Fed: Chaser team to take their show on the road

AAP General News (Australia)
12-05-2007
Fed: Chaser team to take their show on the road

SYDNEY, Dec 5 AAP - After their highly successful television ratings year in 2007,
the Chaser crew are leaving the small screen and taking their show live next year.

The Chaser's War On Everything will not return to the ABC in the first half of 2008
while the team take on a nation tour of a new live production, The Chaser's Age of Terror
Variety Hour, from March to June.

"After heeding Today Tonight's complaints about the outrageous waste of taxpayers'
money on their show The War On Everything, the Chaser team has decided to take some time
off from TV in the first half of 2008,'' they said in a statement.

"The Chaser will adopt a purely user-pays approach next year, mounting a national tour
of a new live production."

The show will combine sketches, songs, presentations, interactive audience segments
and, the team promises, "up-to-the-minute insensitive gags about the latest celebrity
deaths as they happen".

Andrew Hansen, Chas Licciardello, Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel and one of the Chaser's
founding members, Dominic Knight, will appear in the show, while Chris Taylor takes time
off to develop new television projects for the team.

"The Chaser team is still in negotiations with the ABC about future TV shows," they said.

"Their negotiations with commercial networks of late have mainly been over Supreme
Court injunctions."

The War On Everything averaged 1.45 million viewers for the year, peaking at 2.24 million
in September, after they infiltrated security at the APEC summit with a fake motorcade
and one of their number dressed as Osama bin Laden.

Eleven people involved in the stunt were facing APEC security breach charges, but police
today said they were considering whether the charges should be dropped.

The Chaser's live show will travel to Adelaide, Ballarat, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns,
Darwin, Geelong, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney and
Townsville.

Tickets go on sale on December 10.

AAP acb/jfm/bwl

KEYWORD: CHASER SHOW

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