Planet America, ABC review: when US politics turns to parody

When was the last time the ABC bumped a little-known local show into a prime time-slot? When was the last time the ABC even had a little-known local show that hadn’t been axed in yet another round of budget cuts? The fact that Planet America has been quietly ticking away in various ABC slots for over a decade is impressive enough; now the ABC has decided it’s the show to replace the one-time network jewel Q+A, and the little-known local show is now a network star.

Planet America: how it began

Our story begins back in 2012, when The Chaser still ruled the roost when it came to ABC political comedy. Back then, Planet America seemed like a side project for core Chaser member Chas Licciardello. He’d always been the one on the team who could find comedy in deep dives into a subject, and what more durable and ongoing a source of comedy than American politics?

Together with co-host John Barron – he’s the one in the suit, Chas is the one with an endless closet full of faded political T-shirts – Planet America was clearly a serious departure from the Chaser’s previous stabs at covering America. Once, Charles Firth had reported back from the streets of New York mocking American ignorance of pretty much everything; Chas’s and Barron’s approach proved to be a bit more thoughtful.

Their more measured approach was exactly what the times required. When Planet America began in the lead up to the 2012 elections, America was a massive cultural power that had huge influence over Australia, yet its internal politics was largely ignored by our mainstream media.

Each episode was built around the week in US news, often explaining in depth the trends or issues that were shaping the headlines, while mixing in a few of the more out-there political stories to get a laugh or make it clear just how different American politics was from the local strain.

Planet America: Trump times

While the show aired off-and-on during Obama’s second term, it was with Trump’s election that it became a regular ABC fixture, shifting from a slightly bemused look at a vast and often strange nation to a must-see guide to a superpower turning against itself. Biden’s election dialled things down a bit, but in 2025 all bets are off, and the comedy – such as it is – writes itself.

Once upon a time an episode might have been looking at serious issues around US employment numbers and geopolitical stability; this week’s instalment tackled those issues… in between President Trump clearly cheating at golf and firing the person in charge of the employment numbers because they made him look bad.

Planet America: 2025 upgrade

Even before the timeslot shift, the 2025 series had an upgrade to the set and the opening titles (now featuring extra CGI space travel). There’s loads of twitchy graphics in the background and the desk is now big enough to seat both hosts, which is bad news for fans of Barron’s fireside chats.

What hasn’t changed is Chas’ relentless commitment to guiding the audience through the twists and turns of major US news stories. Each segment is solidly even-handed, in a way non-comedy news shows rarely manage, as Chas takes us through what’s happening, what the main players are saying is happening, and the facts that rebuff what’s being said – an increasingly important part of covering the news out of the US, where bald-faced lying is increasingly official policy.

There’s also the ABC standard explainer segments (as seen on every lightweight news-based ABC show this last decade, right up to last year’s Question Everything), with the most recent one covering the US tax system – it seems the lack of a GST is the big problem there.

There’s even a quick fake promo for a nature doco hosted by Trump titled The Whales Are Loco (an actual quote from the sitting President).

The show’s comedy roots aren’t completely buried; Chas’ facial expressions provide more commentary than a half dozen ABC experts, and the Trump impersonator reading out his quotes is working in very broad strokes. But as America has hurled itself off a cliff, there’s increasingly no need for the show to play up the insanity of what’s being reported.

As America has lurched towards parody, Planet America has become all the more important: if you can’t afford to give up your every waking minute to tracking on social media what’s going on inside, outside, and in the wake of Trump’s White House, it’s proven increasingly handy for the ABC to have a couple of trustworthy people who can. Finally they’ve been given a time-slot worthy of their efforts.

Planet America airs on the ABC Monday nights at 9.35pm, with the weekend edition on ABC News Fridays at 8pm, and streams on ABC iview.

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