Rage (TV program)

Rage (stylised as rage) is an all-night Australian music video program broadcast on ABC TV on Friday nights, Saturday mornings and Saturday nights. It was first screened on the weekend of Friday, 17 April 1987. With Soul Train and Video Hits no longer being produced, it is the oldest music television program in the world currently still in production as of 2026.

On Friday and Saturday nights, Rage typically starts between 11:00pm and 1:00am local time. The program is classified MA15+ until 5:00am, where it is rated PG from 5:00 to 11:00am on Saturday mornings, and at 7:00am on Sundays.

Rage has a minimalist format which has remained largely unchanged since the program's inception. Originally created by executive producer Mark FitzGerald in early 1987, the program was originally proposed to be titled rage 'til you puke, but which was shortened to rage, as this was deemed more likely to be acceptable to the ABC board. It debuted in April 1987, the same month as MTV Australia debuted as a late night program on the Nine Network and two months after Video Hits debuted on Network Ten.

The first five music videos shown on rage were "Weirdo Libido" by the Lime Spiders, "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" by The Beastie Boys, “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks, “C'mon Every Beatbox” by Big Audio Dynamite and “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” by Genesis.

Rage was given an idiosyncratic and alternative flavour by music programmers and producers Stephanie Lewis (1987 to 1995) and Narelle Gee (1995 to 2008).

Prior to 1989, rage frequently dedicated large amounts of airtime to individual artists and musical styles, often playing an artist's entire catalogue of videos. From 1989 this became more structured with Saturday night specials being introduced, with rage showing every music video from a nominated artist each Saturday night, usually in chronological order. The first artist featured was Madonna, on 6 May 1989. Other early specials included Midnight Oil, The Cult, The The, Public Image Ltd., Tears for Fears, Scrap Metal, Mental As Anything, Crowded House, Paul Kelly, The Beatles, Hoodoo Gurus, Eurythmics, INXS and Split Enz, plus heavy metal and country music specials.

Guest programmers, who choose the videos aired for an episode, were introduced in January 1990. Mark Fitzgerald and then-programmer Stephanie Lewis came up with the idea along with musician Damien Lovelock. The guest presenters are usually musical artists from Australia or international artists if they happen to be touring Australia, but not always. The ABC presenter Andrew Denton, who is not a musician, was the first guest programmer. Other non-musician guest programmers have included politicians, music video directors (e.g. Richard Lowenstein), and even members of the public. Following the guest programmer’s video selection, rage would then typically show all or most of the music videos by that guest programmer, provided they are a musical artist.

With Saturday nights being dedicated to specials and guest programmers, Friday nights became increasingly devoted to new releases and has been almost exclusively such since 1995, showing a range of music genres. Exceptions to this are often made when a well-known musician dies, and rage will play a tribute to that musician by opening Friday night’s show with a selection of their videos, bookended by simple white-on-black “In Memory Of” text graphics with the artist’s name and years of life.