TV3 have confirmed that they are planning their own political show in an attempt to force TVNZ's Q+A off the air.Funds for Q+A end in June and this is when TV3 are proposing to launch their own show, meaning that both shows will have to compete for NZ On Air funding.
"NZ On Air will have to decide whether it will fund Q+A or whether they fund ours. My pick is there won't be two political shows," said TV3 news and current affairs director Mark Jennings.
Making things even more interesting is the announcement that TV3's show will be called Agenda - the show TVNZ dumped in favour of Q+A.
Richard Harman, former producer of TVNZ's Agenda, approached TV3 as soon as his show was dumped by the state broadcaster. TVNZ recently decided to replace Agenda with Q+A so that they could produce it in-house.
TV3 say that their political editor Duncan Garner will most definitely be involved if their version of Agenda goes ahead, and that they will also approach Radio New Zealand's Morning Report presenter Sean Plunket to be co-host.
Q+A is presented by Paul Holmes, Therese Arseneau, and TVNZ political editor Guyon Espiner.
