The Assembly (TV series)
| Company type | Television series |
|---|---|
| Industry | Television production |
| Founded | May 2024 |
| Headquarters | Australia |
Key people | Leigh Sales (host), Mark Fennessy (executive producer), Melissa Maclean (director), Therese Hegarty, Vanessa Oxlad, Julie Hanna |
| Parent | ABC TV |
The Assembly is an Australian documentary series consisting of seven episodes, set to debut on ABC TV on 20 August 2024.
Format
Led and guided by Leigh Sales, the program chronicles the experiences of 15 autistic journalism students and faculty members from Macquarie University as they prepare for and conduct interviews with notable Australian personalities. Participants are offered paid internship opportunities at the ABC. This concept is adapted from the French television series Les Rencontres du Papotin, originally developed by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache.
Production
Produced by Mark Fennessy's Helium Pictures for ABC, production commenced in May. Fennessy serves as executive producer alongside director Melissa Maclean, Therese Hegarty, Vanessa Oxlad, and Julie Hanna for this Australian adaptation.
Season overview
| Season | Episodes | Original broadcast dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premiere date | Finale date | ||
| 1 | 7 | 20 August 2024 | 30 September 2024 |
Reception
The premiere episode of The Assembly garnered an average overnight viewership of 577,000, reaching a total national audience of 859,000.[1] David Knox from TV Tonight awarded the show four stars out of five.[2] Debi Enker of The Sydney Morning Herald commended its inviting atmosphere and innovative style, highlighting it as a novel approach to political interviews on television.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name Nevertheless, the series received criticism for being characterized as inspiration porn and for initially not compensating the journalism students involved.[3]
Awards
|- |2025 |TV Week Logies |Best Factual or Documentary Program | | |