The Sun-Herald

The Who We Are update: Week 27

This forum is now a heritage item - worth studying but no longer current. For the latest on Australian attitudes and media trends, go to blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.
To learn whether Australians are losing interest in television, go to The Tribal Mind.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
You would be entitled to imagine that every Australian who might want to see Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone would already have seen it. HPPS is, after all, the eighth highest grossing movie in this nation's box office history (to learn about all the others, go to The films Australia loved). It is also the number 21 most purchased DVD in our history (to learn about the others, go to The DVDs Australia loved.)

In spite of all this, Channel Nine chose to program HPPS last Saturday night as a last ditch fightback against Ten's inexorable progress towards becoming Australia's number two most watched network. And it's been shown on TV several times before.

Clearly Nine has not entirely lost its sense of what Australians can be persuaded to watch. In the mainland capitals, it found 883,000 people who don't like AFL, who have been stirred by recent publicity about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince coming to cinemas on July 15, and who couldn't be bothered getting their old battered disc of HPPS out of the cupboard.

That clinched the week for Nine. Prime time audience shares: Seven 27.6 per cent, Nine 25.4, Ten 24.8, ABC 16.8, SBS 5.4. For next Saturday, Nine has programmed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets -- Australia's No 3 best selling DVD of all time and No 12 highest grossing movie.

This was Pay TV's account of itself for the week: "An all-time record 257,000 viewers watched the penultimate episode of Australia's Next Top Model, in which Clare was eliminated, leaving Cassi and Tahnee as the final two contestants. The winner will be determined in the live finale on FOX8 on Tuesday night. In other entertainment programming, NCIS on TV1 was seen by 109,000 viewers while SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon had a year-to-date high of 95,000 viewers. Law & Order on W was watched by 92,000 people this week, Coronation Street on UKTV was seen by 82,000 viewers and Hannah Montana on Disney Channel was seen by 78,000 people.

In sport programs, Live: NRL Rabbitohs v Wests Tigers on FOX Sports had 292,000 viewers and 195,000 people watched Live: AFL St Kilda v Richmond. Live: AFL: On the Couch was seen by 111,000 people, AFL Open Mike had its best result of the year to date with 90,000 viewers and the Australian cricket team's tour of England saw 84,000 people tune in to Live: Cricket: Tour Match on Thursday night (all on FOX Sports).

"Subscription TV was the number one source of television across all Australian homes in week 27. STV channels accounted for 22.2% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, was 21.4% of all regional viewing and 56.9% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,561,000 415,000 433,000 366,000 136,000 211,000
2 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,245,000 383,000 339,000 235,000 116,000 172,000
3 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,151,000 346,000 361,000 220,000 139,000 84,000
4 M-ICE AGE Seven 1,026,000 322,000 265,000 217,000 94,000 128,000
5 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 966,000 288,000 245,000 212,000 94,000 127,000
6 ABC NEWS UP-DATE ABC1 950,000 345,000 215,000 172,000 93,000 126,000
7 ABC NEWS-SAT ABC1 943,000 315,000 280,000 181,000 72,000 95,000
8 THE BILL ABC1 933,000 290,000 252,000 160,000 100,000 131,000
9 HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE -RPT Nine 883,000 261,000 240,000 194,000 77,000 112,000
11 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 683,000 22,000 361,000 42,000 173,000 85,000
Continued here

13 SATURDAY AFTERNOON AFL Ten 636,000 65,000 237,000 79,000 104,000 152,000
22 WIMBLEDON D12 Nine 364,000 111,000 124,000 54,000 38,000 37,000
24 MYTHBUSTERS SBS ONE 323,000 112,000 63,000 79,000 40,000 29,000
29 ROCKWIZ RPT SBS ONE 251,000 67,000 77,000 40,000 29,000 38,000
75 TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 STAGE 1 SBS ONE 98,000 30,000 39,000 8,000 11,000 11,000
163 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 18,000 Not shown 11,000 Not shown 5,000 1,000

What Australia watched, week ending July 4
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,896,000 543,000 585,000 306,000 214,000 247,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,780,000 481,000 425,000 397,000 178,000 299,000
3 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,660,000 465,000 541,000 336,000 205,000 112,000
4 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,655,000 432,000 505,000 311,000 203,000 204,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,647,000 429,000 456,000 338,000 178,000 246,000
6 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,594,000 505,000 500,000 249,000 134,000 205,000
7 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,576,000 458,000 507,000 266,000 163,000 182,000
8 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,561,000 415,000 433,000 366,000 136,000 211,000
9 ROVE Ten 1,545,000 397,000 507,000 299,000 137,000 205,000
10 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,520,000 651,000 413,000 216,000 240,000
11 THE ZOO Seven 1,519,000 412,000 463,000 302,000 159,000 182,000
12 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,494,000 449,000 457,000 286,000 134,000 168,000
13 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,493,000 393,000 404,000 311,000 158,000 227,000
14 60 MINUTES Nine 1,400,000 435,000 379,000 312,000 137,000 136,000
15 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,369,000 431,000 368,000 287,000 133,000 150,000
16 THE MICHAEL JACKSON STORY Seven 1,351,000 408,000 429,000 213,000 143,000 158,000
17 SEA PATROL Nine 1,333,000 409,000 350,000 259,000 144,000 170,000
18 MERLIN Ten 1,330,000 397,000 335,000 224,000 143,000 230,000
19 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,293,000 375,000 344,000 272,000 126,000 176,000
20 NINE NEWS Nine 1,264,000 345,000 433,000 248,000 125,000 111,000
21 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,245,000 356,000 375,000 204,000 171,000 139,000
22 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,245,000 383,000 339,000 235,000 116,000 172,000
23 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,239,000 422,000 396,000 154,000 133,000 134,000
24 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,234,000 352,000 335,000 224,000 139,000 183,000
25 NCIS RPT Ten 1,233,000 328,000 378,000 227,000 135,000 165,000
26 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,220,000 333,000 396,000 257,000 129,000 105,000
27 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,206,000 397,000 330,000 212,000 129,000 139,000
28 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,203,000 336,000 407,000 254,000 110,000 97,000
29 GETAWAY Nine 1,200,000 354,000 349,000 256,000 104,000 139,000
30 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,189,000 348,000 402,000 158,000 114,000 168,000
31 BONES Seven 1,183,000 385,000 291,000 208,000 141,000 158,000
32 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,178,000 358,000 358,000 221,000 103,000 138,000
33 RPA Nine 1,162,000 374,000 306,000 229,000 124,000 128,000
34 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,151,000 346,000 361,000 220,000 139,000 84,000
35 NCIS EP 2 RPT Ten 1,145,000 290,000 355,000 213,000 140,000 147,000
36 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,143,000 316,000 326,000 227,000 133,000 141,000
37 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,135,000 328,000 319,000 204,000 135,000 150,000
38 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 1,132,000 254,000 381,000 261,000 102,000 134,000
39 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,124,000 290,000 366,000 224,000 107,000 136,000
40 MICHAEL JACKSON: PICKING UP THE PIECES Ten 1,118,000 296,000 381,000 191,000 116,000 134,000
41 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,107,000 316,000 291,000 233,000 143,000 124,000
42 TROUBLE IN PARADISE Nine 1,103,000 308,000 350,000 207,000 111,000 128,000
43 WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU Nine 1,086,000 342,000 286,000 226,000 109,000 122,000
44 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,079,000 298,000 344,000 234,000 92,000 112,000
45 RECRUITS Ten 1,077,000 343,000 309,000 158,000 110,000 156,000
46 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,070,000 299,000 277,000 245,000 81,000 169,000
47 MICHAEL JACKSON: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED Nine 1,057,000 318,000 355,000 171,000 108,000 104,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Saturday
If you'll pardon what may look like another attempt at Jacksploitation, the ratings race this week is a Thriller. With one night to go, the prime time audience shares stand thus: Seven 28.3 per cent, Nine 25.5, Ten 25.3, ABC 15.7, SBS 5.2. Ten will pick up a bit tonight with its AFL. Better watch this space Sunday morning.

