Hard Quiz has grown to become one of ABC’s most successful original formats.

ABC executive producer Tarni James, recently spoke about the key to the show’s success and how it is inclusive in its casting.

“It has combined ordinary Australians and extraordinary depth of knowledge in really quirky and bizarre areas. It’s viewing for all age groups. It’s got an established comedic host who is both wicked and unkind and yet he delivers his insults with the most velvet glove,” she said.

“It’s entertaining and yet it also has a layer of intellectual interest. The other thing about Hard Quiz is that it makes an exceptional effort to be inclusive. I don’t see any other show on television that just in the course of casting has disabilities, people who can’t walk, who can’t see, who have a speech impediment, who struggle with any sort of disability … it is absolutely unimportant with Hard Quiz. Everybody’s treated absolutely equally.

“The production makes a great effort to ensure that’s how it appears. There are a lot of support things that go in for people who have to bring their guide dog or whatever. But Tom is equally as abusive to everybody as they front. We have to manage that. Early on the audience was incensed that he should be so rude. But they have gotten used to his level.”