Directed by Jim Curry Original language(s) English No. of episodes 102 (list of episodes) | Country of origin New Zealand No. of series 3 | |
Presented by Wallace Chapman
Hayley Holt | ||
Back Benches is a New Zealand political interview show, presented by Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie. It was primarily filmed at the 'Backbencher' pub, across the street from Parliament Buildings in Wellington. The show was previously aired live on Wednesday nights on the Television New Zealand channel TVNZ 7 and was rebroadcast on Thursday mornings, Friday nights, and Saturday mornings. Currently Prime TV has picked up the broadcast rights for the show which is still recorded live on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm but actually goes to air delayed at 10:30pm.
On 1 July 2009, the two Freeview-only channels (TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7) were made available for viewing on SKY TV. On this date the Back Benches episodes became 44–50 minutes long (up from 22–25 minutes previously).
The show was cancelled on TVNZ 7 in July 2012 when the station was shut down, being replaced with TV ONE +1, a timeshift of TV ONE. The final three episodes were filmed at the Shepherd's Arms Hotel after an after-hours kitchen fire at the Backbencher pub rendered it unusable.
In August 2012 Prime TV expressed interest in reviving the series with a similar format. On 13 September 2012, it was confirmed that Prime would be bringing the show back in February 2013 by one of the show's hosts, Wallace Chapman. On 27 March 2013, the start date for the new series was confirmed as 10 April 2013 by Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie. The show will be aired on the same night as recording, with the broadcast four and a half hours later.
Format
Each episode a panel of about three to five people are present on the show. The panel members are usually sitting MPs There is usually one from each of the National and Labour parties, and one from each of two other parties with seats (that is, Green, Māori, Mana, ACT, United Future and New Zealand First, parties).
There is also a summary of political news during the preceding week (from both New Zealand and internationally), a small (10 person) poll of a current issue or controversy, and a 'Who am I?' game where customers present at the pub can guess which sitting MP clues read out are about.