The Sun-Herald

Test your taste-detector

by David Dale.
You wouldn't be reading this column if you didn't have an intimate understanding of the psychology of Australians. So you'll have no trouble answering the quiz we're about to pose, inspired by the current TV fad for pop culture game shows (such as Spicks and Specks, Rockwiz and You May be Right, in descending order of quality).

Your challenge will be to name the dozen DVDs which Australians have bought in the greatest numbers during the past four weeks, based on two sets of clues we'll provide.

Click here to learn how fat people and thin people watch TV.

In past years, it would have been easy to guess the top selling DVDs of any month -- they'd have been the biggest box office movies at the cinema six months earlier. But these days Australians use their DVD players for much more than catching up on flicks they've missed. They use them to follow TV series, to babysit their children, to improve their understandings of the world and to relive musical memories.

That's why we're giving the quiz in two degrees of difficulty. First, we'll list the top selling DVDs in terms of the genres into which they are classified by the sales research organization GFK. Here they are: 1 Movie - musical. 2 Movie - family. 3 Music - rock and metal. 4 Movie - drama. 5 Movie - drama. 6 Documentary. 7 TV series - comedy. 8 Movie - animated. 9 Music - rock and metal. 10 Movie - action. 11 Movie - action. 12 Movie - action.

If that doesn't tell you enough, don't look at the bottom of the column yet. Here are some bigger clues:

1 A made-for-TV teen comedy, which also generated this month's top selling pop album. It's been called "the Grease of the noughties" -- not because it suggests that smoking makes you sexy, but because it sneaked up from nowhere and captured the heart of a generation, apparently by word of mouth alone.

2 The fourth in a book-based blockbuster series.

3 Baby boomer portentousness, turned into a classic by recent obituaries.

4 A lavish chickflick, based on a sentimental book.

5 An Oscar winner, starring an Aussie who can do American dialects.

6 Wonders of the animal kingdom and an epic journey.

7 Black humour from the 1970s.

8 A made-for-TV treat for unliberated ladies aged between six and eleven.

9 Aussie Gen X nostalgia at its cheesiest.

10 Political fantasy by the Matrix team, who were the first to show, back in 2001, how bonus features could make the DVD a whole different experience from the original movie, and who created two of the 30 top selling DVDs of all time (for which list, click here)

11 The first in a blockbuster trilogy, reissued at reduced price because its sequel is in cinemas.

12 Special effects spectacular in shiny black leather.

Of course you've identified the titles. But just for the record, here are the best selling DVDs for August: 1 High School Musical. 2 Harry Pottter and the Goblet of Fire. 3. Pink Floyd Pulse. 4 Memoirs of a Geisha. 5 Brokeback Mountain. 6. March of The Penguins. 7 MASH Season 11. 8 Barbie Mermaidia. 9 Countdown The Wonder Years. 10 V for Vendetta.
11 Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. 12 Underworld: Evolution..

So that's what Australians are watching these days instead of commercial television. Care to offer a theory as to why?

David Dale is the author of Who We Are - A miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin). The Tribal Mind column is published every Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. For a discussion on this week's trends in television, click here.
To test yourself on whether you're fit to be an Australian citizen, click here.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 10:35 AM
• Comments (54)

The ratings race: Week 34

This blog is now a heritage item - worth studying but not current. Click Or click here for the latest TV discussion

Updated 10 am, Sunday August 27
For a while there, it looked as if a curse had been placed on Channel Nine - whatever it tried, it just couldn't take a trick. Now it seems Seven has offended the same powerful witch, only its hex is more iniquitous. Even when it succeeds, it fails. In a week when it launches the most successful new Australian show of the year - The Force, with 2.3 million viewers - Seven still finds itself well behind Nine in prime time audience share.

Thanks to CSI, footy and the loyalty of people who have been watching since the birth of television, Nine won the week with an average of 30.3 per cent, while Seven got 27.3 per cent, Ten got 21.0 (thanks to Australian Idol, mainly), ABC got 15.9 and SBS got 5.4. Nine can be confident of winning the year.

Strangely, on Saturday night the hot new Dr Who is now being beaten by dreary old Bill - 813,000 for Rose and the face-stealer and 931,000 for the plodders. That means 200,000 people who joined the doctor's journey six weeks ago have found something better to do than watch ABC at 7.30 on Saturdays. What could that be?

What Australia watched, week ending August 26
Description Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BORDER SECURITY Seven 2,298,000 615,000 650,000 440,000 248,000 346,000
2 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 2,295,000 622,000 643,000 434,000 241,000 354,000
3 CSI Nine 2,135,000 628,000 587,000 443,000 238,000 239,000
4 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,959,000 541,000 653,000 350,000 206,000 208,000
5 60 MINUTES Nine 1,853,000 516,000 582,000 326,000 187,000 243,000
6 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,723,000 517,000 517,000 285,000 222,000 180,000
7 AUSTRALIAN IDOL TOP 100 Ten 1,681,000 467,000 524,000 301,000 191,000 198,000
8 CSI: MIAMI Nine 1,651,000 456,000 503,000 311,000 207,000 175,000
9 PREHISTORIC PARK Nine 1,629,000 441,000 536,000 277,000 176,000 198,000
10 AUSTRALIAN IDOL FINAL 24 Ten 1,592,000 454,000 451,000 297,000 189,000 200,000
11 GETAWAY Nine 1,503,000 449,000 487,000 252,000 138,000 176,000
12 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,474,000 430,000 446,000 263,000 160,000 175,000
13 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,441,000 405,000 465,000 249,000 131,000 190,000
14 SEVEN NEWS SUNDAY Seven 1,437,000 334,000 404,000 289,000 168,000 243,000
15 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,412,000 362,000 393,000 250,000 170,000 238,000
16 MCLEOD'S DAUGHTERS Nine 1,411,000 418,000 413,000 282,000 170,000 129,000
17 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,405,000 392,000 423,000 265,000 140,000 186,000
18 NINE NEWS Nine 1,385,000 388,000 441,000 287,000 155,000 114,000
19 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,377,000 362,000 399,000 245,000 155,000 217,000
20 WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU Nine 1,374,000 367,000 439,000 282,000 129,000 157,000
(OzTAM mainland capitals)

Updated 10 am, Saturday August 26
He's not yet a Master or a Yasmin, but David Tench is a more diminutive figure than he was a week ago, with about 280,000 fewer viewers on Thursday night to marvel at his dot-capture wit. Celebrity Survivor held its audience a little better - down 180,000 on the opening night.

Nine won Thursday with 33.3 per cent of the prime time audience, while Seven got 29.0 per cent, Ten got 18.3, ABC got 12.7 and SBS got 6.8 (mainly on the strength of a repeated Inspector Rex, with 477,000).

Nine also won Friday night, and will win the week. Its prime time audience share for the year is now well ahead of Seven's.

What Australia watched, Thursday
1. Getaway Nine 1.49m
2. Home and Away Seven 1.43
3. Seven News Seven 1.42
4. Today Tonight Seven 1.42
5. My Name Is Earl Seven 1.34
6. Nine News Nine 1.27
7. A Current Affair Nine 1.24
8. Temptation Nine 1.21
9. Two and a Half Men Nine 1.20
10. The Footy Show Nine 1.13
11. Celebrity Survivor Seven 1.12
12. How I Met Your Mother Seven 1.05
13. Bones Seven 1.01
14. ABC News ABC 0.95
15. David Tench Tonight Ten 0.87
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 10 am, Thursday August 24
Blame Channel Ten for making Wednesday the low point of the viewing week. By showing repeats of House and NCIS as often as new episodes, Ten has encouraged Australians to look elsewhere for their Wednesday entertainment, creating a habit of commercial telly avoidance that Ten may regret when it wants us to come back for a new season of Thank God You're Here.

