TV star's shock confession:

'I cheated'

In the annals of Australian comedy it will be known as "McDermottgate".

Good News Week host and Radio JJJ breakfast star Paul McDermott romped home in last week's Daily Telegraph readers' poll to find out who is the funniest comedian on Australian television.

The result in which McDermott polled roughly 79 percent of the total votes, is dubious at best. No, it stinks.

Second place went to Roy and H.G. (6.7 per cent) while Seven's Eric Bana (3.7 per cent) came third - a large disrepancy, by anyone's calculation.

In Brisbane preparing for this week's show, McDermott attributed his success to "cheating", aided by his GNW and JJJ partner Mikey Robins.

"We certainly put out a call to listeners across the nation last Thursday morning to phone in, only if they felt right about it, only if they truely believed I was the funniest person."

McDermott stressed he and Robins gave JJJ listeners the option to vote for the other nominees, but asked if he read out their 0055 numbers, he conceded: "Not as such.

"But I think we did read my number out once or twice."

Turning the readers' poll into a sham, McDermott said, was sweet revenge for the 7DAYS cover story a few weeks ago which posed the question "Is Elle McFeast funny?" (About 80 percent said "no".)

"I thought it was a bit cruel," he said, in defence of his sometime ABC colleague.

Whether or not he deserved to win, being hailed as the funniest television comit caps of a great 1997 for the former Doug Anthony All Star.

Good News Week, which has faced the axe after its first season, has now found its feet and attracts a loyal and growing audience.

"I think its a great show and a lot of fun to do," he said.

One of the highlights of GNW is McDermott's opening monologue which, thanks to the show's team of writers, he describes as "the finest satire we've seen in years".

"I think the writers we have for the show are the best in Australia," he said.

"I'm often humbled when people say it's a great show and what a great job I'm doing but they [the writers] deserve all the credit.

Good News Week airs Friday at 8pm on ABC-TV.

- Peter Holder

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