
When Kate Langbroek was cast on a new prime-time talk show called The Panel back in 1998, she’d never ‘done’ television before. She’d had small acting roles, including on the soap Chances and in a Transport Accident Commission Community Service Announcement, and had built a profile as a host on independent Melbourne radio station Triple R.
But this was different.
Speaking to Sarah Grynberg on PodcastOne’s A Life of Greatness, the now-stalwart media personality revealed the early days of the weekly Channel 10 current affairs show were a maelstrom of insecurity and negative feedback from viewers.
Because the program came via Working Dog Productions, which had close ties with more-established talent, Langbroek said many questioned her casting.
“People were expecting that it would be Jane Kennedy or Jude [Judith Lucy], and when it was me they were like, ‘Who the f*** is that?’… That is basically the letters that I got,” she told the podcast.
“Also, I was really bad, because I’d never done TV before. I was a bit overwhelmed that, suddenly, there I was with these people who were amazing and seemed to know a lot of stuff. If I didn’t know something, I would go, ‘What does that mean?’ And [viewers] would go, ‘You know nothing!’ [in letters].