By doing nothing, Nine won the night with a prime time audience share of 28.9 per cent, while Seven got 25.0, Ten got 24.0, the ABC got 18.0 (thanks to Spicks and Specks and Extras) and SBS got 4.0.

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TEMPTATION Nine 1,424,000 385,000 505,000 260,000 137,000 138,000
2 MCLEOD'S DAUGHTERS Nine 1,412,000 420,000 414,000 281,000 169,000 129,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,394,000 366,000 419,000 250,000 166,000 194,000
4 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,371,000 354,000 434,000 249,000 137,000 197,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,370,000 356,000 423,000 246,000 144,000 201,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,364,000 393,000 463,000 260,000 142,000 106,000
7 HOUSE RPT Ten 1,353,000 324,000 432,000 259,000 170,000 168,000
8 NINE NEWS Nine 1,289,000 357,000 400,000 265,000 161,000 107,000
9 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC 1,273,000 414,000 319,000 231,000 130,000 179,000
10 WITHOUT A TRACE Nine 1,238,000 365,000 388,000 224,000 135,000 126,000
11 BEYOND TOMORROW Seven 1,193,000 300,000 367,000 246,000 109,000 171,000
12 NCIS RPT Ten 1,035,000 299,000 324,000 155,000 142,000 116,000
13 HONEY WE'RE KILLING THE KIDS Ten 1,034,000 269,000 298,000 190,000 141,000 135,000
14 EXTRAS ABC 990,000 335,000 252,000 169,000 95,000 138,000
15 ABC NEWS ABC 970,000 256,000 316,000 176,000 88,000 134,000

Updated 10 am, Wednesday August 23
So Australians find WA cops almost as interesting as customs officers. The Force helped carry Channel Seven to a prime time audience share of 34.3 per cent last night, while Nine got 28.3, Ten got 20.3, the ABC got 13.4 and SBS got 3.7.

What Australia watched, Tuesday
RNK Description STN Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BORDER SECURITY Seven 2,298,000 615,000 650,000 440,000 248,000 346,000
2 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 2,295,000 622,000 643,000 434,000 241,000 354,000
3 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,474,000 430,000 446,000 263,000 160,000 175,000
4 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,447,000 401,000 416,000 304,000 140,000 186,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,429,000 338,000 387,000 269,000 178,000 255,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,422,000 408,000 435,000 324,000 149,000 107,000
7 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,420,000 333,000 412,000 289,000 164,000 221,000
8 TEMPTATION Nine 1,394,000 398,000 440,000 272,000 150,000 135,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,349,000 390,000 420,000 270,000 154,000 115,000
10 DANCING ON ICE Nine 1,299,000 389,000 383,000 265,000 136,000 127,000
11 THE SIMPSONS Ten 1,141,000 298,000 363,000 209,000 145,000 125,000
12 CSI RPT Nine 1,057,000 304,000 340,000 186,000 126,000 100,000
13 FUTURAMA TUES Ten 1,002,000 267,000 311,000 177,000 137,000 111,000

Updated 11 am, Tuesday August 22
Channel Seven got good news from the doctors last night. While Australian programming looks to be in terminal condition, big budget American dramas can still pull a crowd - 1.9 million for part two of the bomb-in-the-hospital story in Grey's Anatomy.

This suggests there is still a way for Seven to beat Nine in 2006 - launch the new seasons of Lost, Desperate Housewives and Prison Break this year instead of waiting till February 2007.

Thanks to Grey and Criminal Minds, Seven won the night with 30.1 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 25.9 per cent, Ten got 21.9, ABC got 16.6 and SBS got 5.4 (mainly on the strength of Top Gear, which atttracted a mythbusting 697,000).

Click here to learn why Australia's reading habits mean the end of civilisation.

What Australia watched, Monday
1. Grey's Anatomy Seven 1.95m
2. A Current Affair Nine 1.60
3. Nine News Nine 1.57
4. Australian Idol Ten 1.57
5. Temptation Nine 1.55
6. Home and Away Seven 1.47
7. Seven News Seven 1.45
8. What's Good For You Nine 1.37
9. Today Tonight Seven 1.32
10. Criminal Minds Seven 1.11
11. Cold Case repeat Nine 1.10
12. The Great Outdoors Seven 1.09
13. Enough Rope with Andrew Denton ABC 1.04
14. ABC News ABC 1.01
15. Four Corners ABC 0.99
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 11 am, Monday August 21
If there's any consistency in the ruthlessness of commercial TV programming, Channel Seven will terminate its game show You May Be Right. Its audience of 726,000 in the mainland capitals on Sunday night was less than the numbers that killed Yasmin and The Master. At this rate, Seven would do better to buy Bleak House from the ABC and show it on Sundays at 7.30.

Amazing update at 5pm: Seven has decided to record more episodes of YMBR and keep it going for a couple more weeks. Clearly there is nothing else in the vault. Or Seven needs to keep Todd McKenney happy.

Channel Nine won Sunday night with a whopping 38.5 per cent of the prime time audience (can anyone explain the record numbers for CSI?), while Seven got 20.8 per cent, Ten got 21.2, ABC got 13.9 and SBS got 5.5.

What Australia watched, Sunday
1. CSI Nine 2.14m
3. Nine News Sunday Nine 1.72m
2. 60 Minutes Nine 1.85
4. Australian Idol Ten 1.68
5. CSI: Miami Nine 1.65
6. Prehistoric Park Nine 1.63
7. Seven News Sunday Seven 1.43
8. Where Are They Now Seven 1.22
11. Sunday Football AFL and NRL Nine 0.89
10. Australia's Brainiest Idol Ten 0.95
15. Bleak House ABC 0.74
9. ABC News ABC 1.08
13. Black Jack Ten 0.85
12. In Search of Myths and Heroes ABC 0.87
15. The Einstein Factor ABC 0.77
(Preliminary Oztam estimates, mainland capitals)

Most watched on pay tv, week ending August 19
1 LIVE: NRL COWBOYS V KNIGHTS FOX Sports 1 174,000
2 LIVE & ACTIVE: NRL SHARKS V PANTHERS FOX Sports 1 168,000
3 LIVE: NRL BRONCOS V STORM FOX Sports 1 157,000
4 NRL STORM V WARRIORS FOX Sports 1 118,000
5 LIVE: RUGBY UNION: BLEDISLOE CUP FOX Sports 2 112,000
6 LIVE: RND 20 ESSENDON V HAWTHORN FOX Footy 100,000
7 LIVE: RND 20 GEELONG V SYDNEY FOX Footy 76,000
8 LIVE: FOOTBALL: EPL FOX Sports 2 75,000
9 ROCK STAR: SUPERNOVA FOX8 75,000
10 LIVE: RND 19 HAWTHORN V CARLTON FOX Footy 68,000

The ratings race is updated every weekday as an unpaid service for readers of David Dale's Tribal Mind column, published each Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. David Dale is the author of Who We Are - A Miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin). Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. For a discussion on last week's trends in television, click here.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 11:12 AM
• Comments (271)

Goodbye to the lifestyle we loved

by David Dale.
It's the end of civilisation as we know it -- if civilisation means families with kids, kitchens, pets, gardens and houses they love to decorate. That's the only conclusion we can draw from the magazine sales figures just released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The trend is terrifying in its consistency. These bastions of respectability look to be on the toboggan to oblivion: Family Circle down 18 per cent in 12 months, Burke's Backyard down 12 per cent, Australian House and Garden down 10 per cent, Good Taste down 10 per cent, Home Beautiful down 9 per cent, Vogue Entertaining down 7 per cent, Australian Table down 7 per cent, Women's Weekly down 5 per cent and Country Style down 4 per cent.

Overall, magazines designed for what we might call the wholesome homemaker lost 100,000 regular buyers between June 2005 and June 2006.

