The second series of The Newsreader premiered on ABC Television on 10 September 2023. Running for six episodes, the show received the most nominations at the 2024 AACTA Awards. Again, it was primarily written by Michael Lucas and directed in its entirety by Emma Freeman.
Background Set across 1987 and 1988, the series revolves around Dale and Helen "contending with rising public profiles, intensifying office politics, and a ruthless new CEO [of the network]." The series will consist of six episodes. News events covered in the series include the 1987 federal election, the stock market crash, the separation of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, the heroin crisis, Australia's Bicentennial celebrations and protests, and the Hoddle Street shootings. An initial trailer was released on 24 November 2022.
In February 2023, it was confirmed the series would air in the second half of the year, and in August announced that the series would premiere on 10 September. Each episode of the series will be accompanied by an official podcast, hosted by journalists Leigh Sales and Lisa Millar.
On 19 September, all remaining episodes (episodes 3–6) were made available on ABC iView, on-demand, prior to their linear broadcast.
Cast Main Anna Torv, as Helen Norville Sam Reid, as Dale Jennings Robert Taylor, as Geoff Walters William McInnes, as Lindsay Cunningham Marg Downey, as Evelyn Walters Stephen Peacocke, as Rob Rickards Michelle Lim Davidson, as Noelene Kim Chum Ehelepola, as Dennis Tibb Rory Fleck Byrne, as Gerry Carroll Daniel Gillies, as Charlie Tate Philippa Northeast, as Kay Walters
Recurring Chai Hansen, as Tim Ahern Caroline Lee as, Jean Pascoe Maria Angelico, as Cheryl Ricci John Leary, as Murray Gallagher Jackson Tozer, as Ross McGrath Rhys Mitchell, as Brian Mathers Maude Davey, as Val Jennings Queenie van de Zandt, as Donna Gillies Damian Callinan, as Frank Jane Harber, as Carla Carroll Claire Boucher, as Eliza Cazz Bainbridge, as Marta Nick Simpson-Deeks, as Paul Dan Spielman, as Vincent Callahan
Notable guests Asmara Feik, as Alison Em Rusciano, as Rhonda Hunter Page-Lochard, as Lynus Preston Tony Briggs, as Uncle "Owie" Paula Nazarski, as Aunty "Tiny" Paula Arundell, as Nadia Richard Davies, as Glen Rickards Nikki Shiels, as Kerrie Rickards
Episodes
Supplementary podcast
Release On 9 August 2023, it was confirmed that the second series would premiere on Sunday 10 September 2023, at 8:30pm. Episodes for this series were also accompanied by the official The Newsreader Podcast, made available online following each episode; hosted by Leigh Sales and Lisa Millar, they were teased as to feature insights into the actual lives of journalists working in newsrooms in the 1980s, as well as 'never-before-heard stories from the writers room', cast interviews and 'gossip from the set'.
Both Torv and Reid were given clearance to promote the series during the various actors' and writers' strikes in the United States happening at the time. On 8 September 2023, the first episode of the series premiered at an event at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, co-hosted by ABC, and was followed by a Q&A session with cast and crew, namely creator Lucas, director Freeman, producer Warner, Anna Torv, Sam Reid and Marg Downey. It was helmed by ABC anchor Lisa Millar. A short excerpt from the first episode of the series was made available on YouTube several hours before broadcast.
On 19 September 2023, all episodes yet to air (episodes 3–6) were made available on ABC iView, on-demand, prior to their linear broadcast.
The second series premiered on the Eden channel in New Zealand on 13 September 2023, with episodes broadcast weekly. In Ireland, the series also began airing on 13 September, with episodes broadcast weekly on RTÉ2 and made available after on RTÉ Player.
In August 2023, it was announced that the second series would be shown in the United Kingdom on BBC Two, and simultaneously made available on BBC iPlayer, in late autumn. In October, it was confirmed the series would premiere on 9 November - with new episodes being shown at 9pm on Thursdays and Fridays over three weeks - while the full series was made available on iPlayer from that date prior to broadcast.
The second series premiered in Latin America on Universal Plus on 6 November, on Viaplay internationally on 15 November, and began airing in Spain on Canal COSMO on 20 November.
Production On 30 March 2022, the ABC confirmed that The Newsreader had been renewed for a second series, to be set in 1987. The second season aired on 10 September 2023, with a third season announced on 25 September 2023.
Casting and characterisation Alongside the confirmation of the series' renewal, it was revealed Daniel Gillies and Philippa Northeast had joined the cast. In July 2022, creator Lucas advertised on Twitter and Instagram for potential extras for a gay bar scene set to shoot in Melbourne in late August. Another casting call was made in July, for First Nations extras "to help recreate the 1988 Bicentennial Protests that were based in Fremantle and Sydney", suggesting series 2 will cover events in 1988.
