When What Now? launched over 44 years ago, there was little competition for kids’ attention. Now, in a world ruled by YouTube and endless streaming options, how has it managed to keep going strong? We talk to Christchurch-based Whitebait Media director Janine Morrell-Gunn and What Now? producer Holly Chappell about the show’s secret sauce and staying power.
What Now! has become a NZ institution. What’s the secret – and what’s changed?
Janine:
“The kaupapa or the fundamentals of producing What Now? is to showcase kids’ talents, to tell kids’ stories and to elevate or amplify the voice of New Zealand children hasn’t changed. What’s probably changed the most is the platforms on which we make the content for young people.
And, over the years the show has changed from being on Saturday to Sunday morning and from two hours to one hour long. It’s also changed from being live to pre-recorded.
But essentially the content around bringing joy to kids’ lives and showcasing their lives hasn’t changed. Putting kids at the centre of all we do in terms of how we produce content hasn’t changed.
At the beginning of last year, we moved from not only producing the television show, but growing our YouTube channel. Producing for YouTube is a very different game to making the TV show. Essentially we’re making stories for YouTube that we then compile together to put on television.”
Have Kiwi kids changed much over four decades?
Janine:
“I don’t think so. They’re still very much about family, and their friends and their pets and sports, music, hobbies and interests. That hasn’t changed.”
Holly:
“I think the things they love and want to watch are the same, but I think they just consume it differently, and at a different rate to when we were young. We used to sit with linear TV for long periods of time, whereas young people now have access to things so quickly and can move through content so quickly.”
What’s it like making a show for an increasingly online audience?
Janine:
“We still have a website that kids can go to, we still have linear television – the show for kids that aren’t on YouTube, or don’t have access to social devices, or connectivity, which is still a thing in New Zealand for a lot of lower socioeconomic families.”
Holly:
But we get out on the road as much as we possibly can now. Every week of the year, we’re somewhere else. Having a pre-recorded show on a YouTube channel has allowed us to get out into communities, into kura, into groups more.
“Logistically, with our YouTube channel, we upload three pieces of long-form content and 14 pieces of short-form content a week. So just the amount of content that we’re making is huge.
We compile a lot of that for our Sunday show, but we also film bespoke links for that show as well. And I think we really found our editing style in that content, that appeals to young people and feels like the kind of cool, fast paced stuff that they’re watching, but is still true to our values.
That was our big thing. trying to find a way to make our content feel like that YouTube sort of world, but also hold true to our values and what’s important to us in making content for kids.”
Why does it matter whether Kiwi kids still see NZ content?
Janine:
“Seeing yourself either on screen or seeing children like you reflected on screen is really important for growing self-esteem and identity. It’s relatable. They think: ‘That person gets me, I’m like that’, or ‘I’d like to do this.’
It should be aspiring and aspirational as well as fun and entertaining.
Holly:
While there’s so much choice now for kids to be watching, there’s not as much NZ content being consumed. So it’s really important for us, for Aotearoa kids to see themselves in our context as much as they can and have our hosts as local heroes as well.”
Where do your ideas come from?
Holly:
“There’s no shortage of them. We always have too many. We have a really great team and because we have a smaller team than we’ve ever had before, the ideas pften come from anyone and everyone. Ideas are coming up all day, every day.”
Why is the gunge tank still a hit?
Janine:
“It’s just always been popular, right? It’s so funny now, because we’ve had councillors and Members of Parliament being gunged at the Cholmondeley Children’s Centre (near Christchurch). Genuinely kids and adults look at it and go, ‘Oh my God, is that the gunge machine? Yeah – I’ll go in that!’ It’s not, a Warner Brothers theme park or Disneyland, but it’s an element of it’s something they’ve seen on screen and it looks like a lot of fun.
And we play all sorts of games and content around the opportunity to get in it. We’ve got a mobile unit now so we can take gunge on the road.”
Holly:
“A lot of our content is really fun, challenge-based and competitive. But underneath all of those things are those values that we’re really trying to look for in our young people, like individuality and pride.
We hope these young people become really wonderful grown-ups in our country and are proud of us and who we are – and want to make change in the country. Be the change that we want to see in the world.”
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