good. The costumes in the first season include a Unicorn, Wolf (I think), Lion, Alien, Dragon (to me looks like a bat), Monster, Octopus, Rhino and Robot. Then to make sure you know it’s the Aussie version a Redback Spider (Spider), Parrot and Prawn. The only person I’m looking forward to on the panel is Dave Hughes (Hughesy, We Have a Problem) not only because I’m a fan, but because I want to see if he brings the same sort of atmosphere to the panel as Ken Jeong does for the US version.

I’m not looking forward to first of all the host, Osher Gunsberg, simply for the fact of his history on The Bachelor and Bachelorette, which is one of the trashiest shows on TV. The rest of the panel isn’t really great either Dannii Minogue ( she’s ok in very small doses), Jackie O ( only good with Kyle at her side otherwise, meh) and Lindsay Lohan. Why do they need to bring an international celebrity onto the panel ? Isn’t there other Aussie people who could have been on the panel ? Also I’m not liking that it’s going to be on twice this week I’m hoping that’s only for this week. I think the show should be weekly so it goes for longer and you, as the viewer, can try and work out, who’s under the costume. Also because I want the hype of the show to go on longer than a few weeks.

I’m hoping The Masked Singer Australia can live up to the hype of the other international versions. I mainly watch this show for the big celebrity reveal at the end of each episode, but the singing is good as well. If I wanted to watch a show purely for music i would watch The Voice. The Masked Singer is just a fun show where you are given clues throughout the weeks of competition and hopefully by the time of the reveal your close to working who it is underneath the costume, or you actually get it right.

Next up, a show which you’ve probably never heard of is Gruen, which returns Sep 25 to ABC and iview. Gruen is basically a show about advertisement and how companies aim the ads at us, the consumer, to get the most profits. Here’s a short trailer with a first look at the new season.

At the helm is Wil Anderson, who is a well-respected Australian comedian. Wil brings the laughs to the panel because, let’s be honest advertising is a boring subject. Joining Wil on the panel every week is Todd Sampson (Life on the Line, Bodyhack) and Russel Howcroft ( a big name in Australian advertising). Also joining the panel each week is two other panellists, usually made up of an expert in advertising, usually an editor.

I think the show balances the comedy and the seriousness well. The best part of the show for me is The Pitch. A segment where Wil asks two companies to come up with an ad for a certain subject. Some of the ads that companies have come up with over the years have been so good. You can probably check them out on YouTube. I’m looking forward to the new season because of the break means that new advertisements have come out and the panel can dissect them. They focus not only on Australian ads but international ads as well.

I realise that there may not be many Australians on this site but if there are I look forward to hearing from you in the comments. If you're looking at tuning into one or both of these shows, I’m happy to discuss in the comments. If you would also like me to do more of these Australian show articles please let me know in the comments as well.