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Lenton told Mediaweek about his history with Junkee since it was first established, his mission in moving forward with the Junkee brand, and his recent work outside of the full time gig. 

Lenton was one of the first freelancers at Junkee in 2013 when Steph Harmon was the editor. She hadn’t launched the site yet, but she reached out to Lenton to write some comedic content for the brand. “After contributing to the site for ages, I came in and did some contract work on and off, and that turned into a part-time weekend writer role in 2017,” said Lenton.

“I was then made staff writer at the beginning of 2018. In June that year, I got promoted to entertainment editor, and then in October this year I became deputy editor. Two weeks after I got promoted to deputy editor, I was promoted to editor. It’s all been extremely quick,” laughed Lenton. “If you’re only counting the full-time roles, I’ve been here for two years in January.”

For pretty much two years before working at Junkee full time, Lenton said he was freelancing for The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Vice. “They were probably my staples, as well as Junkee. I also had a digital marketing consultancy business which I ran for authors.”

Lenton described the workplace vibe at Junkee as incredibly fun and silly. “It’s one of the reasons why I love it. There’s a lot of laughter, a lot of silliness, and a lot of weird people. It’s a happy place to work. 

In Lenton’s team, he has Jules LeFevre who’s the editor of Music Junkee, and they share a staff writer, Jared Richards. “I also have my news and politics staff writer Rachael Conaghan, and we have another staff writer who does mornings and after hours, Joseph Earp.”

While Junkee reports on viral news, big pop culture events and entertainment – which is similar to what other pop culture and news websites do – Junkee’s mission is always to engage with the conversation rather than just re-produce it. “Whether or not that means finding the best voice to write the smartest take, or to be the people who are writing the silliest thing about the big high-brow culture of the time, we are always adding things that are new, different or needed to the conversation.”

Lenton remembers back to when he was a staff writer at Junkee, people joked that his beat was anything horny. “It’s one of the things that you can have the most fun with,” he laughed. “But I also really like to shift entirely away from that to a bit more serious stuff. I really like writing about representation at the moment. I’ve written a lot throughout my career on queer representation and intersectionality in film and TV, and why that matters. 

“In general, I love taking something that is being held up as a very big serious-worthy sort of thing and then writing possibly the silliest take on it, or finding what people are saying that’s incredibly stupid about it – which is similar to our overall tone at Junkee.”

Outside of Junkee, Lenton has published a book called Uncle Hercules and Other Lies; a collection of mostly funny but definitely absurd memoir essays. “They’re true stories from my life. I’ve been working on this book for a while because I do a lot of comedic storytelling nights at places like Story Club in Sydney, which I’ve been doing for years and years. It meant that I sort of kept writing more and more stories drawn from my life, and I thought I could put these into an anthology. Each story is on a certain theme and they work well together. After quite a few years, I’ve finally published.”

Former editor Johnston grew Junkee’s gaming and tech coverage from literally nothing into another strong pillar. “We’re a pop culture publication, so we find the pop culture issues in gaming and tech now, which is fantastic.

“Being online and consuming news at the moment is sometimes really traumatic, and it can get very upsetting; there’s a lot of stuff that absolutely needs to be out there and needs to be said, and Junkee does a really good job of talking about the important things and we’ll obviously keep doing that. All the other editors before me have set that up as a foundation of what Junkee’s about, but I also really want to make sure that people are actually having fun, and can look at Junkee and be like ‘there’s going to be something really silly, funny, and weird on there’.”

Lenton said he’s spent a really long time finding some of the best comedians and weird writers that can help do that with Junkee. “A bit more cursed humour! Things can be bad, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t have a chuckle.”

With major platforms Netflix and Stan increasing their focus on Australian content, Amazon Prime Video will make the most noise in the market in 2020 when TV’s first family returns.