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,565,000 410,000 422,000 334,000 162,000 237,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,434,000 448,000 445,000 216,000 146,000 179,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,413,000 375,000 379,000 313,000 141,000 205,000
4 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,245,000 356,000 375,000 204,000 171,000 139,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,207,000 327,000 418,000 216,000 126,000 120,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,085,000 312,000 355,000 232,000 101,000 86,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,044,000 291,000 292,000 194,000 141,000 126,000
8 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 978,000 247,000 287,000 198,000 106,000 140,000
9 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 902,000 253,000 286,000 189,000 77,000 97,000
10 ABC NEWS ABC1 892,000 243,000 261,000 185,000 99,000 103,000
11 TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION: CONVICTION ABC1 847,000 233,000 242,000 146,000 103,000 123,000
13 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 14: COLLINGWOOD VS ESSENDON Seven 804,000 15,000 531,000 13,000 128,000 117,000
14 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 794,000 231,000 234,000 150,000 96,000 82,000
16 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Ten 741,000 251,000 190,000 120,000 82,000 98,000
17 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 736,000 419,000 317,000
19 HOT SEAT Nine 711,000 197,000 219,000 151,000 78,000 65,000
27 SEVEN NEWS AT 4.30 Seven 448,000 149,000 114,000 83,000 56,000 45,000
28 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 444,000 270,000 174,000
37 WIMBLEDON D11 Nine 330,000 112,000 95,000 63,000 37,000 22,000
40 THE HOLLOWMEN RPT ABC1 308,000 97,000 82,000 54,000 28,000 47,000
46 THIS AFTERNOON Nine 284,000 100,000 92,000 45,000 26,000 20,000
92 SPICKS AND SPECKS RPT ABC1 129,000 51,000 27,000 34,000 11,000 7,000
97 NEW IDEA TV Seven 119,000 56,000 18,000 31,000 7,000 8,000
141 POKER ONE 48,000 7,000 17,000 12,000 6,000 6,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,593,000 421,000 433,000 343,000 173,000 222,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,465,000 380,000 422,000 329,000 138,000 196,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,442,000 402,000 455,000 277,000 150,000 156,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,236,000 351,000 439,000 242,000 112,000 91,000
5 GETAWAY Nine 1,201,000 354,000 350,000 256,000 103,000 138,000
6 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,178,000 358,000 358,000 221,000 103,000 138,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,148,000 341,000 374,000 245,000 98,000 89,000
8 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,143,000 316,000 326,000 227,000 133,000 141,000
9 TROUBLE IN PARADISE Nine 1,094,000 307,000 344,000 205,000 111,000 127,000
10 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,064,000 281,000 295,000 213,000 126,000 148,000
13 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 998,000 207,000 397,000 159,000 120,000 116,000
14 LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT Ten 995,000 263,000 316,000 167,000 135,000 114,000
21 PRIVATE PRACTICE Seven 809,000 254,000 255,000 147,000 71,000 83,000
27 M*A*S*H Seven 536,000 161,000 150,000 114,000 65,000 45,000
58 MAD MEN SBS ONE 239,000 102,000 74,000 24,000 18,000 21,000
59 MAD MEN SEASON FINAL SBS ONE 230,000 101,000 77,000 14,000 16,000 21,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,718,000 496,000 548,000 296,000 191,000 187,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,646,000 434,000 451,000 342,000 173,000 247,000
3 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,492,000 449,000 455,000 285,000 134,000 168,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,380,000 367,000 367,000 283,000 146,000 217,000
5 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,378,000 434,000 370,000 290,000 134,000 151,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,239,000 338,000 445,000 268,000 103,000 85,000
7 NINE NEWS Nine 1,235,000 296,000 464,000 245,000 126,000 104,000
8 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,232,000 353,000 335,000 224,000 139,000 182,000
9 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,202,000 396,000 329,000 211,000 128,000 138,000
10 RPA Nine 1,154,000 371,000 303,000 228,000 124,000 127,000
11 MICHAEL JACKSON: PICKING UP THE PIECES Ten 1,151,000 306,000 393,000 196,000 120,000 136,000
16 MICHAEL JACKSON: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED Nine 1,078,000 328,000 353,000 179,000 108,000 108,000
17 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 954,000 215,000 291,000 197,000 124,000 127,000
20 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 923,000 259,000 302,000 184,000 88,000 91,000
26 HOT SEAT Nine 672,000 154,000 239,000 154,000 72,000 52,000
37 WIMBLEDON D9 Nine 410,000 133,000 121,000 62,000 52,000 42,000
56 THIS AFTERNOON Nine 238,000 48,000 98,000 50,000 24,000 18,000
70 PRISON BREAK Seven 182,000 63,000 52,000 12,000 32,000 22,000

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,655,000 432,000 505,000 311,000 203,000 204,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,645,000 415,000 489,000 306,000 175,000 259,000
3 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,594,000 505,000 500,000 249,000 134,000 205,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,572,000 407,000 417,000 300,000 172,000 276,000
5 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,520,000 651,000 Not shown (double ep in Melbourne next week) 413,000 216,000 240,000
6 THE ZOO Seven 1,517,000 412,000 463,000 302,000 159,000 181,000
7 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,465,000 461,000 464,000 238,000 143,000 159,000
8 NINE NEWS Nine 1,260,000 355,000 395,000 251,000 144,000 115,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,259,000 329,000 422,000 267,000 130,000 111,000
10 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,241,000 422,000 396,000 154,000 133,000 136,000
11 NCIS RPT Ten 1,233,000 329,000 378,000 227,000 135,000 165,000
15 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 1,093,000 256,000 378,000 182,000 134,000 142,000
18 GRAND DESIGNS ABC1 949,000 320,000 278,000 163,000 91,000 97,000
19 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 905,000 248,000 292,000 179,000 94,000 93,000
23 HOT SEAT Nine 721,000 174,000 223,000 178,000 80,000 67,000
26 E.J. WHITTEN LEGENDS GAME Nine 577,000 Not shown 412,000 Not shown 92,000 73,000
33 SEVEN NEWS AT 4.30 Seven 427,000 124,000 116,000 73,000 60,000 54,000
43 THIS AFTERNOON Nine 314,000 68,000 125,000 54,000 39,000 28,000
47 ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? SBS ONE 284,000 93,000 66,000 56,000 40,000 29,000
53 WIMBLEDON D8 Nine 253,000 75,000 86,000 46,000 28,000 18,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SNEAK PEEK: WORLD'S STRICTEST PARENTS Seven 1,875,000 548,000 642,000 277,000 206,000 201,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,784,000 463,000 487,000 364,000 205,000 266,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,669,000 448,000 563,000 289,000 165,000 203,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,632,000 437,000 433,000 329,000 191,000 241,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,358,000 398,000 440,000 283,000 114,000 124,000
6 SEA PATROL Nine 1,333,000 406,000 353,000 260,000 144,000 170,000
7 THE MICHAEL JACKSON STORY Seven 1,320,000 400,000 416,000 208,000 140,000 156,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,309,000 365,000 443,000 265,000 119,000 117,000
9 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,226,000 357,000 421,000 165,000 117,000 166,000
10 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,214,000 359,000 337,000 201,000 150,000 167,000
13 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,092,000 308,000 292,000 227,000 139,000 126,000
14 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 1,083,000 244,000 373,000 186,000 120,000 160,000
19 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 930,000 271,000 290,000 175,000 103,000 91,000
28 HOT SEAT Nine 721,000 202,000 207,000 176,000 67,000 69,000
33 THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL Ten 543,000 115,000 200,000 114,000 52,000 63,000
34 TOP GEAR AUSTRALIA SBS ONE 487,000 151,000 130,000 98,000 52,000 56,000
39 SEVEN NEWS AT 4.30 Seven 430,000 149,000 89,000 82,000 64,000 46,000
45 THIS AFTERNOON Nine 321,000 109,000 95,000 60,000 26,000 30,000
52 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SBS ONE 285,000 90,000 91,000 32,000 27,000 44,000
69 WALLACE AND GROMIT'S CRACKING CONTRAPTIONS-PM ABC1 216,000 89,000 38,000 16,000 31,000 42,000
75 30 ROCK Seven 194,000 51,000 64,000 24,000 29,000 26,000

The ratings race, updated 11 am Monday
Once again, Channel Ten started the week with the biggest share of the prime time audience: 29.7 per cent, compared with 25.5 per cent for Nine and 24.4 per cent for Seven. MasterChef did well as usual, but after it, Rove attracted an amazing 1.6 million viewers in the mainland capitals. Rove's guests were Kevin Rudd, an Australian prime minister, and Bruno (no known surname), an Austrian fashion writer. If you saw the show, tell us which of them held the audience.

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,891,000 541,000 583,000 306,000 214,000 247,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,780,000 481,000 425,000 397,000 178,000 299,000
3 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,660,000 465,000 541,000 336,000 206,000 112,000
4 ROVE Ten 1,629,000 430,000 529,000 316,000 140,000 214,000
5 60 MINUTES Nine 1,401,000 435,000 379,000 312,000 138,000 136,000
6 MERLIN Ten 1,323,000 396,000 333,000 223,000 143,000 229,000
7 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,296,000 375,000 344,000 273,000 127,000 178,000
8 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,221,000 333,000 396,000 257,000 131,000 105,000
9 BONES Seven 1,190,000 382,000 292,000 215,000 140,000 162,000
10 SNEAK PEEK: SURF PATROL Seven 1,099,000 308,000 250,000 253,000 102,000 185,000
11 AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MISS MARPLE ABC1 1,054,000 380,000 267,000 145,000 120,000 140,000
15 CSI: EP1 Nine 913,000 261,000 258,000 179,000 112,000 104,000
16 CASTLE Seven 881,000 282,000 243,000 132,000 107,000 117,000
17 CSI -EP2 Nine 863,000 237,000 245,000 163,000 113,000 105,000
19 THE BIGGEST LOSER Ten 732,000 179,000 248,000 134,000 79,000 92,000
24 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 605,000 328,000 267,000 10,000
27 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 13: NORTH MELBOURNE VS WESTERN BULLDOGS Seven 510,000 58,000 219,000 42,000 116,000 76,000
59 AFL GAME DAY Seven 187,000 117,000 32,000 38,000
85 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 13: GEELONG VS PORT ADELAIDE Seven 105,000 105,000

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 09:56 AM
• Comments (44)

The Tribal Mind: Better to fill the belly than cut the throat

To determine what is Australia's National Snack, go to Who We Are.

by David Dale
Cooking is the new renovation. It's also the new black, the new rock 'n' roll, the new watercooler buzzword, the new evidence that Australians are cocooning and the new knife to the guts of Channel Nine, which was hoping it had been punished enough for decades of treating its viewers with contempt.

