Friday’s Panic Room prank which featured Channel 7’s Samantha Armytage in a darkened room with a naked Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald has delivered a spectacular media result for the Nova 969 breakfast duo Fitzy & Wippa.
Media including, Channel Nine’s A Current Affair, itself no paragon to taste, was all over it, gleefully condemning the low grade stunt to add that all important ‘shock horror’ dimension to its own content.
The ACA segment featured Neil Mitchell in the role of moral arbiter to demonstrate outrage on behalf of the conservative segment of the community that wouldn’t listen to Fitzy & Wippa if Tony Abbott joined them as a sidekick. Given the 3AW Morning presenter’s current ratings slump, he too could use the exposure.
In the end, everyone, Nova, ACA, a raft of other media and Mitchell got something out of the Fitzy & Wippa prank, with perhaps the exception of Ms Armytage who was genuinely shocked when the lights were turned on to reveal fitzy naked and holding his own. Fitzy & Wippa have already presented her with their personal heartfelt apologies.
Hopefully for Nova, no one will feel sufficiently aggrieved by the stunt to bother the ACMA with it. Nova’s parent company was quick to offer it’s own general apology which was published on the ACA website.
Statement from Nova Entertainment
On Friday May 16th, the Fitzy & Wippa show on Nova 969 broadcast a Panic Room segment involving Channel 7’s Samantha Armytage.
Nova Entertainment acknowledges that the content relating to Friday’s segment was highly offensive to some listeners, distasteful and inappropriate and not consistent with the values upheld by the station.
Nova 969 has since removed the segment from its website and apologises for any offence caused.
Fitzy & Wippa apologised to Ms Armytage on Friday, the day the segment was broadcast.
The company accepts that the decision to broadcast the content represented a significant error in judgement on the part of its staff and has taken swift steps to avoid a repeat of such unacceptable broadcast material in future.
Nova Entertainment has issued written notification of the unsuitability of the content to the staff involved and has also reiterated its content guidelines.
Further, immediate additional training will be conducted for staff involved around content guidelines, Broadcast Codes and in particular, guidelines relating to the treatment and portrayal of women to ensure that such an unacceptable incident is not repeated.