See also:
Amazon Prime Video confirms new Back to the Rafters for 2020

The commissioning of Back to the Rafters was an indication of how important the platform considers Australian content for Amazon Prime customers, explained Bern. The return of the Rafters family will also be available to millions of Prime customers around the world, joining an exclusive group of award-winning TV shows that includes The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and Fleabag.

Erik Thomson, Michael Caton, Jessica Marais, Angus McLaren, George Houvardas and Bevan Lee

Bern also spoke about the other Australian commissions LOL: Last One Laughing: “Produced by our friends at Endemol Shine, it was filmed in October in Sydney and it will be a great show. We also have a series of 10 stand-up comedy specials with Australian comedy stars including Tommy Little, Tom Gleeson and Judith Lucy. Produced locally by Guesswork, the specials were filmed in September.”

The Amazon Prime executive then mentioned the recent acquisition of The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team, a docuseries following the Australian Men’s Cricket team during the 2018/2019 season.

Bern also introduced the cast of Back to the Rafters (minus Rebecca Gibney who is in London this week) onstage for a photo opportunity.

Guests at the exclusive gathering in a marquee at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair on the edge of Sydney Harbour included returning Rafter’s castmembers Erik Thomson, Jessica Marais, Hugh Sheridan, Angus McLaren, Michael Caton and George Houvardas.

The cast were joined by creator Bevan Lee, series producer Chris Martin-Jones, executive producer and Seven head of drama Julie McGauran and CEO of Seven Studios Therese Hegarty.

Endemol Shine was represented by CEO Carl Fennessy and chief content officer Peter Newman. The night out came after winning a handful of awards at the AACTAs on Wednesday night.

Representing Guesswork was creative director Todd Abbott.

—

Top Photo: Angus McLaren, George Houvardas and Erik Thomson

At 2GB Alan Jones is already off air with Steve Price now hosting breakfast.

In Melbourne at 3AW Mercedes Benz giveaways marked the end of the year for some of the shows. The cars come from two different dealers who have agreements with its biggest shows – breakfast with Ross and John and morning with Neil Mitchell.

In FM radio Kyle and Jackie O presented a second consecutive live show (!) with both announcers in Sydney for their final program of the year. It was a packed program with Robbie Williams, a $10,000 version of the Pop Quiz, a visit from Santa and a performance from Samantha Jade. The shows follows a big Thursday program where the #1 Sydney FM breakfast show gave away a house, land and car package. ARN colleagues Jonesy and Amanda joined them on air after 9am.

At Triple M Melbourne it was breakup day for Eddie McGuire, Luke Darcy and Wil Anderson with Rosie. The show peaked during its final week though with a show for a live audience on Wednesday. The giveaways started early with Luke Darcy giving away fuel vouchers in the opening break. The show also spoke with the custodians of the timeslot over the next couple of weeks, Brig, Lehmo and Billy Brownless. Anderson dropped a bomb after 9am with news he was quitting the show effectively immediately. (See separate news item.)

It was the final free-cash Friday on Moonman in the Morning with Triple M Sydney’s Lawrence Mooney promising a big program to end his first year as host of the breakfast slot. He and co-host Chris Page started the show wondering about the indiscretions of the SCA HR department.
After $10,000 was given away earlier in the week, there was another pile of cash on offer this morning.
Reptile of the Year was also revealed after 8am – it went to George Pell.

The low-maintenance gem in ARN’s crown remains WSFM, even if it is now without a content director. Breakfast hosts Jonesy and Amanda started their last 2019 show with a Christmas quiz in the traditional early morning timeslot. In the final Fight for Your Flashback, Amanda chose a Mental As Anything tune to celebrate the life of Greedy Smith after the show also paid tribute to him earlier in the week.
One lucky winner is going to New York in February to see Billy Joel in addition to a $10,000 cash prize. The multi-skilled Jim Dolan put together the show’s audio highlights package

At KIIS 101.1, Jase and PJ were broadcasting a special Christmas Feel-good program from a listener’s home. The show was able to put together a package to make over the home with furniture and more plus Ford delivered an $80,000 vehicle to the family in need. The hosts had special thanks for their team including EP Alex Perigo for helping sort the amazing surprise. “See you in 2020 – we are shocked as well that we are coming back,” laughed Jase as they went off air.