The children and grandchildren of those nationbuilders also seem to have lost interest in reading: K-Zone down 29 per cent, Smash Hits down 26 per cent, Disney Adventures down 24 per cent, Total Girl down 11 per cent, Dolly down 9 per cent. Overall, magazines aimed at readers under 16 lost 159,000 buyers in the past year.

And what is replacing this traditional diet of recipes, renovations, gardening and games? Gossip, greed, exhibitionism, and celebrity worship, that's what: OK! Magazine up 9 per cent, New Idea up 8 per cent, Shop Till You Drop up 4 per cent, NW up 3 per cent, Woman's Day up 2 per cent.

The most successful new magazines of the past year offer an insight into how society's values are changing: Alpha (glossy sport for 20-something males) averaged 184.000 a month; Notebook (practical advice for 30-something females) 96,000; Famous (fluff about Hollywood stars and Paris Hilton, for adolescent females) 91,000; Zoo (bikinis and beer, for adolescent males) 85,000; AFR Smart Investor (making money, for middle-aged males) 77,500; Just World Cars (shiny dreams for middle-aged males) 62,500; Real Living [practical advice for 30-something females) 60,500; Diabetic Living (practical advice for diabetics) 47,500.

You could say this signifies a society becoming preoccupied with sweaty competitiveness, quick fixes, scurrilous rumours, soft porn, conspicuous consumption, and the consequencs of overindulgence.

OK, OK, lets not get carried away here. The chart below shows that Women's Weekly, Readers Digest and Better Homes and Gardens are still adored by hundreds of thousands of Australians. That must be reassuring for the Howard heartland.

But on current trends, Women's Day on the way up will pass Women's Weekly on the way down within two years. And the dominant literature of this land will have fallen into the hands of the scandalmongers.

Australia's regular reading
1 Foxtel guide 836,500 (up 2% on 2005)
2 Women's Weekly 610,500 (down 5%)
3 Woman's Day 526,500 (up 2%)
4 New Idea 433,000 (up 8%)
5 Austar guide 401,000 (up 7%)
6 Readers Digest 356,000 (up 1%)
7 That's Life 346,500 (same)
8 Super Food Ideas 341,000 (same)
9 Better Homes and Gardens 282,000 (up 4%)
10 TV Week 281,000 (down 2%)
11 Take 5 260,000 (up 3%)
12 Cosmopolitan 216,000 (down 7%)
(Audit bureau of circulations, average sales, first six months of 2006)

David Dale is the author of The Little Book of Australia -- A snapshot of who we are (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 07:17 PM
• Comments (51)

The ratings race: Week 33

Click here for the new week's TV blog.

Updated 9am Sunday August 20
It was the week when Channel Seven ran out of puff and Nine realised it could breathe easy. Seven showed that it has no more blockbusters up its sleeve, that it is prone to panic, and that Eddie McGuire can sit back and rely on the footy finals to get his network over the line.

We can now predict how this year will go in television: Nine will end up as the most watched station, but with the lowest audience share in its history. Channel Seven will stay at number two, but with increased audience in the 25-54 age group. Ten will have the same share as last year, but will be the most watched network with viewers aged 16-39. ABC will be down a bit, and SBS and Pay TV will be up a lot.

Seven's newly launched American dramas -- Bones, Crossing Jordan and Criminal Minds -- are stuck around a million viewers, and its new Aussie slice of "reality", Celebrity Survivor, will need to do a lot better than 1.3 million to give Seven a second half as strong as its first half. Not even a new season of Dancing With The Stars will be enough to let Seven catch up.

The ABC's hottest show of the week was Spicks and Spicks, which demonstrated there is justice in the universe by getting 1.2 million viewers in the mainland capitals --100,000 more than You May Be Right, Seven's attempt to clone it. But Dr Who is mysteriously fading for the ABC on Saturday night -- down to 868,000. Clearly the fans prefer werewolves to Cybermen.

Nine won the week with 29.7 per cent of the prime time audience, while Seven got 26.6, Ten got 22.0, ABC got 15.7 and SBS got 6.0. That set the pattern for the remaining weeks of the year. Will Nine now feel relaxed enough to broadcast those "risky" series it has been holding onto -- Rome and The Sopranos?

What Australia watched, week ending August 19
Description Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BORDER SECURITY Seven 2,274,000 613,000 722,000 351,000 271,000 315,000
2 CSI Nine 1,873,000 516,000 584,000 356,000 201,000 217,000
3 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,841,000 539,000 606,000 327,000 171,000 197,000
4 MEDICAL EMERGENCY Seven 1,813,000 463,000 605,000 299,000 205,000 242,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,797,000 488,000 613,000 317,000 204,000 175,000
6 60 MINUTES Nine 1,653,000 435,000 544,000 327,000 162,000 185,000
7 AUSTRALIAN IDOL AUDITION 3 Ten 1,616,000 459,000 458,000 293,000 188,000 218,000
8 20 TO 1 RPT Nine 1,549,000 404,000 531,000 259,000 161,000 194,000
9 HOUSE Ten 1,536,000 390,000 482,000 300,000 176,000 188,000
10 CSI: MIAMI Nine 1,525,000 431,000 489,000 271,000 153,000 181,000
11 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,523,000 431,000 502,000 233,000 178,000 180,000
12 SEVEN NEWS SUN Seven 1,468,000 353,000 404,000 297,000 146,000 267,000
13 WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU Nine 1,460,000 416,000 504,000 267,000 135,000 137,000
14 AUSTRALIAN IDOL AUDITION 4 Ten 1,459,000 356,000 418,000 328,000 173,000 184,000
15 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,422,000 368,000 413,000 259,000 153,000 229,000
16 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 1,399,000 395,000 416,000 260,000 193,000 135,000
17 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,393,000 403,000 400,000 266,000 140,000 184,000
18 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,386,000 373,000 387,000 261,000 153,000 213,000
19 NCIS Ten 1,377,000 386,000 415,000 257,000 166,000 153,000
20 COLD CASE Nine 1,371,000 396,000 374,000 279,000 154,000 167,000
(OzTAM mainland capitals)

Updated 8am Friday August 18
Channel Seven has cancelled its new quiz show The Master, after its debut attracted just 744,000 viewers on Wednesday.

This beats Yasmin's speed-cancellation record for this year of four episodes, and last year's record of two episodes for Seven's Let Loose Live, and equals the one-episode record set by Channel Ten in 2004 with a show about an unpleasant New York restaurateur. (Anybody remember the name of that show?) But the absolute cancellation record is held by Doug Mulray, pulled off air by Kerry Packer halfway through the first episode of his Naughtiest Home Videos in 1997.

See below our readers' first reactions to David Tench Tonight. And in this killing season, how long will Celebrity Survivor survive? The answers lie in these ratings figures ...

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,368,000 366,000 357,000 283,000 146,000 217,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,357,000 335,000 387,000 271,000 157,000 207,000
3 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,353,000 349,000 409,000 281,000 139,000 174,000
4 GETAWAY Nine 1,318,000 340,000 439,000 236,000 135,000 168,000
5 CELEBRITY SURVIVOR Seven 1,313,000 354,000 406,000 243,000 138,000 171,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,238,000 338,000 373,000 238,000 154,000 137,000
7 NINE NEWS Nine 1,235,000 318,000 405,000 258,000 143,000 110,000
8 TEMPTATION Nine 1,220,000 342,000 392,000 232,000 128,000 126,000
9 MY NAME IS EARL Seven 1,162,000 296,000 323,000 265,000 130,000 148,000
10 DAVID TENCH TONIGHT Ten 1,147,000 250,000 373,000 206,000 183,000 135,000
11 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,062,000 284,000 358,000 180,000 122,000 118,000
12 AUSTRALIA'S BRAINIEST COMEDIAN 2 Ten 1,051,000 256,000 327,000 205,000 162,000 101,000
13 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER Seven 1,041,000 269,000 283,000 237,000 122,000 129,000
14 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 1,022,000 274,000 387,000 144,000 114,000 104,000
15 BONES Seven 956,000 230,000 322,000 156,000 138,000 111,000
16 ABC NEWS ABC 954,000 261,000 292,000 162,000 93,000 146,000
17 THE RONNIE JOHNS HALF HOUR Ten 927,000 252,000 298,000 137,000 130,000 110,000
18 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 857,000 224,000 224,000 169,000 106,000 134,000
19 FUTURAMA Ten 838,000 203,000 255,000 147,000 142,000 91,000
20 NEIGHBOURS Ten 830,000 218,000 242,000 177,000 103,000 91,000
(Oztam preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Despite a reasonable performance by Celebrity Survivor, Seven came second with 29.0 per cent of the prime time audience to Nine's 30.9 per cent, while Ten managed 21.1 per cent, ABC 12.2 and SBS 6.8.

