ANNA Coren loves The Chaser's War on Everything.
Every Wednesday, she is right there with 1.5 million others watching the irreverent ABC funnymen mock her show, her brand of current affairs and her."Oh yeah," she says deliberately. "I think what they do is really good. I think they're talented and I think they're very funny and I enjoy watching them send us up." Coren even counts the comics among her friends. She sounds almost proud when recounting she was one of the more hardcore revellers at The Chaser's recent wrap party.
'Okay' with attacks on Today Tonight
"Those guys happen to be mates of mine. They don't attack me personally, they attack the show, they attack the genre and they attack me (as the host). That's fine," she says. Coren says she is neither scared nor upset by the broadsides fired during their segments, What We Learned From Current Affairs This Week including The Anna Coren Segue. She watches partly out of curiosity about how they will manage to craft yet another slight about Today Tonight. "No truly. I don't (have any fear). I just always wonder what they will come up with. "I was speaking to one of them the other day and they were like, 'Anna, where's the material? Come on, give it to us, we're running out here'." "I'm not precious. You have to take it as a form of flattery if they're paying you that much attention and having you on their show. "I should be on their bloody payroll."
Coren's show 'an abomination'
Chaser Chas Licciardello says his crew like Coren, but maintain their rage for the show. "In all our dealings with Anna she's been a genuinely nice, sweet person," he said.. "But the show she hosts is an abomination and should be eliminated for the good of humanity." Coren concedes their acerbic parody of the genre is "sometimes" justified and she doesn't "really have a problem with it". But deep down you sense that the weekly blows The Chaser throws could well be hurtful to her.
'Wants to be proud of Today Tonight'
When she took over TT from Naomi Robson early this year, she ambitiously stated - as did Ray Martin before her when he returned to A Current Affair - that she wanted a show to be proud of. Ask Coren if she is enjoying the TT hosting role and the ambiguity and hesitancy may speak volumes: "Yeah, no, I am, I am ... yeah, no, it's all going well. "And yeah, no, it's good." And is she proud of what her show has become? "The stories I do I am proud of, the interviews I do I am proud of ... I make sure the stuff I do personally I am proud of."
'Chipping away' at more serious journalism
In terms of injecting her brand of more serious journalism into TT, she says, "We're getting there" and "chipping away".
She points to interviews with heavy-hitting politicians and serious figures such as anti-Islamic feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. "It's an evolving process. My background is news ... I would love to make the program a bit more newsy and I think we are slowly doing that. "We've had the PM on at least half a dozen times and we had Kevin Rudd on, and (we're) doing stories that matter to me. "You have to do it gradually."
Proud of journalism career
Coren does get upset, though, at media commentators dismissing her journalistic experience and painting her with the tabloid brush. The Australian's Amanda Meade said earlier this year: "If Coren thought she could hang on to her journalistic credibility and host Seven's TT, she was seriously misled." Coren counters: "I certainly know what I've achieved in my career. "I think when people ... wipe out what I have done in the past, that's when I have a bit of an issue. "I certainly know what I was doing the past couple of years.
"I certainly think the stuff that I do, the stories, the interviews I conduct, have integrity and credibility."
Can be both 'Baghdad and boob-jobs'
Despite TT's tabloid recipe working well with viewers - it rated 1.354 million last week about 207,000 above ACA - Coren believes there is room to take the show further upmarket, provided it retains a good mix. Producer Phil Goyen says: "I don't understand why it has to be one or the other, either Baghdad or boob-jobs - it can be both." Coren says: "I do think it's workable and I have always said if the show has a staple it's about getting the mix right. "You need that variety, that light and shade."
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