The pair have been accused of pro-Trump bias. When in June, a senior Democrat appeared on the program to deride President Joe Biden’s performance in the first presidential election debate, some viewers were angry at the suggestion Biden should drop out of the race.

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“A lot of people’s response was, ‘How can you even suggest that?’,” Barron says. “They said, ‘Biden had one bad moment in a debate in a 50-year political career. Donald Trump is a racist, a fraud and a liar, and you’re declaring him the winner of this debate?’. Well, we just had to say, ‘We saw what we saw. Biden was terrible. We called it and a lot of people didn’t like to hear that, but frankly, our experts were right, and we were right’.”

The program attracts up to 200,000 Americans to YouTube replays of some of the most-watched episodes on ABC iview.

“We have a lot of comments from Americans along the lines of, ‘Why can’t American news do what you guys do?’,” says Licciardello.

Local viewers have long pleaded for a “Planet Australia”.

“Yes,” Barron says. “Australia needs a show like this, that looks at what’s happened but also puts it in historical context, and goes into the data. And our response has always been, ‘That’s great and I reckon it’ll last one week!’. Because you’d be walking into a minefield. Both sides would hate you. I say this partly as having spent three years working in the ABC’s fact-checking unit.”

And so they will remain firmly on their foreign “planet”, ditching the trappings of the Oval Office for an entirely new “classified” studio set for 2025.

“We want to understand the US system and how it is that they come to elect somebody like Donald Trump or Kamala Harris or Barack Obama,” says Barron. “Australians want to know because, ever since 1942, if America goes to war, Australia pretty much goes to war. If America’s economy crashes, Australia’s economy crashes. So every now and then, we want to send a ‘Please explain’ letter.”

Planet America – US Election Special is on Wednesday, November 6, 8pm, ABC News; and 9.30pm, ABC.