Seven says it will now move Forensic Investigators to the 8.30 Wednesday slot and may bring The Master back in the silly season. To see the 20 best-looking people on television this year, click here.

Updated 10am Thursday August 17
Ten was the most watched station of Wednesday night, with 25.3 per cent of the prime time audience, thanks to new episodes of House and NCIS. But the ABC and SBS were the big improvers, with 16.4 per cent (thanks to Spicks and Specks and The Extra) and 9.8 per cent (thanks to the Asian Cup soccer qualifier, with 610,000 viewers).

Nine got only 24.4 per cent (thanks to a humiliating 533,000 for The Closer) and Seven got only 24.2 per cent (thanks to an embarrassing 820,000 for Forensic Investigators and a crushing 744,000 for The Master).

What Australia watched, Wednesday
1 HOUSE Ten 1,532,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,461,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,404,000
4 NCIS Ten 1,384,000
5 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,345,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,311,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,310,000
8 TEMPTATION Nine 1,278,000
9 MCLEOD'S DAUGHTERS Nine 1,268,000
10 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC 1,190,000
11 WITHOUT A TRACE Nine 1,167,000
12 BEYOND TOMORROW Seven 1,064,000
13 EXTRAS ABC 1,022,000
14 HONEY WE'RE KILLING THE KIDS Ten 1,015,000
15 THE NEW INVENTORS ABC 941,000
(Oztam preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 11am Wednesday August 16
A small recovery for Dancing On Ice (up from 1.19 million to 1.28 million) made the only point of difference between last night and the previous Tuesday night.

As usual, the simplicity of Border Security and Medical Emergency won prime time for Channel Seven, with 32.3 per cent of the audience, while Nine got 28.2 per cent, Ten 19.8, ABC 14.6 and SBS 5.1. Nine remains ahead for the week, thanks to its hefty start on Sunday.

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BORDER SECURITY Seven 2,274,000 613,000 722,000 351,000 271,000 315,000
2 MEDICAL EMERGENCY Seven 1,813,000 463,000 605,000 299,000 205,000 242,000
3 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,523,000 431,000 502,000 233,000 178,000 180,000
4 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,513,000 441,000 450,000 272,000 155,000 194,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,438,000 363,000 415,000 235,000 160,000 265,000
6 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,417,000 347,000 424,000 251,000 161,000 234,000
7 TEMPTATION Nine 1,366,000 390,000 464,000 252,000 133,000 128,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,334,000 408,000 454,000 235,000 144,000 92,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,319,000 385,000 452,000 240,000 151,000 91,000
10 DANCING ON ICE Nine 1,283,000 415,000 380,000 229,000 122,000 137,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 11am Tuesday August 15
Like the forthcoming movie Snakes On A Plane, the title Bomb in a hospital tells you all you need to know about whether a TV show is going to be the kind of thing you like. On Monday night 1.8 million people in the mainland capitals were moved by the power of that idea to watch Grey's Anatomy - the best audience the series has ever achieved.

By contrast, the notion of "missing socks and shoes" was only powerful enough to attract 1.1 million to Two Twisted, Bryan Brown's new mystery series on Channel Nine. Still, that's a good result for a show that started at 9.40pm, especially given the current condition of locally made drama.

Seven won the night with 29.8 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 27.7 per cent, Ten got 20.2, ABC got 16.8 and SBS got 5.5.

What Australia watched, Monday
1. Grey's Anatomy Seven 1.84m
2. Seven News Seven 1.49
3. Home and Away Seven 1.47
4. Nine News Nine 1.46
5. Australian Idol Ten 1.45
6. What's Good For You Nine 1.44
7. Temptation Nine 1.44
8. A Current Affair Nine 1.41
9. Today Tonight Seven 1.41
10. Cold Case Nine 1.38
11. Criminal Minds Seven 1.12
12. Two Twisted Nine 1.10
13. ABC News ABC 1.07
14. The Great Outdoors Seven 1.06
15. Enough Rope with Andrew Denton ABC 1.01
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 11am Monday August 14
You might say it is appropriate punishment for the sin of stealing. Earlier this year Channel Seven noticed that the pop culture game show Spicks and Specks was doing well for the ABC. So Seven pinched the concept, dumbed it down a bit, added a few tame "celebrities", and called it You May Be Right.

And what sort of audience did YMBR attract for its debut on Sunday night? 1.09 million in the mainland capitals, which happens to be the average audience for Spicks and Specks this year. Sadly, a great number for the ABC is not a great number for a commercial network. In fact, it's a disaster.

Seven had one of its worst nights of the year - just 21.4 per cent of the prime time audience, while Ten got 24.4 per cent (thanks to Australian Idol and the 16 to 39 audience) and Nine won the night with 35.3 per cent (thanks to the resurgence in CSI and CSI: Miami). Seven needs to look at its 8.30pm slot, since movies just don't cut it any more.

To see the 20 best-looking people on television this year, click here.

What Australia watched, Sunday
1. CSI Nine 1.87m
2. Nine News Sunday Nine 1.79
3. 60 Minutes Nine 1.66
4. Australian Idol Ten 1.62
5. CSI: Miami Nine 1.55
6. 20 to 1 Nine 1.52
7. Seven News Sunday Seven 1.46
8. Where Are They Now Seven 1.31
9. You May Be Right Seven 1.09
10. Sunday Football AFL and NRL Nine 1.06
11. Law and Order Criminal Intent (Ep 1) Ten 1.02
12. ABC News ABC 0.99
13. Australia's Brainiest Housemate Ten 0.97
14. In Search of Myths and Heroes ABC 0.94
15. The Einstein Factor ABC 0.80
(Preliminary Oztam estimates, mainland capitals)

And here's what subscribers to Pay TV watched last week:
1 LIVE & ACTIVE: NRL SHARKS V EELS (FOX Sports 1) 187,000
2 LIVE: NRL WARRIORS V COWBOYS (FOX Sports 1) 149,000
3 LIVE: NRL RAIDERS V BRONCOS (FOX Sports 1) 135,000
4 LIVE: RND 19 W BULLDOGS V PORT ADELAIDE (FOX Footy) 111,000
5 NRL PANTHERS V ROOSTERS (FOX Sports 1) 87,000
6 LIVE: RND 19 WC EAGLES V KANGAROOS (FOX Footy) 84,000
7 LIVE: ON THE COUCH (FOX Footy) 65,000
8 VIETNAM (History Channel) 65,000
9 LIVE: RND 18 FREMANTLE V HAWTHORN (FOX Footy) 64,000
10 LIVE: FOX LEAGUE TEAMS (FOX Footy) 60,000
11 ROCK STAR: SUPERNOVA (FOX8) 57,000
12 SMACKDOWN! (FOX8) 50,000
13 WWE RAW (FOX8) 49,000
14 FAMILY GUY (FOX8) 49,000
15 LIVE: NRL PRE GAME SHOW (FOX Sports 1) 47,000

The ratings race is updated every weekday as an unpaid service for readers of David Dale's Tribal Mind column, published each Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. David Dale is the author of Who We Are - A Miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin). Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. For a discussion on last week's trends in television, click here.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 09:59 AM
• Comments (315)

Don't hate me 'cos I'm beautiful

By David Dale.
It's a fundamental of television that looks matter, but not always in the way you'd expect. Producers of US dramas obviously believe that viewers these days require any team of disease curers or crime solvers to include a striking young woman and a hunky young man (along with a quirky older mentor). But in "reality" shows that seek audience participation, beauty might be a disadvantage.