Before I continue, a confession is necessary: Two months ago, I was talking to a Channel Ten executive and he asked how I thought Masterchef would rate. At the time I'd only seen trailers, so I made this confident prediction: "It looks kind of old-fashioned. It will start with 1.4 million but it will be down to 800,000 within three weeks. You'll get an over-55 audience, which you don't want."

The Ten exec looked hurt: "If that happens, it's a disaster," he said. "We agree about the 1.4 million start, but we think it will stay above 1.2 million from then on." Masterchef did start with 1.4 million viewers in the mainland capitals, but that was the only bit of my prediction to come true. Three weeks later it was still at 1.4 million. And by last week it had risen to 1.8 million.

Viewers over 55 have zero interest in it (their favourite show is New Tricks), but it is number one with men and women aged 16-39 and 25-54. It's performing so strongly that Channel Ten has a chance of pushing Channel Nine to number three position in prime time audience share for the year.

What did sink to 800,000 was Channel Nine's renovation contest HomeMade. Nine made the wrong call. In the first half of last year, it thought cooking was the new black, because any series involving Gordon Ramsay was getting big numbers. Nine proceeded to kill that goose by stuffing Ramsay into every available slot. Then it decided that this year the new black would be renovation.

The psychology seemed sound -- when the economy shrinks and the world looks dangerous, Australians retreat to the comforts of home. In 2003, with the Bali bombings and September 11 still in their minds, Australians watched anything lifestylish, particularly a reno race called The Block. HomeMade is The Block downsized for the more modest budgets of today.

As it turned out, Masterchef had already filled the home comforts vacuum. A contributor to this column's online forum, who wishes to be known as Wazza, summed up its appeal: "How great is it that Masterchef is killing it in the ratings? I much prefer to watch something constructive and which builds people's self esteem rather than something that is destructive and tears people down. I'm glad they aren't going down the road of 'Game on, molls!' bitchfighting of Big Brother. That is soooo 2006. Looks like Channel 9 went down that well-beaten path with HomeMade and paid the price for it with a flop."

Judging by TV tastes, the economic crisis seems to have put Australians in the mood for constructive cooperation and gentle generosity. If so, this is not a good time to be Malcolm Turnbull.

Footnote: Last week I promised to talk about TV writers who insert Melanoma Moments in their dramas. I was referring to the story arc in Grey's Anatomy. I decided to wait and see if Izzy survives before assessing its significance.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:55 PM
• Comments (14)

WHO WE ARE: From impulse to mouth

To learn why MasterChef is bad news for Malcolm Turnbull, go to The Tribal Mind.

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun Herald, 29/6/2009
Recent pronouncements by the prime minister about the shaking of sauce bottles, and the decision by the Kraft company to market a new version of Vegemite with cream cheese stirred through, compelled this column to re-examine a key question of identity: what are Australia's national foodstuffs?

We established years ago that the national dish is spaghetti bolognese, in the sense of the meal cooked most often for family dinner. That's barely the beginning. The research company ACNielsen has just published The 2009 Nielsen Convenience and Impulse Report, which, combined with earlier data on supermarket habits, lets us look deeply into the mouths of Australians.

The national breakfast. We start the day with Weet Bix or Kellogg's Nutri-Grain, onto which we pour Paul's milk or Pura milk. Then we smear Vegemite on Tip Top and wash it down with Nescafe Blend 43.

The national snack. Nielsen reports that in 2008 Australians spent $2.7 billion in "the convenience channel" - mainly shops attached to petrol stations. "Over two thirds (66 per cent) of Aussie consumers claim to buy lollies in convenience stores, while 59 per cent buy chocolate," says the report. "Almost one in three Aussies claim to have purchased an item from a convenience store on their last visit to a petrol station."

Here's what Nielsen says we mostly grab on the way back to the car: Mars bars; Extra spearmint gum; Snickers; Coca Cola; V Guarana; Red Bull Energy Drink; Streets Golden Gaytime, Streets Magnum; Peters Maxibon; R/Rock Potato chips; Cheese Twisties; Smith's Crinkles; Icebreak Iced Coffee; Arnott's Tim Tams; Arnott's Shapes.

You get an inkling of who does most of this impulse buying from the fact that the top two publications bought at convenience stores are Zoo Weekly and Picture, which specialise in photos of buxom women.

The national lunch. Boringly, this is likely to be a sandwich, stuffed with Primo ham or devon and a slice of Bega cheese. A bold minority buy hot chips. Every Australian eats 63 kilograms of potatoes a year.

The national smoke. Only 20 per cent of Australians are regular smokers (but the figure is 33 per cent if you're talking about males aged between 25 and 34). Nielsen reports that Australians spend $750 million a year at the supermarket on Winfield cigarettes and also on Longbeach, and more than $500 million on Peter Jackson and on Horizon. In convenience stores, the top sellers are Winfield Blue and Peter Jackson Rich.

The national sauce. I could find no reference to tomato sauce among Nielsen's top 100 selling brands, which might support the complaint that Kevin Rudd's "Fair shake of the sauce bottle" was an outdated image. But on the website of the Japanese-owned food company Cerebos, we learn: "Fountain Tomato sauce is found in more kitchens, cupboards and fridges than any other sauce brand -- and Aussie households consume an impressive 6.8 million litres of Fountain Tomato sauce each year." Since Fountain claims to have 22.7 per cent of the market, we may conclude that Australians consume 30 million litres of the red stuff a year, or 1.4 litres per person.

The national dinner. As we noted, it's spag bol, usually made with San Remo pasta and Leggo tomato paste. Slightly less often it's Old El Paso Mexican. If we have a steak, it's served with McCain frozen peas.

And once a week the average household orders out. For the title of Australia's favourite takeaway, it's a battle between pizza, fried rice, Pad Thai noodles, and butter chicken. Further research is clearly required. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.

Go to Comments to discuss what you think are the national dishes of Australia.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 06:02 AM
• Comments (16)

The Who We Are update: Week 26

This forum is now a heritage item - worth studying but no longer current. For the latest on Australian attitudes and media trends, go to blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

To learn why MasterChef is bad news for Malcolm Turnbull, go to The Tribal Mind.
To determine what is Australia's National Snack, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 11 am Monday
Seven will think twice before devoting a night to rugby union again. As of Saturday morning, the three networks were neck and neck in audience share for the week. As of Sunday morning, Seven found itself in the rare position of coming third. Here's how the week worked out: Nine 26.3 per cent of the prime time audience, Ten 25.8 per cent, Seven 25.5, ABC 17.6, SBS 4.8. If NIne had not had the State of Origin on Wednesday, it would have come third -- a bad omen for this week.

Here's Pay TV's account of itself: "Subscription TV won its 21st week of 2009 and in doing so ensured it has had more viewers than any other network across the first half of 2009. Between 6am and midnight in week 26, STV channels accounted for 21.8% of all metropolitan viewing; 21.4% of all regional viewing and 56.9% of all viewing in subscription TV homes. In the year-to-date, this gave STV channels 59.4% of viewing in STV homes, 21.8% of all regional viewing and 23.2% of all metropolitan viewing (well ahead of the closest broadcast network with 21.7% of all viewing).

"Live: NRL Sharks v Broncos on FOX Sports topped the week for subscription TV with 293,000 viewers and 270,000 people watched Live: AFL Fremantle v Geelong, giving the network its second biggest audience for AFL this year. In other sport programs, the Wallabies/France test, Live: Rugby Union: Test Match had 177,000 viewers, Live: AFL: On the Couch had 105,000 viewers and 83,000 people watched Live: Tennis: Wimbledon: Day 4 on Thursday night (all on FOX Sports).

"Australia's Next Top Model on FOX8 was watched by 219,000 people; TV1'S Cash Trivia Challenge had a year-to-date best viewership of 104,000 people and Law & Order on W was watched by 90,000 viewers. The Crime & Investigation premiere of CIA: Murder of Innocence: Sian Kingi was watched by 88,000 people, Drake & Josh on Nickelodeon had a year-to-date biggest audience with 85,000 people, Nostradamus: 2012 premiered on History Channel with 83,000 viewers and Showbiz on Sky News had its best result of the year with 81,000 people."

