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Citing the high cost of the episodes, Network Ten will cancel its 6pm repeats of hit cartoon The Simpsons and extend its one-hour news bulletin to 90 minutes.
Ten is betting that an expanded News at Five, like its predecessor in the timeslot, will take its place as the defining cultural reference-point of a generation.
Viewers will be treated to the misadventures of stupid-but-lovable central character Bill Woods, who alongside his long-suffering partner Sandra Sully must spin a half-hour bulletin into 90 minutes with excessively chatty back-announcing.
In a bid to match The Simpsons, News at Five already includes a range of celebrity guest voices, including political leaders and sports stars.
News at Five will borrow from the format of a 1995 Simpsons episode, #2F13, by setting most of the storyline in Australia.
The number-three commercial network hopes that today’s teens will be incessantly quoting lines from their favourite News at Five episodes well into their late twenties.
