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Can of Worms (TV program)

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ5029136 ↗
Source-derived summary

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.

Editorial summary

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.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011, 2013, 2012—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Worms, program and television is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

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.

Evidence profile

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.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Can of Worms (TV program)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Can of Worms (TV program) primary sources, Can of Worms (TV program) archive and Worms research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Can of Worms (TV program)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

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.