What Australia watched, week ending 28/6/2009
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 2ND - MATCH Nine 2,134,000 825,000 332,000 815,000 69,000 94,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,934,000 556,000 615,000 317,000 202,000 245,000
3 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,757,000 510,000 579,000 273,000 175,000 220,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,666,000 461,000 576,000 261,000 168,000 201,000
5 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,664,000 430,000 376,000 410,000 156,000 292,000
6 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,618,000 438,000 445,000 324,000 181,000 230,000
7 NCIS Ten 1,586,000 434,000 451,000 290,000 196,000 214,000
8 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,575,000 485,000 524,000 298,000 184,000 84,000
9 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,483,000 405,000 424,000 287,000 168,000 199,000
10 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,471,000 416,000 429,000 343,000 112,000 171,000
11 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,428,000 393,000 389,000 293,000 151,000 203,000
12 RECRUITS Ten 1,364,000 403,000 415,000 231,000 132,000 184,000
13 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,351,000 402,000 341,000 306,000 120,000 181,000
14 THE ZOO Seven 1,341,000 431,000 352,000 264,000 121,000 172,000
15 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,322,000 369,000 404,000 209,000 156,000 183,000
16 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,322,000 359,000 402,000 256,000 130,000 174,000
17 SEA PATROL Nine 1,314,000 388,000 367,000 251,000 141,000 167,000

18 BONES Seven 1,312,000 405,000 340,000 245,000 147,000 175,000
19 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,308,000 388,000 454,000 213,000 115,000 138,000
20 STATE OF ORIGIN 2 - PRE MATCH Nine 1,305,000 492,000 229,000 535,000 49,000
21 NINE NEWS Nine 1,299,000 321,000 431,000 295,000 124,000 128,000
22 MERLIN Ten 1,293,000 386,000 325,000 234,000 146,000 203,000
23 NCIS RPT Ten 1,278,000 326,000 400,000 227,000 148,000 178,000
24 STATE OF ORIGIN 2 - POST MATCH Nine 1,265,000 435,000 238,000 546,000 45,000
25 60 MINUTES Nine 1,254,000 325,000 363,000 301,000 120,000 144,000
26 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,252,000 375,000 355,000 248,000 133,000 141,000
27 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,245,000 345,000 378,000 266,000 131,000 126,000
28 MICHAEL JACKSON THE KING OF POP Nine 1,239,000 398,000 387,000 247,000 105,000 102,000
29 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,232,000 383,000 389,000 223,000 100,000 137,000
30 GETAWAY Nine 1,229,000 306,000 419,000 225,000 120,000 159,000
31 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,208,000 313,000 392,000 274,000 116,000 112,000
32 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,197,000 371,000 382,000 170,000 135,000 140,000
33 TROUBLE IN PARADISE Nine 1,174,000 325,000 364,000 224,000 127,000 134,000
34 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,171,000 363,000 369,000 128,000 162,000 150,000
35 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,167,000 329,000 348,000 212,000 132,000 146,000
36 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,151,000 331,000 336,000 250,000 107,000 126,000
37 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,146,000 320,000 316,000 209,000 153,000 148,000
38 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,143,000 368,000 377,000 121,000 127,000 150,000
39 ROVE Ten 1,141,000 306,000 401,000 193,000 107,000 135,000
40 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,137,000 337,000 365,000 206,000 131,000 98,000
41 AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MISS MARPLE ABC1 1,117,000 381,000 300,000 177,000 131,000 128,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Saturday
This is unlikely to have happened before in the history of Australian television. With only one night to go in the ratings week, the prime time audience shares of the commercial networks stand at: Ten 26.2 per cent, Nine 26.2 per cent, Seven 26.2 per cent.

Tonight will make all the difference. Ten has AFL in the south west and The Italian Job for the biffo cities. Seven has rugby union. Nine has a Michael Jackson special. Go to Comments to register your prediction on who will win this extraordinary week.

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,471,000 416,000 429,000 343,000 112,000 171,000
2 MICHAEL JACKSON THE KING OF POP Nine 1,239,000 398,000 387,000 247,000 105,000 102,000
3 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,232,000 383,000 389,000 223,000 100,000 137,000
4 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,167,000 329,000 348,000 212,000 132,000 146,000
5 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,137,000 337,000 365,000 206,000 131,000 98,000
6 ABC NEWS-SAT ABC1 997,000 342,000 277,000 189,000 79,000 109,000
7 THE BILL ABC1 866,000 229,000 247,000 154,000 98,000 137,000
9 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 733,000 19,000 328,000 74,000 124,000 188,000
15 SATURDAY AFTERNOON AFL Ten 514,000 89,000 218,000 31,000 42,000 135,000
19 SEVEN'S R.U: AUS V FRANCE Seven 402,000 226,000 23,000 123,000 18,000 11,000
22 WIMBLEDON D6 Nine 342,000 104,000 112,000 56,000 44,000 25,000
28 MYTHBUSTERS SBS 300,000 66,000 84,000 77,000 46,000 28,000
88 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009-PM ABC1 70,000 70,000

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,562,000 436,000 469,000 264,000 176,000 216,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,381,000 389,000 413,000 231,000 163,000 184,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,380,000 377,000 449,000 230,000 141,000 183,000
4 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,322,000 369,000 404,000 209,000 156,000 183,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,295,000 308,000 402,000 325,000 116,000 144,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,179,000 288,000 360,000 304,000 98,000 129,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,059,000 339,000 292,000 172,000 126,000 130,000
8 SILENT WITNESS ABC1 1,055,000 293,000 313,000 172,000 130,000 147,000
10 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Ten 855,000 256,000 278,000 126,000 82,000 113,000
13 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 13: ESSENDON VS CARLTON Seven 822,000 23,000 505,000 15,000 140,000 139,000
20 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 600,000 357,000 243,000
32 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 368,000 259,000 109,000
42 DATELINE NBC SPECIAL - MICHAEL JACKSON Seven 301,000 91,000 91,000 53,000 30,000 36,000
68 WIMBLEDON D5 Nine 195,000 63,000 47,000 32,000 29,000 24,000
85 JUST SEX AND NOTHING ELSE SBS 153,000 51,000 45,000 21,000 13,000 23,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,526,000 395,000 427,000 339,000 164,000 201,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,524,000 414,000 527,000 249,000 136,000 198,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,371,000 367,000 377,000 319,000 137,000 171,000
4 GETAWAY Nine 1,222,000 308,000 409,000 228,000 120,000 157,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,211,000 308,000 401,000 285,000 119,000 99,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,179,000 291,000 381,000 279,000 121,000 108,000
7 TROUBLE IN PARADISE Nine 1,169,000 321,000 370,000 221,000 126,000 132,000
8 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,151,000 331,000 336,000 250,000 107,000 126,000
25 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 692,000 405,000 287,000
39 INSPECTOR REX RPT SBS 351,000 107,000 113,000 47,000 37,000 47,000
59 MAD MEN SBS 232,000 87,000 75,000 24,000 24,000 22,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Thursday
Un-cooking-believable! Even after the onslaught of Nine's biffo, Channel Ten is still on top for the week. The prime time audience shares stand at: Ten 27.6 per cent, Nine 25.9, Seven 25.1, ABC 16.8 (thanks to Spicks and Chaser, which showed no drop on its pre sin bin figures) and SBS 4.6. In the next three days, Seven will rise and Ten will sink, but it's still possible for Ten to come in second -- the ultimate humiliation for Nine in a biffo week.

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE 2 - MATCH Nine 2,091,000 812,000 321,000 800,000 67,000 90,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,852,000 516,000 675,000 250,000 181,000 230,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,630,000 424,000 436,000 317,000 174,000 279,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,431,000 394,000 369,000 302,000 142,000 223,000
5 STATE OF ORIGIN 2 - POST MATCH Nine 1,386,000 484,000 260,000 583,000 59,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,323,000 355,000 418,000 299,000 131,000 120,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,198,000 329,000 383,000 277,000 110,000 98,000
8 STATE OF ORIGIN 2 - PRE MATCH Nine 1,185,000 432,000 228,000 481,000 45,000
9 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,171,000 363,000 369,000 128,000 162,000 150,000
10 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,160,000 373,000 383,000 123,000 129,000 152,000
21 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 791,000 Not shown 424,000 Not shown 168,000 199,000
41 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 334,000 229,000 Not shown 105,000 Not shown Not shown
44 WIMBLEDON D3 Nine 309,000 86,000 98,000 81,000 29,000 14,000
68 PRISON BREAK Seven 202,000 68,000 59,000 19,000 38,000 18,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

The ratings race, updated 10 am Wednesday
Three days into the week, the prime time audience shares stand at: 1. Ten 28.4 per cent; 2. Seven 25.9 per cent; 3. Nine 23.7; 4. ABC 17.1; 5. SBS 4.9. The State of Origin will turn that around for Nine tonight, but if biffo is all that Nine has going for it, you'd have to predict 2009 ending with the ultimate humiliation in Nine's five year slide -- having to advertise itself as "Still The Three".

