Margaux Wosk wasn\u2019t sure about appearing on TV. As president of disability non-profit BC People First,\u00a0an\u00a0autistic advocate, activist and small business owner, she\u00a0already had her plate full.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
But being an autistic person with a less than rosy view of autistic representation in media also gave her pause. So the idea of going on Canada\u2019s version of The Assembly, which pairs autistic and neurodivergent interviewers with Canadian celebrities, seemed like a bit of a risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a little bit of hesitation at first,\u201d she told CBC News, regarding the media’s track record of depicting people whose brains work differently from what is considered \u201ctypical.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we think of something like a specific Netflix show that has to do with dating, it can be very infantilizing.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Netflix show Wosk was referring to, Love on the Spectrum, is one of a number of shows that includes autistic people and storylines \u2014 for better or worse. And while they can be viewed as empowering examples of increased representation, shows like The Assembly have also garnered a reputation for evoking patronizing participation and a condescending viewpoint from their non-autistic and neurotypical audience. <\/p>\n
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<\/div>\nThe Assembly | Official Trailer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
A roomful of autistic and neurodivergent interviewers ask unpredictable, probing and direct questions to celebrities in a no holds barred interview. In the frequently criticized column, there\u2019s The Good Doctor \u2014 about a physician diagnosed with autism and savant syndrome \u2014 or Atypical, about an autistic teenager looking for love. <\/p>\n Both those shows have been criticized for their poor representation of<\/u><\/a> autistic people<\/u><\/a> \u2014 such as framing sensory processing issues as a joke, or a tendency to be brutally honest as an entertaining quirk \u2014 and for not hiring autistic actors. <\/p>\n But there are other examples: As We See It, Dinosaur and Everything\u2019s Gonna Be Okay are all shows about autistic people that have been celebrated for not only respectfully handling their storylines, but including neurodivergent people behind the camera.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s The Assembly. Based on the French series Les Rencontres du Papotin, the franchise and format has jumped from England, to Australia, to Norway, to Singapore \u2014 and now to Canada, premiering Nov. 6 on CBC Gem. <\/p>\n The reality TV production pairs neurodivergent people \u2014 including those diagnosed with autism \u2014 with different celebrities from their respective countries and has them ask questions of the famous guests. <\/p>\n Celebrities interviewed by people on autism spectrum in new show<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Canadian version of The Assembly television series is set to premier on CBC Television, featuring celebrities interviewed by people on the autism spectrum. On the Canadian series, the celebrities include everyone from Jann Arden to Maitreyi Ramakrishnan to Howie Mandel. Their reactions have run the gamut \u2014 from Ramakrishnan covering her face in embarrassment to Arden calling it “the best interview [she’s] ever had.” That’s because no subjects are off-limits, in accordance with the show’s stated goal<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of highlighting \u201chonest, authentic and open interactions\u201d between guests and panel. <\/p>\n The reaction to its various iterations have been mixed: The Guardian called<\/u><\/a> the BBC version \u201cpowerful television, a portrait of disabled people that doesn\u2019t go all serious and sombre.\u201d Then there was the takedown of Australia\u2019s version by autistic writer John Delmenico<\/u><\/a>, who called it \u201cfull of good questions, talented people and basically every modern ableist trope.\u201d <\/p>\n These preconceptions were all on Wosk\u2019s mind as she headed into her taping session. But, she said, the experience was anything but regressive. <\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like this incredible energy in the room and everybody was just positively, I think, feeding off of each other that it just turned into magic,\u201d Wosk said. \u201cI don’t even know how else to describe it, but it felt otherworldly.\u201d <\/p>\n Part of that success, she said, came from the production actually consulting with autistic people. This is a factor often missing in programs that are criticized as condescending. <\/p>\n Such shows, she said, can reduce neurodivergent people to caricatures of themselves. Beyond how they act in real life, decisions in the editing room \u2014 from \u201cinspirational\u201d music played whenever they\u2019re onscreen, to reductive marketing ploys, to whether they\u2019re given resources like sensory spaces on set \u2014 can play a factor in how they\u2019re depicted. <\/p>\n Wosk said that was avoided in The Assembly by having autistic people involved in as many aspects of its creation as possible. <\/p>\n “Honestly, it felt like something really exciting was happening here,” she said.<\/p>\n Executive producer Sean De Vries said that the show’s commitment to allowing autistic people to be authentically themselves will be most apparent from the openness of the questions.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you, I’m sure many questions surprised them,\u201d he said of their celebrity guests \u2014 highlighting one in which Howie Mandel was asked about shaving his head, and whether he shaves any other part of his body. <\/p>\n \u201cA few questions made them uncomfortable, but they all came from a very authentic place, so I think they handled it as best as they could.\u201d <\/p>\n While the show can be seen as a step in the right direction, others have reservations and complaints about the format. Culture writer Sarah Kurchak, who is autistic, said the framing of the show itself can promote an almost voyeuristic reaction from its audience. <\/p>\n \u201cI do feel in its presentation, it can be a little tokenized,\u201d she said, noting that she hasn’t seen the Canadian release, but has seen the series’ British and Australian versions. \u201cIn terms of, like: we have no filter.\u201d <\/p>\n The set on the first episode of The Assembly. (Erich Saide)<\/p><\/div>\n That can come about, she said, in shows that take neurodivergent thought processes and play them for laughs. In reality, she said, when you have a person with a \u201cdifferently wired brain that\u2019s in a world that isn\u2019t necessarily built for you,\u201d perspectives and curiosities will naturally differ. <\/p>\n That results in questions that may seem atypical, she said. Any series that highlights that difference, and centres how autistic people may approach and engage with the world, is a good step, she said. <\/p>\n But she also noted that the central premise of the show \u2014 that questions from autistic people are atypical enough that non-autistic audiences can be titillated simply by hearing them \u2014 could be problematic. <\/p>\n She said that can be seen in the tendency to pass around viral clips framed as \u201csweet\u201d or \u201cheartwarming,\u201d when autistic people should be viewed as complex, diverse and fully capable humans just as deserving of respect as anyone else. <\/p>\n There is a similar risk going into Canada\u2019s iteration of the show, she said, noting that the participation of autistic people throughout the production makes The Assembly a good step forward, if not the best step possible. <\/p>\n \u201cThe more that we are seen as human beings, part of the human experience, and the less that we’re seen as someone else’s creative exercise \u2014 someone else’s tragedy, someone else’s fear model or someone else’s amusement \u2014 the more we can finally just be the people we are,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd be part of this world, which includes art and entertainment.\u201d <\/p>\n Wosk understands the trepidation and says it’s a criticism prevalent in the neurodivergent community, partly because nothing will ever be one hundred per cent satisfying or without faults.<\/p>\n When it comes to this and other attempts, she said, what matters most is doing your best. In this space, she said, that means involving autistic people. <\/p>\n \u201cI want to ensure that when autism is spoken about or represented in media that we\u2019re consulted with, we are part of every facet of it,\u201d Wosk said. \u201cAnd I think this show really sets the precedent of what that can look like.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cbc.ca \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Margaux Wosk wasn\u2019t sure about appearing on TV. As president of disability non-profit BC People First,\u00a0an\u00a0autistic advocate, activist and small business owner, she\u00a0already had her plate full.\u00a0\u00a0 But being an autistic person with a less than rosy view of autistic representation in media also gave her pause. So the idea of going on Canada\u2019s version […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2139257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-Assembly-gave-Jann-Arden-her-best-ever-interview-Heres-how.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2139258,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139256\/revisions\/2139258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2139257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\nRepresentation highs and lows<\/h2>\n
Surprising questions<\/h2>\n
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