Fifi, Fev and Byron also had Robbie Williams on their final Fox breakfast show of the year. It was also a year in review edition of the show, which was also an RnB Friday. The production team under Leon Sjogren put together a tune summarising the show’s year set to Cold Chisel’s Khe Sanh. The champagne cork was popped early in the show ahead of the summer break.

Melbourne’s #1 FM breakfast show had a number of giveaways and host Christian O’Connell revealed the name of the Gold Ticket winner. The breakfast show was also clearing out its prize cabinet with prize packs on offer across the morning until its 10am finish. O’Connell’s co-hosts were planning their quick getaways after the show, but Christian joked he would be recording 5-weeks of breakfast show intros later in the day. “And Easter too in case I don’t come back until then.”

On Nova 96.9 co-host Wippa was recovering from his embarrassment after Fitzy revealed this week that his “friendship” with Niall Horan was not exactly what it seemed. Wippa has been exchanging texts with the British pop star on everything from football scores to same sex marriage laws, but he found out on the show this week when Horan visited the program that the number he was texting was not his!
Robbie Williams was working the breakfast shows hard with an appearance too on Nova Sydney, calling in from Berlin.
Highlight of the last show of the year was the appearance of Vanilla Ice in the year’s final Rap Up of the Week.
Vanilla Ice flexed his rap muscles firing back with ultimate ice-cold one-liners like “Fitzy looks old, there’s no debating, To know your real age we need to do carbon dating” and “Wippa’s so old he drinks Campari & Soda, Body-hair of a Wookie and the skin of Yoda, You spend your time doing free plugs on air, But the best plugs you do are in your hair!!!”
Sarah McGilvray had to pick a winner for the Ultimate Rap Battle, but couldn’t decide – she left it to the Amazon Alexa device to decide, with the final winner crowned…Vanilla Ice.
The show’s audio producer Snitchy was in at 2am to produce a 7-minute 2019 highlights package.
The show ended with a call from Prime Minister Scott Morrison who discussed what he might be getting his wife for Christmas. The PM will also be in the audience for a Tina Arena show in Sydney next week.

At Nova’s Melbourne station Sam Pang made a rare Friday appearance as he joined Chrissie, Sam and Deano for the final show of the year. The program had a party on air with its regular contributors guesting across the morning.

Anderson took part in the final show of the year this morning without giving any hint about his radio future…until just after 9am.

It was then he took the microphone to confirm his departure.

“Being asked to join this show was one of the thrills of my life. I was such a big fan before that. Today is my last day on The Hot Breakfast. It was an amazing challenge when I arrived to fill the shoes of Mick Molloy who is a great hero of mine and one of the great radio and comedy talents in the country.

“The management here has been incredible to me as has been the off-air support from the digital team, the musical team and the sales team – everyone in this office – has always been 100% behind me and the things that I wanted to do here.

“I want to in particular give a massive shout out to our off-air production team – LJ Gorse, Tom Martin and Michael James who took over from Jay Mueller and did such a good job. And special mention to Dave Collins who collaborates on my best comedy bits. Every morning when I come in with ideas they are the ones who run with them.”

After running through the Hot Breakfast team, Anderson made special mention of publicist Kelly Black who Anderson noted is also a good friend. (Black previously worked with Anderson at his management company Token Artists.)

Anderson paid tribute to his on-air team starting with Rosie Walton. “We have become very good friends and we have both gone through some hard times over the past couple of years. She has been there for me in ways I could never explain out loud. She is incredible – the heart and soul of this show and the heart and soul of this network.”

