Can of Worms (TV program)
television series

Can of Worms is an Australian television talk show that was broadcast on Network Ten.
Producer Andrew Denton pitched the show as providing "an insight into what Australia really thinks about controversial topics" by removing "the barriers of political correctness." The first series' host, Ian "Dicko" Dickson, described the show as a "[sitting] between a talk-show and a game-show."
Production
The show first aired on 4 July 2011 until 20 May 2013. Ian "Dicko" Dickson hosted the first series along with Meshel Laurie.
During the production of the first series, TV Tonight reported that some public figures had declined to appear on show. Host Dickson confirmed that the show's premise had led to difficulty booking participants on the early episodes.
Dickson left the show at the end of the first series. The second series, was hosted by Chrissie Swan and 'man on the street' Dan Ilic. It began airing on 20 August 2012, with two 'Best of Specials' airing in November as a two-part finale.
On 23 October 2012, Can of Worms was renewed for a third series that would be broadcast around the nation live. The Third Series (still hosted by Swan and Ilic) began airing on 11 February 2013 and was broadcast live.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Can of Worms (TV program)” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Worms, program and television, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5029136. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2013 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Can of Worms (TV program)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.