Newsjack open for submissions
Newsjack is back for another 6 week run giving comedy writers of any level of experience the chance to submit sketches and one-liners (and get paid for them!).
Newsjack is a satirical news show aired on BBC Radio 4 Extra, hosted by Nish Kumar. It’s now into its 15th season and continues to pride itself on showcasing comedy writing talent. With such a great opportunity competition is fierce, so make sure you get practicing now – the more you write the better you will get. There are lots of different formats to write to which are all detailed below in the extract from the BBC website.
Here at The Comedy Crowd we have published great articles from a couple of Newsjack stalwarts that are well worth checking out:
Simon Miller – Confessions of a Newsjack Addict
Daniel Page – Writing Comedy is hard – but why its worth learning how.
You can also find tips and resources on the Newsjack page.
Submission guidelines (from BBC website)
Deadlines:
Sketches: Noon Monday 5 September.
One-Liners: Noon Tuesday 6 September.
Then at the same times each week, for 5 weeks.
Sketch Guidelines:
Please write an introduction for each sketch for Nish to read, clearly outlining the news story it’s from and setting up the sketch for clarity.
Each episode will have the following sections. The show will contain a maximum of 3 sketches in each section.
Arts & Entertainment
Business & Economy
Politics
Science & Technology
Sport
World News
Please think outside the box – delve deep for stories you find fun/interesting.
Sketch Limit per Episode: 2 Sketches per person.
30 Second Advert Guidelines:
This is a 30 second advert satirising something from the news that week – i.e. The Oscars, a political ad, infomercial, etc. Although we’re not asking for charity appeals this time. (We’ve had too many. Our sympathy has dwindled.)
30 Second Advert Limit per Episode: 1 per person. 130 words maximum.
One-liner Guidelines:
Each episode will contain one-liners in the following forms ONLY:
Breaking News.
A One-liner ideally linked to a current news story.
e.g: Obama gives interview to Buzzfeed. What happened next will warm your heart.
Goodbye TV Listings, hello ‘Viewsjack’.
That’s right, the one liners have evolved once again. Newsjack will head to the street to get various views on pressing issues.
Viewsjacks are vox pops in format – An opportunity for a quick, characterful one-liner from a member of the public.
e.g:
Man: ‘I’m voting for the Green Party because of their policy to introduce less severe sentences to prevent overcrowding prisons. Now give me your wallet.’
Woman: ‘If Kanye doesn’t like Beck, why can’t he just drink champagne like all the other pop stars?’
One-liner Limit per Episode: 6 One-Liners per person. (3 Breaking news, 3 Viewsjack.)
Fees:
There is a flat fee for all non-commissioned material (regardless of the writer’s previous experience):
£42/minute for sketches (£21/30 seconds for sketches).
£21 for quickies and one liners.
This fee will be for taking all rights in the work on a non-exclusive basis.
To submit your sketch or one-liner head to the Newsjack page to download the submission template.
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