The executive producer of Tom Ballard’s ABC comedy show Tonightly suggested it make fun of how ‘racist’ Australians are to win over Chinese viewers.
Dan Ilic, a former host of axed ABC comedy show Hungry Beast, sent around internal leaked documents outlining what he believed to be weaknesses of the weeknight program.
Tonightly’s 36-year-old executive producer compiled a memo describing how its ‘white writers’ and ‘white performers’ were weaknesses of the taxpayer-funded show, documents obtained by The Australian revealed.
The executive producer of Tom Ballard’s ABC comedian show Tonightly suggested it make fun of how ‘racist’ Australians are to win over Chinese viewers
Dan Ilic, a former host of axed ABC comedy show Hungry Beast, sent around internal leaked documents outlining what he believed to be weaknesses of the daily program
Ilic, a former stand-up comedian who grew up in Sydney’s affluent northern suburbs, suggested the show could have a ‘Chinese play’ about how ‘we’re hugely racist’.
The three-page internal documents have surfaced two days after Ballard strenuously denied an allegation he had sexually assaulted an aspiring male comedian in a hotel room in 2014.
‘I have not done anything wrong,’ the versatile homosexual entertainer said on a blog post on Saturday.
‘Over the past six months I have become aware of a claim being made about me,’ Ballard wrote.
‘It involves an allegation of sexual assault: an allegation that I completely deny in the strongest terms possible.
Tonightly’s 36-year-old executive producer compiled a memo describing how its ‘white writers’ and ‘white performers’ were weaknesses of the taxpayer-funded show
‘It fundamentally goes against who I am as a person and everything I believe in.’
Ballard, a 28-year-old former Triple-J breakfast presenter, refuted the allegation made by a man he had had ‘a consensual sexual experience with’ four years ago following an accusation made on Facebook.
‘His version of that experience as described on social media is simply not what happened,’ he said.
Ballard said ‘I abhor sexual assault and sexual violence’ and added ‘I absolutely support the philosophy of the #MeToo movement’.
Ballard, a 28-year-old former Triple-J breakfast presenter, denied the allegation made by a man he had had ‘a consensual sexual experience with’ four years ago
Ironically Ilic’s memo said the program’s lack of content about the #Me Too movement outing male sexual predators was a weakness of the show.
In another irony Ilic, who as a university student in 2001 volunteered for former right-wing federal Liberal MP Ross Cameron, praised Tonightly’s panning of former federal Labor leader Mark Latham as ‘the strongest part of the show’.
Until March 2017, Cameron and Latham co-hosted the Outsiders program on Sky News which mocked left-wing political correctness.
Ilic, who in his youth designed Ross Cameron’s Parramatta electorate website, also praised the show for its work on right-wing British-born provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
Cameron and Latham both emceed Yiannopoulos’ Sydney tour last year, after protesters had heckled audience members arriving at the Lilyfield venue.