Of Luke Darcy, Anderson said: “What a great pleasure it is to be friends with somebody and then get the opportunity to work with them. To see the way you live your life is a real inspiration to me. You are a genuinely good human being.”

Saving Eddie McGuire for last: “Thanks for the incredible opportunity. A lot of people don’t know how generous you are. You are also incredibly generous in letting me make fun of you.”

As to why he is leaving, Anderson said: “This is a job you have to do at 110%. That means in the last year I haven’t been able to tour my comedy show which is my main job and important to me. I will be doing another year of Gruen and I want to develop my podcasts some more.”

Despite ARN calling Van Acker “a much-loved and respected part of the 97.3FM Breakfast show” there is no place for him any longer. In a statement, ARN thanked him for his talent, passion and professionalism during the past two years.

Both Bianca Dye and Bob Gallagher will stay with ARN, but in as-yet revealed roles. Gallagher is expected to perhaps be part of the new 97.3 breakfast show.

That new Brisbane breakfast show could see Robin Bailey back at her old station. ARN famously dropped her from the station in a contract dispute several years ago, but all could be forgiven if they can negotiate a new deal.

As a part of the new ARN strategy for 97.3FM breakfast, the existing show’s executive producer Liam Renton will also be finishing up his role.

ARN indicated this morning the new breakfast show won’t be named until 2020.

Meanwhile ARN has also been busy in Sydney where Radio Today has reported on the departure of Scott Muller as the station’s content director.

[Read about Muller’s departure]

The arrival of a new content director would be the third at the station in two years as Charlie Fox departed in December 2017.

Other radio movements this week saw the departure of Matt Tilley from Nova 100 in Melbourne, while Irene Hulme is out as music director for SCA’s Hit Network. Hulme could perhaps be a candidate for the WSFM job, making a return to ARN.

[Read about Hulme’s departure]

There is still one day of radio ratings left in 2019, so buckle up for some more movement.

 When did the slappers from MAFS and the prawn head from The Masked Singer take precedence over our world class drama and comedy in cinema and television? And now the Government has abolished the Department of Arts to merge it in with … Transport? What. The. Fuck?

Thankfully, those countries not bogan enough to merge their creative industries with semi-trailers will always give us great TV. For me, the best dramas from overseas were the harrowing and thought-provoking Years and Years (SBS), Chernobyl (Foxtel) and When They See Us (Netflix). Gentlemen Jack (Foxtel) and Morning Wars (Apple+) were lighter fare, but still had something important to say, while El Camino (Netflix) was the surprise Breaking Bad sequel movie we didn’t know was coming, but boy were we glad it did.

A pleasing phenomenon in 2019 was good shows that got even better in their second seasons, and that’s not something I can say about Killing Eve (ABC) or Big Little Lies (Foxtel). This year was all about the filthy rich and diabolically evil clan from Succession (Foxtel) and their end of season cliffhanger was truly gobsmacking.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge won three Emmys for the second season of Fleabag (Amazon), and it now sits in TV history alongside Fawlty Towers, another British classic that pulled the pin after just 12 episodes. And Pose (Foxtel), despite delving into a darker period of AIDS history, was even more moving and joyful the second time round.

As we move into 2020, let’s hope there will be less mistakes made on Australian TV. If you are going to reboot a reality format, don’t make it twice as long on half the budget (Changing Rooms). Don’t cannibalise your own shows with similar formats (Saturday Night Rove and Chris and Julia’s Sunday Night Takeaway). And don’t do a Pilot Week with shows like Sydney’s Crazy Rich Asians, I Am Roxy.

Sorry 10, but plenty of flops were yours. Seven was no better, with misses like The Super Switch and The Proposal. And Nine, you stuffed up Today. Can Karl Stefanovic ride to the rescue? Will Big Brother revive Seven? And can 10 succeed with new judges on MasterChef and a new show for The Living Room team? Have a great Christmas everybody and in the meantime, check out The L Word: Generation Q (Monday on Stan), the sexiest new show of summer.