Newstopia

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Newstopia
Newstopia Intertitle
Format	Satirical
Created by	Shaun Micallef
Starring	Shaun Micallef Kat Stewart Ben Anderson Nicholas Bell Peter Houghton Julie Eckersley
Country of origin	Australia
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20
Production
Running time	30 minutes per episode including commercials
Broadcast
Original channel	SBS TV
Original run	10 October 2007^[1] – Present
Chronology
Related shows	Micallef Tonight (2003)
External links
IMDb profile

Newstopia is an Australian half-hour satirical comedy programme hosted by Shaun Micallef. The first series premiered at 10:00 pm on SBS TV on 10 October 2007 and concluded on 12 December 2007. A second season began on 27 February 2008^[2] and concluded on 30 April 2008. The show was developed by Micallef, Gary McCaffrie, Michael Ward and Jason Stephens, with McCaffrie and Ward working as writers on the program.

The show's contributors include Matt Cameron, Doug MacLeod, Dave O'Neil, Tony Moclair and Richard Marsland.^[3]

1 Format
2 Cast
- 2.1 Regular cast
- 2.2 Special guests
3 Internet streaming
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Format

The show is presented in the style of a news bulletin, with Shaun Micallef acting as anchor. The program begins with a statement by Micallef about history and/or news and their relation to the show. The rest of the program features segments detailing often factual events, but told from a humorous or satirical angle.

The program also has several false advertisements placed throughout the real ad breaks, dressed up to appear as genuine SBS ads, for example Inspektor Herring (a parody of Inspector Rex). Due to the fact that these ads are actually part of Newstopia, SBS always broadcast them with the SBS watermark in the bottom right corner. Genuine ads do not show the watermark.

The show also features subliminal parodies of Australian politicians and a vampire-like character, where still images are flashed on screen for a fraction of a second - long enough to be noticed, but not long enough to for the viewer to have a concrete idea of what they'd seen.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Regular cast

[edit] Special guests

[edit] Internet streaming

Following the conclusion of each episode's initial broadcast, the Newstopia website features a web stream of the current week's episode. This is only available for 7 days, and only to Australian residents, after which it is taken down and replaced by the latest broadcast. International visitors are blocked by an IP blocker. A guestbook is also available for commenting on the newest episode.