The question of the day: Is Melissa Doyle hot or just sweetly pretty?

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,754,000 509,000 578,000 273,000 175,000 219,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,596,000 437,000 527,000 287,000 171,000 175,000
3 NCIS Ten 1,592,000 437,000 454,000 291,000 196,000 215,000
4 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,574,000 436,000 425,000 297,000 186,000 230,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,342,000 347,000 375,000 262,000 137,000 221,000
6 THE ZOO Seven 1,341,000 431,000 352,000 264,000 121,000 172,000
7 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,322,000 359,000 402,000 256,000 130,000 174,000
8 NCIS RPT Ten 1,287,000 328,000 402,000 228,000 149,000 179,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,251,000 362,000 421,000 232,000 128,000 108,000
10 NINE NEWS Nine 1,245,000 307,000 446,000 239,000 119,000 134,000
11 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,197,000 371,000 382,000 170,000 135,000 140,000
12 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,140,000 381,000 320,000 198,000 102,000 139,000
16 GRAND DESIGNS ABC1 999,000 298,000 300,000 178,000 98,000 126,000
23 10 YEARS YOUNGER IN 10 DAYS Seven 847,000 284,000 256,000 107,000 98,000 103,000
24 HOME MADE Nine 831,000 228,000 273,000 145,000 92,000 94,000
25 HOME MADE -ELIMINATION Nine 812,000 243,000 276,000 126,000 76,000 91,000
35 TRACEY ULLMAN'S STATE OF THE UNION ABC1 421,000 152,000 126,000 68,000 31,000 44,000
68 WIMBLEDON D2 Nine 218,000 65,000 77,000 30,000 26,000 21,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,800,000 499,000 467,000 404,000 203,000 227,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,781,000 495,000 603,000 302,000 190,000 190,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,615,000 468,000 413,000 345,000 174,000 215,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,395,000 337,000 497,000 300,000 131,000 130,000
5 RECRUITS Ten 1,349,000 397,000 409,000 229,000 131,000 183,000
6 SEA PATROL Nine 1,309,000 386,000 365,000 251,000 140,000 167,000
7 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,308,000 388,000 454,000 213,000 115,000 138,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,269,000 308,000 436,000 278,000 132,000 115,000
9 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,225,000 369,000 347,000 243,000 129,000 137,000
10 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,168,000 365,000 303,000 227,000 112,000 160,000
11 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,138,000 319,000 314,000 208,000 151,000 146,000
17 SCRUBS - MON Seven 1,006,000 285,000 301,000 200,000 104,000 115,000
19 7.30 REPORT ABC1 960,000 309,000 256,000 174,000 102,000 119,000
23 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER Seven 805,000 246,000 223,000 177,000 65,000 94,000
24 SPOOKS ABC1 785,000 202,000 263,000 124,000 91,000 106,000
29 SUPERNATURAL Ten 618,000 180,000 164,000 127,000 76,000 72,000
32 TOP GEAR AUSTRALIA SBS 510,000 157,000 138,000 92,000 71,000 51,000
44 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SBS 312,000 93,000 124,000 36,000 21,000 38,000
58 30 ROCK Seven 248,000 74,000 79,000 30,000 26,000 39,000
What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,934,000 556,000 615,000 317,000 202,000 244,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,664,000 430,000 376,000 410,000 156,000 292,000
3 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,574,000 485,000 526,000 298,000 181,000 84,000
4 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,351,000 402,000 341,000 306,000 120,000 181,000
5 BONES Seven 1,312,000 405,000 340,000 245,000 147,000 175,000
6 MERLIN Ten 1,293,000 386,000 325,000 234,000 146,000 202,000
7 60 MINUTES Nine 1,261,000 325,000 367,000 302,000 120,000 147,000
8 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,245,000 345,000 378,000 266,000 131,000 126,000
9 ROVE Ten 1,147,000 307,000 403,000 193,000 109,000 135,000
10 AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MISS MARPLE ABC1 1,117,000 381,000 300,000 177,000 131,000 128,000
11 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,080,000 314,000 286,000 212,000 105,000 164,000
12 BORDER SECURITY USA Seven 1,047,000 317,000 296,000 203,000 88,000 143,000
14 CSI Nine 974,000 268,000 286,000 200,000 114,000 105,000
25 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 484,000 296,000 179,000 10,000
45 MOTHER AND SON Seven 269,000 269,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown Not shown
64 AFL GAME DAY Seven 180,000 Not shown 117,000 Not shown 31,000 32,000
74 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 12: FREMANTLE VS GEELONG Seven 158,000 Not shown 158,000

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 04:55 PM
• Comments (78)

The Tribal Mind: The URST jump of your dreams

by David Dale
If you're a writer for television, there are three cardinal sins you commit at grave risk to your career: 1) you make your series jump the shark; 2) you resort to the dream excuse; and 3) you burst the URST (where URST stands for UnResolved Sexual Tension).

All three sins have been committed in the TV season which finishes next week (the season's end traditionally being marked by the final episode of Desperate Housewives). And this year a fourth writers' sin joined the list: giving your show a Melanoma Moment.

Jumping the shark means introducing a desperate gimmick to bring audiences back to a series that is likely to be axed -- as in, getting Fonzie to put on water skis and leap over a finny fish in a 1977 episode of Happy Days. A classic example is when the writers let off a bomb where the main characters are gathered, leaving viewers wondering who will survive to next season (a trick pioneered in 1974 by Number 96, already famous for its gay kiss and bare breasts). Last month, in the season final of Lost, an atomic bomb went off on the island, potentially altering history and killing half the characters. Perhaps they'll get out of it next season by saying "It was just Kate's dream - all the time travelling never happened and we're still stuck in 2005".

The most outrageous example of this trick happened in the 1980s series Dallas. A character called Bobby Ewing was killed off at the end of one season and brought back a year later with the explanation that the entire season had been a nightmare of his sweetheart Pam, who had apparently slept for 31 episodes.

No writers would have the nerve to do that again, would they? Well it happened in the final episode of the US version of Life On Mars last month. We thought the detective had been mysteriously shifted from the year 2008 to the year 1973 but it turned out he was an astronaut dreaming it all in suspended animation betwen earth and Mars in the year 2038. That was excusable given the series had been cancelled and the writers had to come up with a fast and final explanation.

There's no such excuse for the writers of House. In the latest season final, they too dragged out the old dream routine, except they didn't call it a dream, they called it a hallucination. No doubt their excuse was that it saved them from committing sin number three - bursting the URST.

For the last two seasons, House has been losing viewers, because it became repetitive. The only thing going for it has been the unresolved sexual tension between Greg House and his boss Lisa Cuddy.

URST has been a plot engine for many hits --
David and Maddie in Moonlighting
Laura and Diver Dan in SeaChange
Booth and Brennan in Bones
Niles and Daphne in Frasier
Elizabeth and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice
the Doctor and Rose in Doctor Who
John and Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Fran and Mr Sheffield in The Nanny
Blair and Chuck in Gossip Girl
Josh and Donna in The West Wing.
(Go to Comments to nominate other examples).

At a certain point in any series, the writers get bored with characters flirting and fighting, and put them in bed together, ending the suspense. The most notorious URST-burst happened in Lois and Clark in 1996. Joining the title characters killed not only the series but the careers of the lead actors. Teri Hatcher, who played Lois Lane, took nine years to find fame again (in Desperate Housewives). Dean Cain, who played Clark Kent, never has.

Clearly the House writers didn't want that fate, so they showed their hero seeming to get together with Cuddy, but ended the episode with him being admitted to a mental hospital for having imagined the whole thing. They didn't burst the URST, but they did draw on the dream, and in the process, they jumped the shark.

And we've run out of space to discuss the melanoma moment. Go to Comments to anticipate next week's discussion.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:31 PM
• Comments (14)

WHO WE ARE: Holly, holly, holly, oi, oi, oi

To discuss the Most Memorable Moments in Australian television, go to The Tribal Mind.
To learn what makes Australians sick, go to Wealthy and wise.

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald 14/6/2009
Americans are notorious for their ignorance of world geography. But it would seem that the screenwriters of Hollywood, whose careers depend on knowing what their audience can and cannot understand, have decided that Australia is now part of the cultural literacy of America. Consider this evidence:

1. In the season final of House last month, Jesse Spencer, the Melbourne-born actor who plays the surgeon Robert Chase, offered this vision of a tenth wedding anniversary to the girl he's going to marry: "Three kids -- they spend their summers in Melbourne and have annoying accents. It's disgusting how happy we are." Nobody felt any need to explain what or where Melbourne was.

2. In the trailer for a new drama series called The Deep End, Ben Lawson, the Brisbane-born actor who plays lawyer Liam Priory, says this when his colleagues enter his office and discover him in his underpants: "Don't you bloody knock? My office, mate. Sorry about the wedding tackle. I was just getting changed for court." Lawson's character was British in the pilot episode, but has been rewritten as an Australian-born Cambridge graduate.