In Big Brother, the best looking young women tend to be evicted early because the people most likely to phone in and vote are girls aged between 11 and 18, who are motivated by jealousy rather than aesthetics. This phenomenon could explain why Jennifer Hawkins was voted off halfway through this year's Dancing with the Stars, despite being praised by the judges and admired by male viewers.

The recent selection of Erika Heynatz as winner of the song contest It Takes Two seems to undermine the beauty-creates-jealousy theory. But possibly the fans of It Takes Two were more mature than the usual "reality" audience, and were self-confident enough not to feel threatened by Heynatz's beauty. She wouldn't have lasted a week in the Big Brother house.

At the same time, the ratings of McLeod's Daughters have been declining in precise proportion to the departure of the prettiest actors. The time has come to test the relationship between the success of a show and the looks of its performers. Let's correlate two lists ...

The best looking people on TV this year:
1 Jennifer Hawkins (Dancing With The Stars and countless commercials)

2 Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy in Grey's Anatomy)

3 Kathryn Morris (Cold Case)

4 Jesse Spencer (Dr Chase in House)

5 Jana Wendt (Sunday)

6 David in Big Brother

7 Erika Heynatz (It Takes Two)

8 Tom Welling (Clark in Smallville)

9 Eva Longoria (Gabrielle in Desperate Housewives)

10 Wentworth Miller (Michael in Prison Break)

11 Evangeline Lilly (Kate in Lost)

12 David Tennant (Dr Who)

13 Naomi Robson (Today Tonight)

14 Josh Holloway (Sawyer in Lost)

15 Juanita Phillips (ABC news)

16 Isaiah Washington (Dr Burke in Grey's Anatomy)

17 Sandra Sully (Ten news)

18 Sigrid Thornton (What's Good For You)

19 Anna in Big Brother

20 Tom Williams (The Great Outdoors)

Appearing on that list says nothing about a person's intelligence, personality, acting ability, sexuality, or even voice. The selection -- admittedly subjective, although done with the assistance of a 13-year expert on human hotness - is based purely on how the person conforms with standard conventions of physical beauty (high cheekbones, big eyes, even features, glossy hair, etc). It is designed to provide a basis of comparison with the second list ....

The most watched regular programs on TV this year:
1 Dancing with the Stars; 2 Border Security; 3 Thank God You're Here; 4 Nine News Sunday; 5 Medical Emergency; 6 CSI; 7 60 Minutes; 8 Desperate Housewives; 9 House; 10 Lost; 11 20 to 1; 12 What's Good For You; 13 It Takes Two; 14 Where Are They Now; 15 Today Tonight; 16 Grey's Anatomy; 17 Seven weekday news; 18 Cold Case; 19 All Saints; 20 Big Brother.

What do we learn from this? Eleven of the most watched shows do not include anybody from the looks list. But then again, 13 of the 20 beauties are involved with top shows. Statisticians might call this a small but significant correlation. Below, give us your view on how we might more scientifically test appearance against success.

David Dale is the author of The Little Book of Australia -- A snapshot of who we are (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 11:21 PM
• Comments (100)

The ratings race: Week 32

Click here for the new week's TV blog.

Updated 9am Sunday August 20
It was the week when Channel Seven ran out of puff and Nine realised it could breathe easy. Seven showed that it has no more blockbusters up its sleeve, that it is prone to panic, and that Eddie McGuire can sit back and rely on the footy finals to get his network over the line.

We can now predict how this year will go in television: Nine will end up as the most watched station, but with the lowest audience share in its history. Channel Seven will stay at number two, but with increased audience in the 25-54 age group. Ten will have the same share as last year, but will be the most watched network with viewers aged 16-39. ABC will be down a bit, and SBS and Pay TV will be up a lot.

Seven's newly launched American dramas -- Bones, Crossing Jordan and Criminal Minds -- are stuck around a million viewers, and its new Aussie slice of "reality", Celebrity Survivor, will need to do a lot better than 1.3 million to give Seven a second half as strong as its first half. Not even a new season of Dancing With The Stars will be enough to let Seven catch up.

The ABC's hottest show of the week was Spicks and Spicks, which demonstrated there is justice in the universe by getting 1.2 million viewers in the mainland capitals --100,000 more than You May Be Right, Seven's attempt to clone it. But Dr Who is mysteriously fading for the ABC on Saturday night -- down to 868,000. Clearly the fans prefer werewolves to Cybermen.

Nine won the week with 29.7 per cent of the prime time audience, while Seven got 26.6, Ten got 22.0, ABC got 15.7 and SBS got 6.0. That set the pattern for the remaining weeks of the year. Will Nine now feel relaxed enough to broadcast those "risky" series it has been holding onto -- Rome and The Sopranos?

To see the 20 best-looking people on television this year, click here.
For week 32, read on ...

Updated 10am Sunday August 13
Paul Hogan might be in trouble with the tax department, but he's still a hero to the kind of Australians who stay home on Saturday nights.

Until Friday, Channel Seven was easily winning the week. It had the most watched show (Border Security) and impressive results for the finale of It Takes Two, Grey's Anatomy in its new timeslot, and the finale of Lost. Channel Ten was recovering from the Yasmin debacle with healthy audiences for House and Australian Idol. Then Channel Nine filled its entire prime time schedule for Saturday with tales of Crocodile Dundee and everything changed.

Hogan's first movie attracted 1.24 million viewers in the mainland capitals on Saturday night and his second attracted 960,000. The bushie in the big city even diverted some Dr Who fans. The Cybermen episode drew only 881,000, down from nearly a million the previous Saturday.

Nine ended up winning the week with 29.2 per cent of the prime time audience, while Seven averaged 28.3 per cent, Ten got 21.5, the ABC got 15.7 and SBS got 5.3.

To read how Australia sets world trends in television, click here.

What Australia watched, week ending August 12
Description Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BORDER SECURITY Seven 2,067,000 539,000 673,000 338,000 221,000 296,000
2 60 MINUTES Nine 1,868,000 514,000 571,000 341,000 192,000 251,000
3 MEDICAL EMERGENCY Seven 1,838,000 449,000 636,000 295,000 199,000 258,000
4 HOUSE Ten 1,722,000 418,000 610,000 307,000 202,000 185,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,628,000 457,000 464,000 257,000 235,000 216,000
6 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,608,000 442,000 549,000 270,000 155,000 190,000
7 LOST Seven 1,594,000 456,000 523,000 260,000 155,000 200,000
8 AUSTRALIAN IDOL AUDITION 2 Ten 1,593,000 421,000 466,000 272,000 219,000 215,000
9 IT TAKES TWO Seven 1,535,000 435,000 474,000 260,000 171,000 196,000
10 SEVEN NEWS SUN Seven 1,525,000 382,000 474,000 304,000 152,000 212,000
11 CSI Nine 1,523,000 448,000 431,000 294,000 173,000 178,000
12 20 TO 1 RPT Nine 1,523,000 395,000 481,000 257,000 192,000 199,000
13 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,504,000 443,000 485,000 236,000 128,000 212,000
14 MY NAME IS EARL Seven 1,476,000 429,000 457,000 277,000 125,000 187,000
15 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,475,000 428,000 507,000 213,000 164,000 163,000
16 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,451,000 390,000 419,000 258,000 150,000 234,000
17 NCIS Ten 1,441,000 390,000 475,000 245,000 158,000 173,000
18 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,436,000 424,000 422,000 275,000 126,000 189,000
19 GETAWAY Nine 1,429,000 357,000 498,000 252,000 144,000 177,000
20 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,398,000 402,000 402,000 249,000 136,000 208,000 (OzTam mainland capitals)

Against Croc Dundee II, The Bill got 956,000.

