‘We’re really doubling down on the comedy space’: Paramount heads reveal plans for 2025
A newly-commissioned local sitcom, a weekly comedy show starring Sam Pang, and the return of a generational classic were among the big announcements at Paramount’s upfront in Sydney on Monday morning.
Ghosts Australia is the big comedy hope for Ten this year – an eight-part BBC Studios Australia production for Network 10 and Paramount+ – based on the most-watched UK comedy of last year which saw over 6 million people tune into its finale.
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The show is set in a haunted country house “full of hilarious new ghosts who are as chaotic, unpredictable and messy as Australian history itself”.
According to the premise: “New lovebirds Kate and Sean are about to jump into the hellscape that is the inner-city rental market, until Kate inherits a huge mansion in the country. Moving in together for the first time the young couple are attempting domestic bliss, but unbeknown to them, the house is haunted by a collection of needy spirits who carked it in Ramshead Manor over the last 200 years.
“Optimistic go-getter Kate wants to revamp the manor into a boutique hotel, but loveable city boy Sean isn’t so sure, he isn’t built for country living. When a near-death experience gives Kate the power to see the ghosts, all their lives (and afterlives) will change forever. As Kate and Sean navigate the milestones of a new relationship, building a business and dealing with the emotional needs of six neurotic ghosts, will their relationship survive or end up as dead as their new housemates?”
Paramount/Ten are “really doubling down” on new comedy productions this year, following the continued success of a slew of Working Dog Productions shows, plus various other commissions over the past few years. ‘
Sam Pang, one of the regulars on Have You Been Paying Attention? will deliver his own weekly comedy show for Ten.
Although details are scarce, Daniel Monaghan, Paramount ANZ’s senior vice president of content and programming, tells Mumbrella: “It feels like the right time for him to be hosting his own weekly comedy show.”
The Inspired Unemployed will also launch a new comedy travel series, The List, that sees the duo holiday around the globe completing items from a reverse bucket list of terrible tasks. “We know how much those guys resonate with our audiences,” Monaghan notes, revealing the team are currently in South Africa filming the second episode. “It will be a big, noisy and funny show.”
And Christmas 2025 will see the launch of Staycation, a feature-length, live action Christmas movie from Ludo, the producers of Bluey.
“It’s very much got a National Lampoon’s vibe,” Monaghan reveals of the show, which he has seen the first scripts for. “You can imagine what those producers who are so astute with Bluey, what they do with that. It will be sharp!”

Paramount Upfront 2025
Ten will also be rebooting some old classics – keeping with the theme started in 2024, which saw the return of Gladiators, Ready Steady Cook, Deal Or No Deal, and Wheel Of Fortune to Australian screens.
Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation – retitled Talkin’ Bout Your Gen – will return with an un-named host, while Big Brother also returns to the network that first launched the show back in 2001.
“It feels like the generation conversation gets louder and louder in society all the time, especially now that the Zoomers are really driving that,” Monaghan says of rebooting ‘Your Gen’.
“I think it’s exciting. It’ll be X, Y and Z in our version. And we just want to make people laugh, and just keep the conversation going about the intergenerational play.
“It was such a successful show for us, so it’s great to do that [again].”
2025 will also see new reality series Airport 24/7, the launch of House Hunters Australia, and two different versions of Survivor, including Survivor: Australia v The World.
“We’re really doubling down on the comedy space,” Monaghan confirms. “We’ve clearly got the biggest and most popular comedies on TV, but with Sam, with You Gen, and then with Ghosts, we’re really broadening and doubling down on that slate. And the Christmas film is a comedy as well.”

The List
Moving from programming to advertising technology, Paramount Australia is launching a new converged advertising trading platform called Paramount Connect in January 2025.
Paramount calls this “a ground-breaking, industry-leading solution”, which will allow marketers to target audiences across every platform and program in Paramount’s ecosystem.
Phase one of a two-step play will bring together 10 Play, streaming platform Paramount+, and more than 60 FAST channels on Pluto TV, into a unified digital ecosystem, which the network calls “the first of its kind in the Australian market”, with a single customer view for advertising partners.
The second phase will bring linear TV into the fold – which Rod Prosser, Paramount ANZ’s chief sales officer, explains to Mumbrella, will launch in the second half of 2025.
“Now, that’s really nuanced,” he says of implementing this technology, “because, obviously, one’s coming through a cord and the other one’s coming through the signal. So I think we’ve got some work to do, just making sure that the measurement is right for advertisers.”

Rod Prosser and Daniel Monaghan
Paramount Australia is also expanding its contextual Connected TV advertising opportunities after this year’s successful Shoppable TV proof-of-concept during Survivor.
The network will scale this advertising opportunity across key tentpole programs in 2025, including Australian Survivor and MasterChef Australia, introducing two new opportunities: Pause to Shop and Own the Moment.
Pause to Shop “turns brand exposure during Paramount’s premium shows, into product discovery opportunities,” as the network puts it.
“From a high-stakes moment to a scene of celebration, Pause to Shop allows advertisers to convert relevant content moments with specific on-screen brand exposure, or even similar products or services, into immediate consumer engagement.”
Own the Moment is a more integrated offering, with advertisers able claim and enhance key contextual moments within programs.
“Essentially, what it does,” explains Prosser of Own The Moment, “is the technology will pick up moments that might be within the show that relates to a specific advertiser, and it’ll draw upon those advertiser’s ads and put them next to that contextual moment within the next ad pod.
“Of course, we can amplify that through partnership and sponsorship, which is where I think it mostly will live.”
Overall, both Monaghan and Prosser are feeling good about the coming year.
“We’re excited about 2025 and optimistic that the ad market will return,” Prosser said. “And we will be poised for a good year.”
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