The Hamster Wheel is an Australian television satirical

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

 (ABC) television station ABC1

ABC1

ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...

. It is presented by The Chaser team

The Chaser

The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedian group, known for their television programmes on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel. The group take their name from their production of satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste...

.

Production

In July 2011, TV Tonight

TV Tonight

TV Tonight is an Australian-based television themed website which features news, programming and OzTAM ratings information. As of January 2011, the site places 1,083 in the Australian Alexa ranking system and 92,543 worldwide....

 reported that The Chaser were working on developing a new television show. In August 2011, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation announced the Chaser team would return in a new show titled The Hamster Wheel. The first of eight episodes aired on 5 October 2011.

Show format

The Hamster Wheel is set within a large hamster cage. It generally begins with Julian Morrow

Julian Morrow

Julian Francis Xavier Morrow is an Australian comedian and television producer from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of the satirical team The Chaser...

, Craig Reucassel

Craig Reucassel

Craig Bruce Reucassel is a television and radio comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...

 and Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor may refer to:*Chris Taylor , owner of TMKO Lawyers & Last Gang Records*Chris Taylor , comedian, best known from The Chaser's War on Everything, CNNNN and Triple J...

 sitting at their Hamster-shaped desk named Horace. Here they present the segment "News of the Week" which delves into some of the stories that made headlines in the past week. This is traditionally followed by the "Inside the Wheel" segment, presented by Andrew Hanson and Chas Licciardello

Chas Licciardello

Chas John Licciardello is a comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...

. The main segments of the show are broken up by other smaller segments and features including "The Murdoch Tapes" where The Chaser team appear to be interviewing Rupert

Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

 and James Murdoch

James Murdoch

James Murdoch is the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation.James Murdoch may also refer to:* James Murdoch , Irish Baptist College lecturer and former Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland pastor-teacher...

 by utilising clips from the inquiry into the News International phone hacking scandal and "Politics with Cats" where Hanson describes a political story of the week using a selection of YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 cat videos. Every episode a small hamster, named after their desk Horace, is hidden in one of the scenes. The locations of Horace are revealed on The Hamster Wheel website shortly after the airing of the episode.

Episodes

No	| Airdate	| Viewers	| Rank			|
			Timeslot	| Day	| Week
1	5 October 2011	857,000	1	10	30
2	12 October 2011	823,000	1	11	35
3	19 October 2011	815,000	1	10
4	26 October 2011	866,000	1	11
5	2 November 2011	766,000	2	13
6	9 November 2011	876,000	1	9	24
7	16 November 2011	920,000	1	9
8	23 November 2011	950,000	1	9

Reception and ratings

Initially, the return of The Chaser team to television was welcomed, however, many critised the lack of Chaser-esque stunts in The Hamster Wheel. Paul Kalina from the Sydney Morning Herald stated The Hamster Wheel was "one of their best outings yet" and left him asking for more. In contrast, Clem Bastow also from the Sydney Morning Herald stated that the hamster should be put down stating that The Hamster Wheel was a "dunderheaded, boring show". David Knox from TV Tonight commented that "by the time show was over I felt a bit exhausted but only having enjoyed a handful of laughs". Throughout the series, The Hamster Wheel has retained an average viewing audience of approximately 860,000 viewers, ranking it 1st for its timeslot for all but one of the aired episodes.