We’re officially living in an outrage culture. It seems that barely a week goes by without someone getting publicly crucified in a torrent of angry tweets and media headlines, for real or imagined mistakes. Launching on October 28th at 9.05pm, ABC’s new series, Reputation Rehab will tackle public shaming head-on and break through the outrage cycle with comedy and empathy.
Hosted by The Checkout’s Kirsten Drysdale and Zoe Norton Lodge, Reputation Rehab will find tarnished reputations and lovingly bring back their shine. Each week, the episode will begin with a deep-dive into an outrage story, or a person who has endured a public shaming.
The first episode will focus on the “Bad Boy” of tennis: Nick Kyrgios, with Nick agreeing to a rare in-depth interview with Zoe and Kirsten for the show. Other episodes will delve deep into the stories of Reality TV “villain” Abbie Chatfield, headline grabber Todd Carney, tabloid target Osher Günsberg as well as Covid shaming, Boomer trashing and the reputational crisis facing anyone named Karen.
Kirsten and Zoe will consult a group of real people to find out how closely the heightened coverage aligns with their views. Through interviews, media analysis and stunts, Kirsten and Zoe will seek to rehabilitate the guest’s damaged reputation and provide a unique opportunity for transformation.
Reputation Rehab is a show that believes people don’t deserve to be consigned to the cultural scrapheap, most people are more than a punchline, and everyone deserves a second chance.
Production Credits An ABC and CJZ production. Creators, producers and writers: Sophie Braham and Melina Wicks. Presenters, writers and producers: Kirsten Drysdale and Zoe Norton Lodge.
Series Producer: Sarah Douglas. Executive Producer: Nick Murray (CJZ),
We’re officially living in an outrage culture. It seems that barely a week goes by without someone getting publicly crucified in a torrent of angry tweets and media headlines, for real or imagined mistakes. ABC’s new series, Reputation Rehab will tackle public shaming head-on and break through the outrage cycle with comedy and empathy. Hosted by The Checkout’s Kirsten Drysdale and Zoe Norton Lodge, Reputation Rehab will find tarnished reputations and lovingly bring back their shine. Each week, the episode will begin with a deep-dive into an outrage story, or a person who has endured a public shaming. Kirsten and Zoe will consult a group of real people to find out how closely the heightened coverage aligns with their views. Through interviews, media analysis and stunts, Kirsten and Zoe will seek to rehabilitate the guest’s damaged reputation and provide a unique opportunity for transformation.
In this week’s episode we explore “Reality Villains”. In the space of a few weeks, Abbie Chatfield went from total nobody to “dirty slut” and “f**king gronk”, and all it took was a little stint on The Bachelor. As the first Bachelor villain to make it to the final, Abbie experienced a torrent of negative media coverage, abuse and death threats from viewers. So, who is to blame for the shaming - Abbie, the show or the viewers - and when Kirsten and Zoe meet Abbie, can they help her rebuild real life from the reality rubble?
We are living in unprecedented times… for public shaming. We get our (thoroughly sanitised) hands dirty
rehabbing the real faces behind the Covid outrage headlines: beach-goers, cough-shamers, toilet seat lickers and bats.
Tabloids love shaming, but what does it mean for targets like Karl Stefanovic and Osher Günsberg? Kirsten explores the dark arts of the paparazzi and Zoe learns the hard way how it feels to be on the wrong side of their lens.
Kirsten and Zoe unpack what it means to have a bad image through analysis of perennial tabloid favourite Karl Stefanovic.
They also speak to Osher Gunsberg about the violation of being papped and fat shamed without his knowledge while overseas. This episode will see them dive into the seedy underworld of the paparazzi and Zoe finds out the hard way how it feels to be on the wrong side of their lens.
We’re officially living in an outrage culture. It seems that barely a week goes by without someone getting publicly crucified in a torrent of angry tweets and media headlines, for real or imagined mistakes. ABC’s new series, Reputation Rehab will tackle public shaming head-on and break through the outrage cycle with comedy and empathy. Hosted by The Checkout’s Kirsten Drysdale and Zoe Norton Lodge, Reputation Rehab will find tarnished reputations and lovingly bring back their shine. Each week, the episode will begin with a deep-dive into an outrage story, or a person who has endured a public shaming. Kirsten and Zoe will consult a group of real people to find out how closely the heightened coverage aligns with their views. Through interviews, media analysis and stunts, Kirsten and Zoe will seek to rehabilitate the guest’s damaged reputation and provide a unique opportunity for transformation.
In this week’s episode we explore “Boomers”. 2020: where the expression ‘OK Boomer’ isn’t just accepted, it’s been upsized so that the phrase Die Boomer is now in common parlance. Kirsten and Zoe find ground zero of boomer-shame, meet the NZ MP who catapulted the phrase ‘OK Boomer’ into the spotlight and try to heal the generational divide once and for all.
Episode 6: Todd Carney - Wednesday 2 December at 9:05pm
When a photo of Todd Carney doing “the bubbler” was leaked on the internet he became the second most googled person in Australia. But should his reputation be flushed down the toilet forever?
Once upon a time, Karen was just a woman from HR and the OK sign was… OK. But what happens when you’re on the wrong side of change? Real Karen’s, Texan Peter Dutton and the CEO of Australia’s most problematic lolly weigh in.
One bad joke can turn comedians from beloved entertainers into the most hated people in the country. Can we rehabilitate people on the wrong side of a LOL like Yumi Stynes and The Chaser, or even Comedy itself?
Caught with last week’s episode (Abbie Chatfield) tonight. Great episode, learned a few tricks about reality TV. Awesome idea to have Abbie’s input on a (fake) dinner date, and for the hosts to create a more satisfying ending for her leaving Matt Agnew at the commitment ceremony.
Also looking forward to Osher’s episode next week.
Have you guys actually given the show a watch? Or just stuck by your preconceived assumptions?
I’ve been obsessed with this show, and I think it’s brilliant.
We’re stuck in a dreadful media world at the moment where people are encouraged to make judgements on people as if all situations are black and white, instead of the full spectrum of shades they can be. We are constantly presented with one side of the story and are lead to make snap, and often harsh judgements on people, just because it generates clicks…
The style of presenting is fantastic, it’s simple to follow and could put a lot of journos to shame.
I don’t think it’s supposed to be funny, more lighthearted.
It doesn’t hurt to take a look at things from a different perspective.