Updated 10am Friday August 10
What did you make of the final episode of Lost, which was the most watched show of Thursday night? It seemed to fill several plot gaps and take the characters and the viewers to the edge of a new understanding, while raising more questions. Viewers learned, for example, that Desmond's predecessor in the hatch was the American who employed Sayid in Iraq. We'd be interested in your theories.

Seven won last night with 32.4 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 29.9 per cent, Ten got 19.4, ABC got 12.3 and SBS got 6.1.

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Network Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 CELEBRITY SURVIVOR SNEAK PEEK (five minutes between Earl and Lost) Seven 1,692,000 438,000 582,000 298,000 166,000 209,000
2 LOST Seven 1,594,000 456,000 523,000 260,000 155,000 200,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,484,000 422,000 448,000 250,000 139,000 226,000
4 MY NAME IS EARL Seven 1,456,000 428,000 445,000 275,000 122,000 186,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,455,000 406,000 428,000 227,000 147,000 246,000
6 GETAWAY Nine 1,429,000 357,000 498,000 252,000 144,000 177,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,411,000 392,000 418,000 286,000 117,000 198,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,339,000 333,000 461,000 295,000 134,000 116,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,323,000 353,000 436,000 301,000 133,000 100,000
10 TEMPTATION Nine 1,240,000 334,000 433,000 227,000 116,000 128,000
11 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER Seven 1,221,000 323,000 372,000 263,000 91,000 172,000
12 MEDIUM Ten 1,153,000 306,000 355,000 216,000 135,000 142,000
13 BONES Seven 1,147,000 311,000 388,000 177,000 111,000 159,000
14 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,063,000 275,000 331,000 227,000 113,000 117,000
15 ABC NEWS ABC 1,060,000 253,000 360,000 161,000 109,000 177,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 10 am Thursday August 10
The difference between an old episode and an unseen episode is now apparent to Channel Ten. On Wednesday night House added 400,000 viewers who weren't there last week. Until it gets its act together on other programming, Ten had better keep showing the newies - even if that means fresh Houses don't last till the end of the ratings year.

Channel Seven won the night with 27.6 per cent of the primetime audience, while Ten got 26.7, Nine got 25.6, ABC got 15.8 and SBS got 4.3. Seven is now well ahead for the week, with the finale of Lost still to come tonight.

What Australia watched, Wednesday
1 HOUSE 10 1,718,867
2 HOME AND AWAY 7 1,524,781
3 SEVEN NEWS 7 1,469,479
4 TODAY TONIGHT 7 1,459,969
5 NCIS 10 1,459,600
6 MCLEOD'S DAUGHTERS 9 1,367,076
7 NINE NEWS 9 1,309,212
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR 9 1,303,721
9 TEMPTATION 9 1,261,431
10 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC 1,199,277
11 BEYOND TOMORROW 7 1,190,346
12 FORENSIC INVESTIGATORS 7 1,108,172
13 WITHOUT A TRACE 9 1,104,433
14 HONEY WE'RE KILLING THE KIDS 10 1,102,133
15 ABC NEWS ABC 1,013,484
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 10 am Wednesday August 9
This column did the "I'm melting, I'm melting" gag last week, so today we're asking you to think of a punny way to describe the continuing audience shrinkage for Dancing On Ice (down to 1.19 million in the mainland capitals last night). We'll give a handsome prize in a red cover for the wittiest analysis (in less than 50 words) of the ratings chart below:

What Australia watched, Tuesday
1. Border Security (7) 2.07m
2. Medical Emergency (7) 1.84m
3. All Saints (7) 1.47m
4. Seven News (7) 1.45m
5. Temptation (9) 1.45m
6. Home and Away (7) 1.44m
7. Today Tonight (7) 1.43m
8. Nine News (9) 1.37m
9. A Current Affair (9) 1.29m
10. Dancing on Ice (9) 1.19m
11. The Simpsons - 7:30pm (10) 1.15m
12. The Simpsons - Adults Only (10) 1.13m
13. The Wedge (10) 1.043m
14. ABC News (ABC) 1.04m
15. Rove (10) 1.00m
16. The Closer (9) 0.98m
17. The Bill (ABC) 0.91m
18. Star Portraits with Rolf (ABC) 0.89m
19. Human Trafficking (7) 0.86m
20. Ten News (10) 0.85m
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Channel Seven won the night with 32.6 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 25.8, Ten got 21.9, ABC got 14.4 and SBS got 5.4.

Updated 1pm Tuesday August 8
Don't write off Australian Idol just yet. After a dud start on Sunday, it gained 200,000 viewers to be the most watched program on Monday night.

Ten's decision to replace Yasmin with Futurama was rewarded with 892,000 viewers - a lot more than Yasmin managed, but way behind the numbers Big Brother and The Biggest Loser were getting in that timeslot. Home and Away and Temptation have both held onto the viewers who were driven away from Ten by Yasmin.

Channel Seven won the night with 28.3 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 26.9, Ten got 22.4, ABC got 16.1 and SBS got 6.2.

What Australia watched, Monday
1. Australian Idol audition 2 Ten 1.59m
2. Grey's Anatomy Seven 1.57
3. A Current Affair Nine 1.52
4. Seven News Seven 1.51
5. Nine News Nine 1.51
6. Home and Away Seven 1.48
7. Temptation Nine 1.46
8. Today Tonight Seven 1.35
9. What's Good For You Nine 1.30
10. Cold Case Nine 1.28
11. The Great Outdoors Seven 1.07
12. Criminal Minds Seven 1.08

(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 10 am, Monday August 7
Channel Ten didn't farewell its troubles by jilting Yasmin. It appears that Sunday night viewers felt supersaturated by singing with It Takes Two and were not keen to start all over again with Australian Idol, which, with an average of 1.35 million viewers in the mainland capitals, was down 16 per cent on its opening episode of last year (although it did rise to 1.67 million in the last half hour).

Meanwhile Channel Seven found crime buffs reluctant to shift from their established favourite, CSI, to an untried new team in Criminal Minds.

Nine won the night with 31.0 per cent of the prime time audience, followed by Seven on 28.6 and Ten on 22.3.

What Australia watched, Sunday
1. 60 Minutes Nine 1.89
2. Nine News Sunday Nine 1.63
3. CSI Nine 1.55m
4. It Takes Two Seven 1.52
5. Seven News Sunday Seven 1.50
6. 20 to 1 repeat Nine 1.48
7. Australian Idol audition Ten 1.35
8. Criminal Minds Seven 1.33
9. CSI Miami Nine 1.26
10. Planet Earth ABC 1.25
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

The ratings race is updated every weekday as an unpaid service for readers of David Dale's Tribal Mind column, published each Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. David Dale is the author of Who We Are - A Miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin). Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. For a discussion on last week's trends in television, click here.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:42 PM
• Comments (237)

Thank God Australia's here

by David Dale.
What an honour. A little Aussie battler has been named by the international media monitoring agency Eurodata as one of the most trendsetting programs of the past 12 months. Aha, you say, they must be talking about Dancing On Ice -- so innovative in concept, so professional in presentation, and so popular with audiences.

