Comedy chief demoted over Chaser skit

The ABC has demoted its head of TV comedy over a controversial Chaser skit about sick children, saying airing it was an error of judgment.

In a statement released yesterday, the broadcaster said Amanda Duthie had been stripped of responsibility for comedy programs after a review of how the "Make a Realistic Wish" skit made it to air in The Chaser's War on Everything.

However, the Chaser team have expressed disappointment at the move, saying Ms Duthie had been treated harshly.

Stars of the program last week apologised for the skit which depicted dying children making deathbed wishes. It was subsequently cut from online broadcasts.

Public outrage led ABC management to pull the series for a fortnight while it conducted the review of editorial approval processes.

"The segment should not have been broadcast," the ABC's managing director Mark Scott said.

"We recognise that it caused unnecessary and unreasonable hurt and offence to our viewers, and the broader community, and we have apologised for this.

"We have determined this was not a breakdown in our editorial policy processes but rather an error of judgment."

Mr Scott said that under the broadcaster's editorial policies Ms Duthie should have referred the skit to the next level of management.

"Where staff are concerned about the potential for satirical material to cause harm they should refer the matter to the next level of management," he said.

"In this instance, the Head of Arts, Entertainment and Comedy reviewed the segment and did not refer it up."

Executive head of content creation, Courtney Gibson, will take over Ms Duthie's responsibilities for comedy programs until a permanent replacement is found.

She will remain head of Arts and Entertainment.

In a statement, the Chaser team said "20/20 hindsight is easier than 20/20 foresight".

"We're sorry we put the sketch forward and we think it's a harsh call on Amanda who had, and has, our full support," they said.

Ms Duthie's demotion followed confirmation that The Chaser's War On Everything will return to the ABC on June 24 as planned, after two weeks in the sin bin.

"They will be back on Wednesday the 24th," a corporate affairs spokeswoman for the broadcaster said.

However, it's still unclear whether the current 10-part series will be reduced to eight episodes.

The program's slot on Wednesday and next week will be replaced with Tracey Ullman's State Of The Union, an American satirical comedy series.

Debate is raging about the show on social networking site Facebook, with more than 750 people having joined a group calling on the ABC to scrap the program and another group garnering more than 500 members in support of the show.