3. In an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles shown on Fox8 two weeks ago, Stephanie Jacobsen, the Hong Kong born and Sydney educated actress who plays future warrior Jesse Flores, told an American comrade that in Perth she had been eating rabbits. When he asks "Rabbits? I thought Australia was all wombats and wallabies and stuff", Jesse replies: "No. Some wacker brought them over in the 1800s and we've been overrun with them ever since. We tried everything to kill the things. In the 1950s we even introduced a virus to wipe them out. Ten years later Australia was up to its eyeballs in rabbits again."

Her short history of the rabbit plague served as a useful metaphor for the way human beings introduced robots to the earth and then lost control of them - which is the central theme of the Terminator series.

These three occurrences are not coincidence. They suggest that finally Hollywood has decided to let Australians be Australian.

Gone are the days when Perth-born Melissa George needed to sound American to be a spy in Alias, a patient in In Treatment and a bisexual intern in Grey's Anatomy; when Launceston-born Simon Baker had to adopt an American accent to become The Mentalist; when Brisbane-born Miranda Otto and Perth-born Frances O'Connor needed American accents to play lustful businesswomen in Cashmere Mafia; when Adelaide-born Anthony LaPaglia and Sydney-born Poppy Montgomery had to speak American to be cops in Without A Trace and when Rupert Murdoch's Melbourne-born niece Anna Torv had to speak American to be a cop in Fringe; and, going back much further, when the voices of American actors had to be dubbed over the Australian accents in the original Mad Max movie.

We must pay tribute to three pioneers who helped transform the prevailing attitude: Olivia Newton-John, whose Sandy in Grease (1978) was a highschooler who happened to be Australian; Heath Ledger, whose Patrick in Ten Things I Hate About You (1999) was a highschooler who happened to be Australian; and Geoffrey Rush, whose Donovan in Intolerable Cruelty (2003) was a soap opera producer who happened to be Australian.

There's a way to go yet. Can you think of any international movie in which Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Nicole Kidman, Eric Bana, Toni Colette, Russell Crowe, Abbie Cornish or Hugh Jackman were able to speak with their normal accents? From now on, they might.

Go to Comments to discuss other Australian pioneers.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 03:28 AM
• Comments (55)

The Tribal Mind: Shock to the top

To learn how Hollywood finally discovered Australia, go to Who We Are.

by David Dale
YOU be the judge. Was The Chaser's much lamented satire on sentimental fundraisers significant enough to warrant a place in the top 20 list of Australia's Most Memorable Media Moments?

In favour of its inclusion is the fact that the ABC shut down The Chaser's War On Everything for two weeks and demoted the Head of TV Comedy for her failure to censor the sketch. Against its inclusion is the fact that it was not original. As Media Watch pointed out last Monday, the Chaser team copied a sketch from a show called The Mansion on Foxtel's Comedy Channel ("No trip to Disneyland for you, kid, but 50 per cent off your next set of prints from Photo Plus").

And if we were to place it in the all time top 20, that would give the Chaser team two gurnseys, because their 2007 APEC stunt already appears in number 13 spot. Not that there's a particular rule against any program double-dipping. Number 96 and Big Brother each make two appearances. But the over-representation issue is something to bear in mind as you ponder which of these shocking, stirring and inspiring incidents might be replaced by the Make-A-Wish sketch:

Australia's Most Memorable Media Moments
1 Prime Minister Bob Hawke cries as he confesses to being an alcoholic and an adulterer on Clive Robertson 's Newsworld (1989).
2 Graham Kennedy is banned from live television for doing crow imitations that start with an "f" (1975).
3 Joe Hasham performs TV's first gay kiss, at a time when homosexuality is a crime, on Number 96 (1974).
4 Steve Irwin holds his baby while feeding a crocodile (2004).
5 Offended by an item about kangaroo genitals, Channel Nine boss Kerry Packer pulls off Doug Mulray's Naughtiest Home Videos halfway through the first episode (1997).
6 Big Brother contestant Merlin protests detention of boat people by holding up a sign "Free th refugees" (2004).
7 Channel Ten toughens its censorship procedures after contestant John exposes his penis during Big Brother (2005).
8 A Current Affair host Tracey Grimshaw tells viewers she was "absolutely miserable" when she found out chef Gordon Ramsay had called her a lesbian and an "old ugly pig" (2009).
9 The Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, is drunk at the Melbourne Cup (1977).
10 Singer Normie Rowe and broadcaster Ron Casey fight over republicanism on The Midday Show (1991).
11 Ken Shorter puts his hand up Rowena Wallace's skirt in You Can't See Round Corners (1967)
12 A reporter resigns from Today Tonight after a story about a nursing home patient being kept in chains is revealed to be fictitious (2007).
13 The Chaser team show footage of their arrest for breaching security at the APEC summit (2007).
14 The Block features gay renovators (2003).
15 Richard Carleton drops dead while reporting from the Beaconsfield mine rescue site (2006).
16 Number 96 shows TV's first bare breasts (1973).
17 A Catholic bishop urges viewers to sell their Ampol shares as a protest against Ampol's sponsorship of The Mavis Bramston Show, which has satirised organised religion (1965).
18 Bandstand host Brian Henderson, 35, is revealed to be dating 16 year old Mardi Ozoux (1966). They marry when she turns 18.
19 60 Minutes pays former flight attendant Lisa Robertson $60,000 to tell the tale of her toilet tryst with actor Ralph Fiennes and her possible pregnancy (2007).
20 Mercedes Corby wins a defamation case against Today Tonight, which claimed she had smuggled marijuana (2008).

Go to Comments to suggest any other essentials for the Top 20, and where the latest Chaser fuss should go.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 05:54 AM
• Comments (12)

The Who We Are update: Week 25

To discuss URST (UnResolved Sexual Tension) in television, and how it gets burst, go to The Tribal Mind.
To learn how Hollywood finally discovered Australia, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 11am Monday
It couldn't last, of course. After Seven showed a pile of football on Friday night, Channel Ten had to relinquish its leadership in audience share. But its strong showing in the first three days of the week, mainly due to Masterchef, meant that the final prime time averages were: Seven 27.0 per cent of the audience, Ten 25.8 per cent, Nine 25.2, ABC 17.1, SBS 5.0.

Nine's only good news was a modest success for its new show Random Acts of Kindness. This week Nine will do better because of Wednesday's biffo, but for the whole ratings year, it's now a real race between Nine and Ten for second spot.

This was Pay TV's account of itself: "378,000 fans saw the Socceroos defeat Japan 2-1 in FOX Sports' coverage of Live: Football: World Cup Qualifier Aust v Japan, the final game of the football World Cup qualifying series for the Australian team. On the previous night, Australia's Next Top Model on FOX8 drew a season record 235,000 people (327,000 people including the Plus2 audience).

"In other programming this week, 292,000 viewers watched Live: NRL Eels v Wests Tigers; 247,000 people saw Live: AFL Adelaide v North Melbourne and the Live: AFL Pre Game Show on Sunday afternoon had its best result for 2009 with 209,000 people (all on FOX Sports). Sky Race Day on Sky Racing on Saturday also had a year-to-date biggest audience with 84,000 viewers. NCIS on TV1 was watched by 121,000 people; Eastenders on UKTV had a year-to-date high of 98,000 viewers and 10,000 BC premiered on Movie One with 96,000 viewers. Hannah Montana on Disney Channel was watched by 85,000 people; Selling Houses Australia on Lifestyle was seen by 80,000 viewers and Man vs. Wild: Will Ferrell Special premiered on Discovery Channel with 77,000 viewers.

"In week 25, subscription TV was the number one source of television across Australia for the twentieth week of the year. Between 6am and midnight, STV channels accounted for 21.7% of all metropolitan viewing; 21.7% of all regional viewing and 57.6% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

What Australia watched, week ending June 20
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,962,000 535,000 679,000 292,000 227,000 230,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,791,000 434,000 445,000 446,000 210,000 256,000
3 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,702,000 513,000 576,000 228,000 156,000 229,000
4 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,625,000 520,000 533,000 301,000 161,000 110,000
5 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,619,000 480,000 524,000 258,000 164,000 193,000
6 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,618,000 450,000 444,000 312,000 185,000 228,000
7 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,590,000 420,000 498,000 290,000 162,000 221,000
8 NCIS Ten 1,559,000 408,000 451,000 295,000 196,000 208,000
9 THE ZOO Seven 1,487,000 445,000 430,000 266,000 154,000 193,000
10 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,461,000 404,000 407,000 295,000 149,000 205,000
11 60 MINUTES Nine 1,436,000 426,000 442,000 313,000 115,000 141,000
12 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,410,000 419,000 404,000 251,000 153,000 183,000
13 MERLIN Ten 1,395,000 416,000 367,000 287,000 129,000 196,000
14 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,377,000 426,000 387,000 216,000 175,000 174,000
15 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,359,000 424,000 463,000 264,000 124,000 84,000
Continued here

