| Back Benches | |
|---|---|
| Format | Political interview panel |
| Directed by | Jim Curry |
| Presented by | Wallace Chapman Damian Christie |
| Country of origin | New Zealand |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 102 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Caroline Hall Bruner |
| Location(s) | Backbencher pub, Wellington |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 44 – 50 minutes |
| Production company(s) | TVNZ |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TVNZ 7 |
| Picture format | 576i (16:9) |
| Audio format | Stereophonic |
| Original airing | April 2, 2008 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
Back Benches is a New Zealand political interview show, presented by Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie. It is filmed at the 'Backbencher' pub across the road from Parliament Buildings in Wellington, at 9.10 pm Wednesday nights (and aired live), and reshown on Thursday mornings, Friday nights, and Saturday mornings. The show is aired on the Television New Zealand channel TVNZ 7.
On July 1, 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).
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.
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