Is a media insider behind the controversial avocadoTV account?

*THIS POST HAS BEEN ALTERED DUE TO LEGAL ACTION

A user popped up in September last year on MEDIASPY who seems to have inside knowledge of the TV industry. Now questions are being asked just who is behind this intriguing account after some nasty posts.

It’s not unusual for people who work in the television industry to have secret accounts on the MediaSpy forum. It’s a place television fans go to have their say on the industry and content. TV insiders take the opportunity to sway conversations and garner support for their products and deride their competitors.

In fact I operate under the name Blackbox. It’s an open secret to those who use the site who I am as I made myself known years ago.

When avocadoTV created an account on 19 September 2018 the community soon realised this wasn’t just a fanboy, this was someone who knew what they were talking about and it seemed apparent they were working at Seven’s breakfast TV show Sunrise.

In January “Graeme” (the name in avocadoTV’s profile) was very keen to post a link in the TODAY thread of a Daily Mail article highlighting the bad performance of Nine’s new line-up.

A couple of days later “Graeme’ was trumpeting a great result for Sunrise.

In fairness, it’s not unusual for users on MediSpy to have allegiances to shows or networks, even without any actual relationship, but this user has ratings data usually only shared internally;

No regular user has access to the level of detail here. Knowing the show had a lift at 8.15am or a national margin of 71% is something never printed in daily media reports.

And the user certainly hasn’t been afraid to criticise the new TODAY show;

And “Graeme” jumped in to take a pot shot at a post by Steve Burling, the Executive Producer of TODAY;

But it goes further than that. When users put the current success of Sunrise down to the bad performance of TODAY, avocadoTV is having none of it;

There are more examples where avocadoTV debates specific content with full knowledge of what both breakfast shows put to air (something you can do when watching from multiple screens in an office), but you get the point, and if you want to read everything posted GO HERE.

So who is it and why does it matter?

TV Blackbox has been contacted by users of the site convinced it’s none other than [NAME REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL ACTION]. If [NAME REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL ACTION] is the author there would be no issue with that person defending a show they work on, but it’s some of the other posts that are raising eyebrows (more on that below).

We reached out to Seven and asked if [NAME REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL ACTION] was behind the account. Seven outright denied they had any involvement;

“[NAME REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL ACTION] does not operate under that name on MediaSpy, and indeed doesn’t have an account on the site. [He/she] only operates under [his/her] own name, on twitter, Instagram and Facebook.”

If it’s not [NAME REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL ACTION] it is certainly someone else who works on the show, which makes these posts about My Kitchen Rules all the more interesting;

Not great commentary from someone who works at the network.

For some time now there has been a concerted effort to erase the contribution made by Adam Boland to the success of Sunrise and this user certainly doesn’t hold back in response to a post crediting him;

Nasty.

The reference to Queenscliff beach is in relation to Boland’s failed breakfast show Wake Up, which was shot in Manly.

It’s worth noting that since our enquiry to Seven about the account 10 days ago avocadoTV has been strangely silent.