A lot has changed since Spicks and Specks first aired back in 2005. Well, not the host or team captains (apart from during that brief revival nobody likes to talk about). Some of the games remain the same. A few of the guests as well. And nostalgia’s been baked into the concept since the beginning, because you can’t ask questions about songs that nobody’s heard yet. Spicks and Specks remains a giant. It’s the music that got small.
When Spicks and Specks was born, the ABC was still a major force in Australian music. In theory at least; the days of shows like Recovery and The Factory – and even Countdown – were well within living memory, and it didn’t seem impossible that their day could come again. The ABC’s attempts were all over the place. (Anyone remember Triple J TV?) But it meant that Spicks and Specks was part of a wider range of shows promoting local music on the ABC.
In 2026, Spicks and Specks is all there is. Rage has expanded into various slots on the ABC’s digital channels alongside its traditional Friday and Saturday night spots. The ABC occasionally offers a short run series focusing on live performances. But as far as consistently promoting local acts, touring artists, or any kind of music scene, like just about all the ABC’s other arts programming, it’s a distant memory.
Spicks and Specks – quick links
So much for youth programming
Spicks and Specks consistently finds space for younger acts. Grace Cummings is on the first episode back this season, and the 23-year-old Ruel is one of the guests in episode two. But with a host and team captains well into middle age, and a format that gives equal weight to older acts (and comedians), it’s hardly a show aimed at a young audience. Which is something you could say about all ABC programming outside of ABC Kids.
When Spicks and Specks began, youth programming was still seen as a core element of the ABC’s role, even if that programming was mostly found in out-of-the-way timeslots. In 2026, just being about modern music makes Spicks and Specks as close to youth programming as the ABC gets. So what does it say that the ABC’s only prime-time outlet for Australian popular music is a 20-year-old quiz show?
To be fair, it’s not all the ABC’s fault. Remember that brief revival in 2014 with an all-new cast? Some of them were… okay, only slightly younger than the people they were replacing. And then audiences didn’t like them anyway.
When your audience just wants the same old thing over and over again, you either give it to them or go out of business. Or come up with new ideas and give them your full support, but who has time for that when there’s another series of Gruen to schedule.
The changing face of Australian music
Maybe the problem is with the music? In 2005 it was still possible (just) to argue that popular music was for young people, the kind of thing you left behind as you aged out and started listening to ‘classic hits’.
Today music is both timeless and less relevant; kids today are discovering 50-year-old music online like it’s new, while shifts in the industry have made it more difficult for today’s pop stars to sustain any kind of a career, let alone have much cultural impact.
Australian music has had it rough over the last decade or so. Culturally, it’s increasingly on the margins as the way people consume music goes international and local acts are squeezed out. Economics and technology have tilted things away from bands playing in pubs and towards individuals playing on computers. Live music is still a thing, but it’s not a thing everywhere, and big festivals and events seem to be constantly falling over from a combination of high costs and low ticket sales.
What’s popular culture anyway?
If Spicks and Specks was somehow updated to reflect all these changes, how would it even work? How can Adam Hills ask questions about a fragmented music scene where it’s increasingly difficult to point to current songs that everyone already knows?
The idea of Spicks and Specks is to treat music as mass culture, something where playing a popular song in an unusual way can be a game. How can contestants guess the original if they’ve never heard it?
Not that anyone is really calling for Spicks and Specks to be updated. It’s a fun show in and of itself, and after 20 years (off and on), the people tuning in aren’t looking for anything new. A well-oiled and successful panel show is a win all on its own; it doesn’t need to be topical on top of that.
The nostalgia Spicks and Specks serves up isn’t just for the hits of yesteryear. As all that remains of what was once a strong link between ABC television and Australian music, it’s a look back at a time when we saw – and heard – our own music on the national broadcaster. Both music and the ABC have changed a lot since then; the demand for local culture on local television was squeezed out somewhere along the way.