16 SEA PATROL Nine 1,358,000 361,000 417,000 266,000 145,000 169,000
17 NCIS RPT Ten 1,350,000 384,000 421,000 211,000 160,000 173,000
18 BONES Seven 1,348,000 394,000 367,000 259,000 155,000 174,000
19 RECRUITS Ten 1,345,000 438,000 345,000 265,000 148,000 148,000
20 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,343,000 397,000 390,000 255,000 133,000 168,000
21 GETAWAY Nine 1,294,000 382,000 413,000 256,000 109,000 135,000
22 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,292,000 477,000 332,000 231,000 117,000 135,000
23 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,291,000 327,000 419,000 264,000 127,000 155,000
24 NINE NEWS Nine 1,291,000 354,000 428,000 265,000 124,000 120,000
25 ROVE Ten 1,268,000 315,000 454,000 229,000 117,000 153,000
26 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,244,000 326,000 406,000 244,000 167,000 101,000
27 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,242,000 332,000 414,000 280,000 113,000 104,000
28 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,232,000 343,000 406,000 236,000 130,000 117,000
29 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,225,000 349,000 310,000 221,000 177,000 169,000
30 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,220,000 363,000 347,000 259,000 120,000 132,000
31 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,218,000 380,000 355,000 222,000 122,000 138,000
32 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,211,000 380,000 389,000 168,000 128,000 146,000
33 20 TO 1 Nine 1,211,000 356,000 361,000 205,000 140,000 148,000
34 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,181,000 380,000 361,000 211,000 106,000 122,000
35 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,169,000 313,000 345,000 228,000 157,000 125,000
36 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,159,000 319,000 304,000 286,000 96,000 154,000
37 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,128,000 261,000 382,000 237,000 105,000 143,000
38 SILENT WITNESS ABC1 1,121,000 299,000 350,000 198,000 123,000 151,000
39 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,113,000 337,000 313,000 204,000 121,000 139,000
40 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,095,000 288,000 352,000 234,000 99,000 122,000
41 CASTLE Seven 1,056,000 293,000 310,000 179,000 137,000 137,000

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,590,000 420,000 498,000 290,000 162,000 221,000
2 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,244,000 326,000 406,000 244,000 167,000 101,000
3 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,232,000 343,000 406,000 236,000 130,000 117,000
4 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,225,000 349,000 310,000 221,000 177,000 169,000
5 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 1,026,000 323,000 308,000 163,000 107,000 125,000
6 TEN NEWS AT FIVE SAT Ten 977,000 274,000 235,000 200,000 100,000 168,000
7 THE BILL ABC1 911,000 299,000 234,000 141,000 120,000 117,000
9 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 894,000 90,000 515,000 46,000 123,000 120,000
29 SEVEN'S R.U: AUS V ITALY - GAME 2 Seven 321,000 197,000 124,000
86 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009-PM ABC1 79,000 79,000
97 VFL FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 63,000 63,000

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,531,000 421,000 391,000 305,000 182,000 232,000
2 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,377,000 426,000 387,000 216,000 175,000 174,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,348,000 362,000 349,000 291,000 139,000 208,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,309,000 393,000 388,000 216,000 140,000 171,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,272,000 365,000 418,000 237,000 121,000 131,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,162,000 349,000 359,000 256,000 101,000 97,000
7 SILENT WITNESS ABC1 1,121,000 299,000 350,000 198,000 123,000 151,000
18 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 12: ESSENDON VS MELBOURNE Seven 646,000 24,000 368,000 8,000 138,000 107,000
20 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 562,000 346,000 216,000
27 M-KATE & LEOPLOD Seven 416,000 266,000 Not shown 150,000 Not shown Not shown
36 THE HOLLOWMEN RPT ABC1 342,000 118,000 86,000 58,000 36,000 44,000
65 VIXEN ACADEMY: HOW TO BE A BITCH SBS 190,000 40,000 77,000 35,000 17,000 21,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Friday
At this point in the week, Channel Ten's usual boost from Merlin and Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation has drizzled away. But Masterchef has been performing so strongly this week that Ten finds itself in the unprecedented Friday position of still leading in audience share -- 27.2 per cent of prime time viewers, in fact, while Seven has 26.9 per cent, Nine 25.4, ABC 15.6 and SBS 4.9. This column is updated on Saturday mornings and on Sunday mornings, so return in 24 hours to learn if Ten can maintain its lead, or at least keep Nine in third position.

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,601,000 469,000 422,000 304,000 190,000 216,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,459,000 399,000 418,000 287,000 147,000 208,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,399,000 422,000 479,000 240,000 118,000 140,000
4 GETAWAY Nine 1,292,000 381,000 413,000 255,000 109,000 134,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,286,000 356,000 424,000 298,000 111,000 98,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,223,000 334,000 380,000 307,000 110,000 91,000
7 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,220,000 363,000 347,000 259,000 120,000 132,000
8 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,218,000 380,000 355,000 222,000 122,000 138,000
9 20 TO 1 Nine 1,205,000 356,000 358,000 205,000 140,000 146,000
10 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,136,000 336,000 326,000 200,000 120,000 153,000
11 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,089,000 293,000 376,000 210,000 88,000 121,000
12 LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT Ten 1,022,000 290,000 348,000 171,000 112,000 101,000
13 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 989,000 217,000 418,000 145,000 113,000 96,000
17 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 856,000 267,000 228,000 164,000 108,000 88,000
25 HOT SEAT Nine 671,000 199,000 247,000 92,000 68,000 66,000
26 THE ASCENT OF MONEY ABC1 625,000 192,000 164,000 85,000 74,000 111,000
53 MAD MEN SBS 255,000 103,000 86,000 31,000 19,000 15,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,883,000 552,000 625,000 279,000 179,000 248,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,606,000 459,000 445,000 276,000 177,000 249,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,411,000 399,000 402,000 264,000 131,000 215,000
4 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,343,000 397,000 390,000 255,000 133,000 168,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,296,000 324,000 432,000 275,000 127,000 137,000
6 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,291,000 327,000 419,000 264,000 127,000 155,000
7 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,281,000 472,000 332,000 228,000 115,000 134,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,235,000 323,000 403,000 271,000 125,000 114,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,095,000 345,000 286,000 221,000 106,000 137,000
14 WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU Nine 976,000 295,000 286,000 196,000 93,000 105,000
21 MY NAME IS EARL Seven 779,000 220,000 263,000 120,000 74,000 103,000
26 TRACEY ULLMAN'S US VERSION OF LITTLE BRITAIN ABC1 579,000 210,000 187,000 76,000 47,000 59,000
78 PRISON BREAK Seven 167,000 49,000 68,000 19,000 16,000 15,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Tuesday
Three days into the week and the prime time audience shares stand at: Ten 28.4 per cent, Seven 26.0, Nine 24.9, ABC 15.8, SBS 4.8. Ten won't win the week, because its programming collapses from this point on, but it might beat Nine.