A trailer was released in late November 2022, which also revealed that Rory Fleck Byrne would guest-star this series, as a variety show host. There will also be a further expansion of the cast with an introduction to extended family members of the main ensemble. On 9 August 2023, alongside the announcement of the premiere date of the series and the release of a more lengthy trailer, it was revealed what roles the new members of the supporting cast would play: Gillies as the new network CEO, Northeast as Geoff and Evelyn's 'complex' daughter Kay, Fleck Byrne as 'superstar variety host' Gerry, and the previously unannounced addition of Hunter Page-Lochard to the series' supporting cast as 'firebrand activist' Lynus. It was also confirmed that the entire ensemble from the first series would be returning. In the fifth episode of The Newsreader Podcast, Leigh Sales clarified that the reduced appearance of Chai Hansen as Tim Ahern in the second series was due to Hansen being "in very high demand overseas"; the character was on the verge of being completely written out of the series, but Hansen's enthusiasm for taking part in the show meant he made the effort to find time to appear. Lim Davidson stressed the importance of the entire ensemble returning, and how she felt "comfortable because we were heading back in together and it was pretty much the same team and we'd all got along so well", yet simultaneously "nervous with the responsibility of playing Noelene again and hoping that I could get her through season two the best way I can as an actor".
In an interview with TVTonight, Lucas remarked positively regarding the character of Jerry being Irish, stating that what he perceived as the tradition of variety show hosts being expats meant "something felt right about him coming from Ireland". He also commented on another character introduced in the second series, protest leader Lynus; while fictional, he is "heavily based on real figures behind" the Bicentennial protests at the time. The writer of the fourth episode, Adrian Russell Wills, in which Lynus features said the character was largely based on his brother, Albert, who was a grassroots Aboriginal activist who he described as "that black fella that was ... on the front of the march and protesting", with whom he used to have "a lot of conversations around all of the issues that you see in the show and the episode".
The opening to the fourth episode features a scene in which several characters from the News at Six shoot a musical ending to a network promo; Em Rusciano, close friend of - and podcast co-host with - Lucas, played a character named Rhonda who sang the lyrics to the accompanying tune. Several current Australian TV journalists also made cameos during the scene, namely ABC meteorologist Nate Byrne, Network 10 reporter Daniel Doody, and radio sports commentator Megan Hustwaite. This promo was shot in one morning, with the scenes from the fifth episode in which Dale, Gerry, and Tim visit a gay club being filmed early that afternoon.
In September 2023, on Twitter, Lucas revealed that Helen's birth name, as revealed in the third episode - Helen Kaasik - was "her father's Estonian surname, but she took her mother's maiden name of Norville because it was more palatable to Australian TV audiences of the '80s".
Cast improvisation The cast spoke frequently about the level of improvisation and melding of their own personal lives into their characters' that took place during the second series. Lim Davidson said that improvising or suggesting script changes or additions is only done when they believe "we think it can progress the story", and by the second series the cast were trusted to "know who these characters are [and] will only add things" such as dialogue from interactions from their real lives or "personal details that we think help support the story". McInnes said his character's proclivity for yelling stems from his upbringing, when many of his male role models were typical yellers. When asked how she responds as an actor to McInnes' character's "outbursts", she said Noelene was "caught in [the] dynamic" of being one of the lower-status members of the News at Six "core team". As an actor, she said her role is to "just be in the scene [and] listen to that response and I automatically respond that way" - trying to ensure any responses are "completely natural" and not "manufactured" - recalling a scene in the first episode where she shocked herself with the emotional depth she gave a response, attributing it to being "so in the zone that it feels very real". Lim Davidson reflected that she related to her character's position as the "most junior person in the workplace" - described by journalist Leigh Sales as being in that position as "constant[ly] trying to the right thing and to avoid being the target of that" - as she "feel[s] very alert to everything" on set, and that if she has a potential idea or solution for a story "it all needs to be really like at the tip of my fingers"; she hoped "that translates to ... that genuine kind of quality of ... her being a junior member of the office and having to over deliver in those high anxiety moments". She also related to Noelene in a scene in which Rob's family members engage in casual racism by conflating Chinese, Japanese and Korean people together, having experienced that personally too.
Downey disclosed that the scene in the third episode in which the character of Helen arrives at Evelyn's door to deliver a profanity-laced diatribe about the state of the latter's character and morals was improvised by Torv, comparing it to her own approach as an actor being "very script-bound", while she praised Torv's ability to improve, "feeling it in the moment, [and] changing the script", and so it was "a matter of kind of going with that". She found the experience "a little bit nerve-wracking, but it really worked because I didn't know what was going to appear at that door". Downey found it "quite confronting" to open the scene with Torv, as Helen, calling her character a "fucking bitch", taken aback by how it was not in the script nor the opening line; the script detailed that "Dale attempted to mediate before Helen erupted", but "on the day, Anna felt Helen would erupt the second she laid eyes on Evelyn". Downey spoke of finding humour in the situation, as both Torv's and Downey's characters had had little interaction throughout the entirety of the show's production, and so neither had themselves personally - and that it was their characters' first interaction since a scene in the first series that was also driven by distaste for each other. In fact, it was the first scene Torv shot for the second series.