Surprisingly, DOA is not the antipodean worldbeater. In the section headed "Celebrities, Pioneers in Experimentation" of its annual NOTA (New On The Air) report, Eurodata singles out two recently launched programs:

"In Promi Argere Dich Nicht (Germany; Sat 1), also known as Celebrity Ludo, 16 celebrities themselves play the pieces in the traditional game of 'Mensch argere Dich nicht', whilst the show's set is used as a huge board. Four contestants represent the players and throw dice to move their pieces (the celebrities) ...

"In Australia, Thank God You're Here (Network 10) puts various celebrities' improvisational talents to the test. As soon as they come through the door on set, they are thrown into the middle of a scene about which they know absolutely nothing. It may be a Roman camp or on a spaceship and they are always greeted with 'Thank God you're here". They then have to improvise until they can work out what character they are supposed to be playing."

International network executives received their NOTA reports last month, so now we can look forward to a rash of TGYH clones breaking out all over Europe and the Americas. And how long will it be before Channel Nine gives us a version of Promi Argere Dich Nicht? Nine won't even want to change the name, which falls so trippingly off the tongue.

Eurodata reports that 1,800 new shows were launched by the TV stations of Europe, Britain, Australia and the US in the past 12 months -- what it calls a "test-tube season", where producers were desperately seeking formulas to hold the attention of viewers who have far too many choices. It discovered two trends going in opposite directions -- drama becoming blacker, reality becoming nicer:

 "The drama series is designed to be eye-catching and has no hesitation in splashing out: shocking, violent images, perverse crimes, tortured characters ... Death is portrayed brutally, realistically and bluntly, a long way from traditional detective series ... Although the emphasis is increasingly on the hero's psychology, it has to be noted that the lone hero is gradually being replaced by a team of heroes working together. Police officers, crooks, neighbours and friends: the more the merrier. This is an exercise in style and it helps viewers to feel an affinity with not just one but several characters."

 "The confrontational side of reality TV seems to have gone out of fashion. The programmes which work are those which put across positive values. The viewer enjoys these shows celebrating constructive values such as education, people surpassing themselves, tolerance, solidarity, etc."

This may explain the failure of Ten's latest reality show, Yasmin's Getting Married, which viewers apparently perceived as cruel mockery. And it raises a question: how could Ten, after leading the world with Thank God You're Here, so completely misjudge its audience with Yasmin?

David Dale is the author of Who We Are - A miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin). The Tribal Mind column is published every Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. To see the 20 best-looking people on television this year, click here.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:05 PM
• Comments (16)

The ratings race: week 31

This blog has moved to a new address for a new week of television. What you see below is a heritage item -- worth studying but no longer current. Click here for the latest ratings news. To see the 20 best-looking people on television this year, click here.

Updated 6pm, Sunday August 5
Yasmin's Getting Married started on Tuesday and lasted until Friday, opening with 778,000 viewers in the mainland capitals and ending with 510,000. On Sunday afternoon, Ten announced that, from Monday night, Yasmin would be replaced by Futurama (episode one of season four, which has not been seen previously on Ten).

The key question is: if Ten got this one so wrong, will it have any confidence in the other shows it has planned for the year? If ever there was a time to declare the age of reality television over, this is it.

Channel Nine won the week with an average of 28.3 per cent of the prime time audience, while Seven got 28.1 per cent. Seven is loading heavy hopes onto its new thriller Criminal Minds, which launches on Sunday night after the grand final of It Takes Two and continues on Mondays after Grey's Anatomy. (See the new week's blog for the results of that).

Ten frittered away the initial advantage gained from the finals of Big Brother by showing a repeat of House and sticking with Yasmin, thus ending with a 22.9 per cent share. The ABC ended with 15.5 per cent (helped by 1.3m for Planet Earth and 977,000 for Dr Who) and SBS got 5.2 per cent (helped by 516,000 for Top Gear and 466,000 for Penicillin: The Magic Bullet).

And Nine's showing of Casablanca, one of the greatest movies of all time, drew 319,000 at 1.30pm on Saturday - twice the audience for the most watched show on pay TV last week. A stunning performance for a 64-year-old movie.

This was Ten's Sunday statement: "Network Ten today announced it had ceased production on the new program, Yasmin's Getting Married. Ten's chief programming officer, David Mott, said: "Ten has a reputation for taking risks with new formats, as evidenced by our success with The Biggest Loser, Thank God You're Here and The Wedge - to name just three hits we've launched this year.

"While we all had very high hopes for Yasmin's Getting Married, it is clear at this early
stage that our audience has not embraced this bold new initiative. We have therefore elected to cease production on the Screentime-produced reality program and move on.

"I particularly wish to thank Jo Stanley and Ten's own Ryan Phelan, who were real standouts in this series. I would also like to thank Yasmin for putting herself 'out there' to this type of program. Yasmin was searching for her life partner before this show came along and she will continue her quest regardless - although now with many more options! Network Ten and Screentime will support her through this process and will make sure her wedding day, whenever that happy event takes place, will be a special day indeed."

What Australia watched, week ending August 5
1 BORDER SECURITY Seven 2,226,000 624,000 597,000 437,000 250,000 319,000
2 BIG BROTHER THE WINNER ANNOUNCED Ten 1,879,000 546,000 554,000 345,000 217,000 218,000
3 CSI Nine 1,844,000 539,000 614,000 308,000 206,000 177,000
4 MEDICAL EMERGENCY Seven 1,784,000 539,000 481,000 347,000 197,000 219,000
5 BIG BROTHER THE FINAL EVICTION Ten 1,735,000 497,000 486,000 317,000 214,000 221,000
6 LOST Seven 1,638,000 476,000 536,000 276,000 169,000 181,000
7 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,589,000 510,000 484,000 232,000 210,000 152,000
8 GETAWAY Nine 1,573,000 438,000 542,000 261,000 158,000 173,000
9 60 MINUTES Nine 1,546,000 454,000 467,000 283,000 166,000 176,000
10 BIG BROTHER DOUBLE EVICTION Ten 1,540,000 423,000 421,000 304,000 217,000 175,000
11 SEVEN NEWS SUN Seven 1,525,000 355,000 502,000 280,000 150,000 239,000
12 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,503,000 411,000 431,000 280,000 166,000 215,000
13 MY NAME IS EARL Seven 1,491,000 432,000 457,000 288,000 141,000 173,000
14 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,481,000 479,000 484,000 244,000 129,000 145,000
15 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,477,000 413,000 421,000 262,000 163,000 218,000
16 FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 1,467,000 447,000 381,000 200,000 138,000 300,000
17 IT TAKES TWO Seven 1,454,000 444,000 446,000 233,000 151,000 180,000
18 CSI: MIAMI Nine 1,422,000 452,000 449,000 233,000 156,000 132,000
(OzTAM mainland capitals)

To find out which movies in the past 18 months have most satisfied and most disappointed Australians, click here.

What Australia watched, Thursday
1. Lost Seven 1.64 million
2. Getaway Nine 1.57
3. Today Tonight Seven 1.55
4. My Name Is Earl Seven 1.49
5. Seven News Seven 1.48
6. Temptation Nine 1.42
7. Home and Away Seven 1.41
8. Nine News Nine 1.29
9. How I Met Your Mother Seven 1.22
10. Medium Ten 1.20
11. A Current Affair Nine 1.18
12. Law and Order Ten 1.12
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 10am, Wednesday August 2
Not that we'd ever suggest Eddie McGuire has anything in common with the Wicked Witch of the West, but his big contribution to The Nine Renaissance is rapidly coming to resemble a small puddle on the floor.Dancing on Ice lost another 140,000 viewers on Tuesday night (down to 1.27 million), at a time when the nation was supposed to be gripped with suspense as to who would be the slicing and gliding finalists.

And it seems Australia could not give a flying fart about the romantic prospects of Yasmin. The launch of Ten's new reality show, Yasmin's Getting Married, which replaced Big Brother at 7pm yesterday, averaged a mere 778,000 viewers in the mainland capitals. It looks like being a short engagement.

