New Australian Comedy Series May Be ‘Too Gay’ For Mainstream TV

Please Like Me, a new Australian comedy series has been taken off mainstream television with its star and creator, Josh Thomas speculating it is because the show is “too gay.”

The show is about a young man, played by Thomas, who comes out and starts a relationship with a man. While the series does not contain any overt sex scenes, it does portray homosexual kissing and men in bed together, as well as a lot of sexual comedy and innuendo.

According to The Australian, Please Like Me was set to air on Australia’s mainstream ABC1 channel but was quickly shifted to the much smaller ABC2. “They told me it (the switch to ABC2) was a compliment. I don’t believe them,” Thomas said. “I don’t know if what they were really saying was, ‘Josh the show is a bit s—‘ or, ‘Josh the show has too much suicide and gay sex in it’. People have suggested to me that (too gay) is why they did it (put it on ABC2). I would be shocked if that’s why but I also wouldn’t be.”

The ABC was quick to dismiss the claims that Josh Thomas’ show is “too gay.”

“The tone of Please Like Me and the issues discussed are principally aimed at an audience in their early 20s,” says an unnamed ABC spokesperson. “Since ABC1 is largely a channel of mass appeal that tends to attract an audience with an average age the other side of 35, we decided the best home for Please Like Me was ABC2.”

Josh Thomas is a popular Australian comedian and television personality and a regular participant in the popular Channel 10 celebrity game show, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation. He also frequently appears on entertainment and social commentary style TV including The Project and has been named by SameSame, as one of the 25 most influential gay Australians. The Sydney Morning Herald notes Thomas came out on his podcast.

Like his real life counterpart. Thomas’ character on Please Like Me moves from being publicly straight to openly gay in a storyline The Australian describes as possessing “a sweetness that sets it apart from other boundary-pushing comedies such as Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys and Summer Heights High which happily found a home on ABC1.” Thomas has told The Sydney Morning Herald that an honest portrayal was the number one goal of the show.

What do you think? Is it likely that ABC moved Please Like Me to a smaller television audience because it was “too gay”?