Tomorrow Tonight is an Australian comedy panel discussion television show hosted by Annabel Crabb, Charlie Pickering and Adam Liaw. The show features a panel of experts and comedians who discuss a hypothetical news story from tomorrow's headlines. Together they try to solve the world's problems before they even happen.[1][2]
The show premiered on ABC in October 2018, with Crabb and Pickering as co-hosts. After a 3 year absence it was scheduled to return in 2022 but disruptions caused by ongoing COVID-19 restrictions delayed its return to the following year.[3][4][5][6] Adam Liaw joined the cast in 2022.[7]
Format
The show airs several segments throughout the episode to create a hypothetical or fake news story, and in the process raises moral dilemmas that are fictional yet convincing.[8]
The hypothetical news story is shown to three guest panellists and permanent panellist Annabel Crabb. The host (Charlie Pickering) holds a neutral position and questions each panellist as to how they will approach the issues raised. The news story gradually unfolds in various segments during the episode and culminates in a humorous potential aftermath featuring one of the guest panellists.[9]
Scenario: A hacker accesses a U.S. intelligence database, stealing every mobile phone text message from around the world dating back to 2001 and will publicly release your text messages unless you send $5,000 to keep them secret.
Scenario: Revolutionary gene editing technology called PINCR creates the world's first designer baby named Adam and this technology has applications including curing genetic diseases and choosing your baby's gender, hair colour or eye colour.
Scenario: Australia is running out of water and the Department of Water Security is publicly naming and shaming households that use too much water, while violations of water restrictions is punishable with up to 3 months in prison.
Scenario: Babel is a much loved and highly intelligent female bonobo in an Australian zoo who uses sign language to communicate but a zookeeper deliberately poisons her and receives two years imprisonment for her death compared to seven years for killing a human.
Scenario: An Australian tech guru creates a dating app called DataDate that uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to access details from all your online activities, DNA and personality tests to build your complete profile in order to match you with your 'optimal partner'.
Scenario: Australia's technology in driverless cars can quickly calculate the fastest route to your destination, has features including GPS, sensors and a safety algorithm which makes an immediate decision to minimise the loss of human lives.
Scenario: Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and his younger sister Kim Yo-jong who are missing and presumed dead, with thousands of North Korean civilians crossing the border into South Korea and occupying the demilitarised zone.
Scenario: Australia's health card caps your sugar intake at the World Health Organisation's recommended limit of 25 grams per day to reduce obesity rates and cardiovascular diseases by stopping you from making further purchases of processed snack food and soft drinks at the checkout when you reach the limit.
Scenario: When our eyes and our ears can be fooled, what do we have left? We ask them to step into a world where deepfakes are indistinguishable from reality.
Scenario: Would you give up the right to be bad? We negotiate a world where our behaviour isn't just rewarded and punished, being good is a compulsory national policy.
Scenario: Do we all need to believe in something, whether it's true or not? We talk about them to step into a world where one belief becomes a reality.
Scenario: What would you give up to forget your trauma? We ask themselves to step into a world where our memories can be shuffled, dismantled and even erased.
Scenario: Would the world be better or worse without fibs and fabrication? We ask the team to step into a world where telling the truth isn't just necessary, it's compulsory.