Yasmin poisoned the well for Ten's following program, which happened to be the local comedy The Wedge, with a record low of 804,000 viewers. Ten recovered (slightly) only when Rove interviewed all the Big Brother contestants at 8.30pm, drawing 1.07 million.

Seven won the night with 31.2 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 27.2 per cent, Ten got 21.9, ABC got 14.6 and SBS got 5.2.

What Australia watched, Tuesday
1. Border Security Seven 2.22m
2. Medical Emergency Seven 1.78
3. Seven News Seven 1.49
4. Home and Away Seven 1.46
5. Today Tonight Seven 1.44
6. Temptation Nine 1.41
7. All Saints Seven 1.39
8. Nine News Nine 1.32
9. A Current Affair Nine 1.31
10. Dancing On Ice Nine 1.26

Updated 11 am, Tuesday August 1
The nation was split between Jamie lovers and Bree lovers on Monday night. The (rather weak) final moments of Desperate Housewives got a far lower audience than last year (down 38 per cent) and so did the (grossly overextended) final moments of Big Brother (down 17 per cent with all viewers and down 14 per cent with its target audience of viewers 16-39). See below for how they did this year.

Click here to find where these finales fit into Australia's most watched shows of all time.

Channel Ten won the night, with 28.1 per cent of the prime time audience, while Seven got 27.3 per cent, Nine got 24.1, ABC got 15.2 and SBS got 5.3.

What Australia watched, Monday
1. Big Brother winner announced Ten 1.89m (last year 2.28m)
2. Big Brother final eviction Ten 1.74m
3. Seven News Seven 1.56
4. Nine News Nine 1.49
5. Today Tonight Seven 1.47
6. Desperate Housewives Seven 1.42m (last year 2.29m)
7. A Current Affair Nine 1.39
8. Grey's Anatomy Seven 1.34
9. What's Good For You Nine 1.28
10. Home and Away Seven 1.28
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

Updated 11 am, Monday July 31
Big Brother's second-last episode had a surprisingly low audience - just 1.55 million in the mainland capitals. In previous years, it would have topped 2 million. Perhaps 1 million people turned off in disgust when David was evicted.

And the old Tolkien is not what he used to be, either. Last night Channel Seven showed Return of the King, which is the third highest grossing movie of all time in Australia and the No. 10 highest selling DVD of all time in Australia. It averaged just 685,000 viewers - even less than Bleak House!

Why did it do so badly? Because LOTR:ROTK has already been seen by more than 6 million of us. (It was also four hours long, but even between 8.30pm and 9.30pm, it attracted only 878,000.) This is further support for the networks' view that the Sunday Night Movie is an outdated concept, and it explains why next Sunday, Seven will be showing the premiere of the new US series Criminal Minds.

Naturally, Nine won the night with 31.4 per cent of the prime time audience, followed by Ten on 25.6, Seven on 24, ABC on 15 and SBS on 3.9 per cent.

What Australia watched, Sunday
1. CSI Nine 1.84m
2. Nine News Nine 1.58
3. Big Brother Eviction Ten 1.55
4. 60 Minutes Nine 1.52
5. Seven News Seven 1.51
6. CSI: Miami Nine 1.48
7. It Takes Two Seven 1.45
8. 20 to 1 repeat Nine 1.37
9. Planet Earth ABC 1.29
10. Big Brother 6:30pm Ten 1.21
11. True Stories Seven 1.16
12. Sunday Football AFL and NRL Nine 1.04
13. ABC News ABC 1.02
14. Law and Order: Criminal Intent Ep 1 Ten 0.99
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

The ratings race is updated every weekday as an unpaid service for readers of David Dale's Tribal Mind column, published each Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. David Dale is the author of Who We Are - A Miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin). Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. For a discussion on last week's trends in television, click here.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:33 PM
• Comments (290)

The tribal mind: How to satisfy an Aussie

To test yourself on whether you're fit to be an Australian citizen, click here.

By David Dale.
Australians have become a cautious and critical lot. With a ticket likely to cost twice as much as renting a DVD, a movie needs to be bloody attractive these days to drag us out to the cinema. And, once we've been dragged out, a movie had better be bloody inspiring to make us recommend it to our friends. Some films still manage both feats, and they are today's project.

Methodology: First, examine every film of the past 18 months that could be described as a hit (grossing more than $8 million if it's international or more than $2 million if it's Australian). This means, as it turns out, 46 American films, three made in England and eight made by, for and with Australians in Australia.

Second, identify the titles that clearly had pulling power (earning more than $2 million in the opening weekend), the ones that had staying power (retaining their audience long enough for final earnings to be at least five times the opening weekend box office) and the premature ejaculators (which start strongly - because of clever publicity, a star name, an intriguing idea or a series reputation - but generate such poor word of mouth that the final take is less than three times the opening weekend).

Third, take a guess at what it was about those movies that enticed, pleased or disappointed the audience. Here are the results:

What attracts Australians: Johnny Depp, fast cars, Jesus Christ, superheroes, Adam Sandler, Oscars, Brad Pitt, magic, Jennifer Aniston, romantic comedy, Keanu Reeves, special effects, Owen Wilson, Ray Lawrence.

What satisfies Australians: Johnny Cash, funny cars, Vin Diesel, furry animals, Emma Thompson, gay cowboys, computer animation, Will Smith, triumphant storylines.

Films with the longest legs
1 The Pacifier (Vin Diesel as a kindergarten cop, opened with $0.9 million, totalled $11.2m)
2 Chicken Little ($1.2m, $13.4m)
3 Walk the Line ($2.1m, $15.0m)
4 Over the Hedge ($2.3m 16.0m)
5 Wallace and Grommit: Were-rabbit ($1.7m $10.7m)
6 Brokeback Mountain ($1.6m, $9.3m)
7 Robots ($2.5m $13.8m)
8 Madagascar ($4.6m, $25.5m)
9 The Chronicles of Narnia ($6.6m 35.1m)
10 Nanny McPhee ($1.8m, $8.6m)

Films with the shortest stumps
1 Constantine (Keanu Reeves as a Christian Neo, opened with 3.0m, totalled $7.7m)
2 X-Men 3 ($6.7m, $16.6m)
3 Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift ($3.1m, $7.8m)
4 Superman Returns ($5.2m, $13.5m)
5 SW3: Revenge of the Sith ($13.4, $35.5m)
6 Underworld: Evolution ($2.0m $5.4m)
7 Bewitched ($3.6m, $9.8m)
8 Mission: Impossible 3 ($3.8m, $10.9m)
9 Scary Movie 4 ($3.0, $8.7m)
10 The Ring Two ($2.1m, $5.5m)

Top grossing films in the past 18 months
1 Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire $35.7m
2 The Chronicles of Narnia $35.2m
3 Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith $35.5m
4 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $32m
5 The Da Vinci Code $26.9m
6 Madagascar $25.4m
7 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory $25.4m
8 Ice Age 2 $24.5m
9 War of the Worlds $21.6m
10 King Kong 21.4m.
(MPDAA)

Local hits
1 Wolf Creek, $5.8m
2 Jindabyne, estimated $5m (directed by Ray Lawrence, opened with 1.2m)
3 Little Fish, $3.7m
4 Kokoda, $3.0m
5 Look Both Ways, $2.8m
6 Ten Canoes, estimated $2.6m (opened with $418,000)

It's interesting how the list of movies that gave most satisfaction to audiences differs from the list of highest-grossing movies. You might conclude that we should never go to see a highly publicised flick on the opening weekend. But if everybody followed that advice, there'd be no one to warn us about the duds. Better to console ourselves with the thought that even the suckiest movie is an educational experience.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are - A miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin). The Tribal Mind column is published every Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. For a discussion on this week's trends in television, click here.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 01:16 PM
• Comments (27)