First host: Barrie Cassidy (2001—2019) The program first aired on 15 July 2001 on ABC TV, and was hosted by
Barrie Cassidy for 18 years until his retirement in June 2019. The first guest interview was with Prime Minister
John Howard. "Insiders entered a very crowded Sunday morning political market in 2001. But our approach was to provide coverage with so many more elements, and to do it in a way that is informative but irreverent. And of course have a few laughs along the way. If you took politics too seriously you'd go mad," — founding host, Barrie Cassidy.
Fran Kelly hosted
Insiders when
Barrie Cassidy tooklong service leave, and
Chris Uhlmann, prior to his move to the
Nine Network, also hosted the show in Cassidy's absence. The 2007 series included small changes to the format of the show: re-ordering the segments, commencing the program with the political interview, followed by 'Your Shout'. Paul Kelly's discussion (this segment was discontinued in 2010) was then used as a starting point for the panel discussion. 'Talking Pictures' continued to provide a break point within the panel discussions. In 2011, the usual program format began with a brief monologue from Cassidy followed by a brief video summary of the major events of the preceding week. Cassidy then reviewed the Sunday papers with the studio panel before moving on to the studio guest. If the guest is present in the studio the interview is introduced by a short video clip relating to the first interview question. The interview usually lasts until midway through the hour and is followed by a video clip which concentrates on events surrounding a major news topic of the week. This was followed by a panel discussion between Cassidy and his studio guests. Cassidy introduced 'Talking Pictures' towards the end of the hour, which is followed by further panel discussion in the studio. The show usually wound up with Cassidy introducing amusing or otherwise interesting media clips followed by an observation or prediction from each panel member before Cassidy ended the show with a final media clip or two. In March 2019, Cassidy announced he would be leaving
Insiders after the
2019 Australian election and after eighteen years in the hosting chair. His last show was on 9 June 2019; regular fill-in presenters
Fran Kelly and
Annabel Crabb alternated hosting duties until the end of the year. On 11 July 2021, Barrie Cassidy returned to the show as a guest on 'Talking Pictures' to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary.
Second host: David Speers (2020—) In June 2019
David Speers was announced as Cassidy's replacement from 2020. Since David Speers became host in 2020 the format has remained relatively consistent, with an opening edited video compilation that frames the weeks key events, opening remarks and discussion with the three panellists, a look at the Sunday newspaper stories followed by a political interview of around 15 to 20 minutes in duration. The discussion returns to the panellists for around 20 minutes then breaking to a prerecorded 'Talking Pictures' package (hosted by Mike Bowers with a weekly guest), then returns to the studio for closing comments and observations. In June 2020, the program received criticism for having an all-white panel discussing the
Black Lives Matter movement. An investigation by
Junkee discovered that there seemingly had never been a
person of colour on the panel in the show's history. Consequently, ABC journalist
Bridget Brennan accepted an invitation to be on the following week's program, seemingly becoming the first non-white person to ever appear on the
Insiders panel. Addressing the criticism, Speers admitted the previous week's edition of
Insiders lacked an important perspective and that the program needed to do better in having more diverse insights into political debate. The first episode broadcast from Canberra was on 9 July 2023. ==Regular segments==