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Today Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,703,000 513,000 576,000 229,000 156,000 229,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,592,000 452,000 445,000 312,000 185,000 197,000
3 NCIS Ten 1,558,000 408,000 450,000 295,000 197,000 208,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,506,000 422,000 426,000 301,000 171,000 186,000
5 THE ZOO Seven 1,487,000 445,000 430,000 266,000 154,000 193,000
6 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,467,000 463,000 467,000 218,000 154,000 165,000
7 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,410,000 419,000 404,000 251,000 153,000 183,000
8 NCIS RPT Ten 1,340,000 381,000 419,000 209,000 159,000 171,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,312,000 357,000 445,000 269,000 127,000 114,000
10 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,211,000 380,000 389,000 168,000 128,000 146,000
11 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,200,000 322,000 407,000 284,000 86,000 101,000
18 HOME MADE Nine 901,000 259,000 283,000 194,000 97,000 67,000
20 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 866,000 253,000 281,000 130,000 111,000 91,000
21 10 YEARS YOUNGER IN 10 DAYS Seven 829,000 270,000 253,000 117,000 92,000 97,000
24 HOME MADE -ELIMINATION Nine 720,000 182,000 260,000 138,000 77,000 63,000
27 HOT SEAT Nine 658,000 190,000 227,000 89,000 78,000 74,000
37 SUNRISE Seven 375,000 115,000 91,000 94,000 27,000 48,000
38 LIPSTICK JUNGLE Seven 368,000 122,000 121,000 56,000 37,000 32,000
39 TODAY Nine 328,000 105,000 114,000 62,000 23,000 23,000
What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,763,000 446,000 514,000 362,000 192,000 249,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,728,000 499,000 560,000 298,000 195,000 176,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,568,000 437,000 435,000 333,000 156,000 207,000
4 SEA PATROL Nine 1,358,000 360,000 418,000 266,000 145,000 169,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,335,000 387,000 457,000 236,000 132,000 123,000
6 RECRUITS Ten 1,333,000 434,000 342,000 263,000 148,000 147,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,331,000 316,000 479,000 291,000 142,000 104,000
8 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,181,000 380,000 361,000 211,000 106,000 122,000
9 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,162,000 293,000 370,000 249,000 107,000 144,000
10 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,152,000 301,000 344,000 226,000 157,000 125,000
20 SUPERNATURAL Ten 876,000 265,000 245,000 164,000 115,000 87,000
29 SPOOKS ABC1 659,000 169,000 220,000 96,000 78,000 95,000
31 TOP GEAR AUSTRALIA SBS 550,000 185,000 129,000 111,000 56,000 69,000
50 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SBS 240,000 102,000 70,000 30,000 13,000 24,000
54 30 ROCK Seven 224,000 60,000 77,000 30,000 36,000 21,000
99 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS RPT Ten 110,000 34,000 21,000 23,000 16,000 15,000
What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,962,000 535,000 679,000 292,000 227,000 230,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,792,000 434,000 445,000 446,000 210,000 256,000
3 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,629,000 520,000 536,000 302,000 161,000 110,000
4 60 MINUTES Nine 1,431,000 424,000 440,000 311,000 116,000 141,000
5 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,412,000 424,000 463,000 264,000 124,000 137,000
6 MERLIN Ten 1,395,000 416,000 367,000 287,000 129,000 196,000
7 BONES Seven 1,348,000 394,000 367,000 259,000 155,000 174,000
8 ROVE Ten 1,271,000 317,000 455,000 229,000 117,000 153,000
9 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,158,000 318,000 304,000 286,000 96,000 153,000
10 CASTLE Seven 1,056,000 293,000 310,000 179,000 137,000 137,000
11 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 979,000 324,000 270,000 216,000 170,000
12 3 ACTS OF MURDER ABC1 975,000 347,000 280,000 126,000 96,000 127,000
13 CSI Nine 953,000 264,000 255,000 219,000 111,000 104,000
23 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 607,000 363,000 221,000 23,000
25 FAWLTY TOWERS / BBC COMEDY SPECIALS Seven 472,000 173,000 169,000 69,000 60,000
55 AFL GAME DAY Seven 190,000 133,000 34,000 24,000
57 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 12: ADELAIDE VS NORTH MELBOURNE Seven 187,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown 187,000 Not shown
82 NETBALL: ANZ CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 LIVE Ten 113,000 47,000 50,000 17,000
93 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 12: HAWTHORN VS BRISBANE Seven 80,000 Not shown Not shown 80,000 Not shown Not shown

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 09:36 AM
• Comments (58)

The Who We Are update: Week 24

This forum is now a heritage item - worth studying but no longer current. For the latest on Australian attitudes and media trends, go to blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.
To discuss the Most Memorable Moments in Australian television, and whether The Chaser is one of them, go to The Tribal Mind.
To learn how Hollywood finally discovered Australia, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
At the moment, the commercial stations are closer in audience share than they have been in years. Thanks mainly to Masterchef, Channel Ten averaged 24.5 per cent of the prime time audience last week, while Nine got 25.5 and Seven got 27.6 (ABC 17.4, SBS 5.0). That's a portrait of how the year will proceed: Seven static, Nine continuing its slow decline, and Ten booming (but not quite enough to knock Nine off No. 2 spot).

This was Pay TV's account of itself: "In week 24, FOX Sports' coverage of Live: Football: World Cup Qualifier Aust v Bahrain helped STV become the number one source of television across Australia for the eleventh week in a row. STV channels accounted for 22.9% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, were 22.4% of all regional viewing and 59.3% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.

"The Socceroos match, which the Australian team won 2-0, was watched by 326,000 people on Wednesday night. In other sport, Live: NRL Titans v Dragons was seen by 315,000 people and Live: AFL West Coast v Geelong had 198,000 viewers. Live: Tennis: French Open Men's Final, in which Roger Federer finally achieved his goal of winning the clay court competition and matching Pete Sampras' open record, was watched by 132,000 people (all on FOX Sports).

"On Tuesday night on FOX8, Australia's Next Top Model had its best result of the current season with 234,000 viewers at 7.30pm while the new Joss Whedon show Dollhouse premiered at 8.30pm with 120,000 viewers. TV1's Cash Trivia Challenge achieved a year-to-date biggest audience with 96,000 people as did Eastenders on UKTV with 93,000 viewers and Cold Case on W with 89,000 viewers. Destroyed in Seconds on Discovery channel was watched by 74,000 people, Secret Millionaire on Lifestyle had an audience of 70,000 people and 67,000 subscribers saw Blue's Clues on Nick Jr."

What Australia watched, week ending June 14
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,767,000 482,000 467,000 376,000 177,000 265,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,690,000 488,000 446,000 332,000 184,000 241,000
3 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,647,000 465,000 552,000 254,000 165,000 210,000
4 NCIS RPT Ten 1,564,000 398,000 460,000 299,000 170,000 236,000
5 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,558,000 422,000 478,000 333,000 174,000 151,000
6 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,531,000 430,000 500,000 295,000 137,000 170,000
7 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,482,000 406,000 404,000 306,000 164,000 201,000
8 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,474,000 427,000 485,000 223,000 168,000 171,000
9 THE ZOO Seven 1,470,000 445,000 440,000 265,000 153,000 168,000
10 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,447,000 461,000 435,000 244,000 142,000 164,000
11 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,427,000 381,000 470,000 205,000 165,000 206,000
12 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,407,000 392,000 492,000 229,000 165,000 129,000
13 RPA Nine 1,375,000 415,000 404,000 276,000 143,000 137,000
14 GETAWAY Nine 1,374,000 348,000 446,000 292,000 136,000 152,000
15 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,370,000 414,000 416,000 225,000 141,000 175,000
16 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,362,000 421,000 370,000 209,000 181,000 181,000
Continued here

17 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,360,000 360,000 456,000 271,000 119,000 154,000
18 SEA PATROL Nine 1,355,000 405,000 392,000 238,000 155,000 166,000
19 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,325,000 395,000 434,000 254,000 124,000 118,000
20 NINE NEWS Nine 1,320,000 376,000 437,000 258,000 127,000 123,000
21 NCIS EP 2 RPT Ten 1,311,000 303,000 422,000 244,000 153,000 189,000
22 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,303,000 379,000 413,000 265,000 161,000 87,000
23 RECRUITS Ten 1,288,000 486,000 321,000 201,000 123,000 156,000
24 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,287,000 360,000 383,000 254,000 140,000 151,000
25 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,287,000 392,000 410,000 232,000 107,000 146,000
26 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,273,000 365,000 322,000 253,000 156,000 178,000
27 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,271,000 377,000 344,000 238,000 155,000 157,000
28 HOT SEAT - $1M EPISODE Nine 1,244,000 317,000 463,000 210,000 120,000 135,000
29 MERLIN Ten 1,231,000 337,000 333,000 235,000 122,000 204,000
30 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,225,000 391,000 377,000 168,000 141,000 147,000
31 SCRUBS - MON Seven 1,189,000 296,000 392,000 244,000 127,000 130,000
32 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,174,000 341,000 354,000 245,000 120,000 114,000
33 20 TO 1 Nine 1,164,000 302,000 397,000 201,000 114,000 149,000
34 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,159,000 322,000 362,000 242,000 112,000 122,000
35 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,150,000 345,000 310,000 216,000 135,000 145,000
36 TWO AND A HALF MEN -EP1 Nine 1,134,000 326,000 396,000 202,000 97,000 112,000
37 BONES Seven 1,122,000 335,000 293,000 213,000 129,000 153,000
38 60 MINUTES Nine 1,119,000 311,000 379,000 222,000 83,000 123,000
39 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,117,000 346,000 298,000 247,000 119,000 108,000
40 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,111,000 334,000 307,000 221,000 130,000 119,000
(OzTAM mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,558,000 422,000 478,000 333,000 174,000 151,000
2 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,303,000 379,000 413,000 265,000 161,000 87,000
3 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,271,000 377,000 344,000 238,000 155,000 157,000
4 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,117,000 346,000 298,000 247,000 119,000 108,000
5 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 1,071,000 349,000 326,000 209,000 110,000 76,000
6 ABC NEWS UP-DATE ABC1 924,000 306,000 223,000 165,000 99,000 130,000
7 THE BILL ABC1 878,000 288,000 244,000 136,000 96,000 114,000
8 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 865,000 430,000 60,000 151,000 225,000
25 SEVEN'S R.U: AUS V ITALY Seven 373,000 203,000 17,000 138,000 8,000 6,000
36 BOWLS: PERTH INTERNATIONAL 2009-PM ABC1 259,000 72,000 79,000 61,000 34,000 12,000
101 2009 ICC WORLD TWENTY20 CRICKET Nine 74,000 14,000 31,000 12,000 8,000 9,000
102 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009-PM ABC1 71,000 71,000
103 VFL FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 70,000 70,000
112 NBA BASKETBALL FINALS ONE 52,000 1,000 23,000 9,000 11,000 9,000
118 RUGBY LEAGUE: (QLD) 2009-PM ABC1 43,000 43,000
123 THE SANFL-PM ABC1 40,000 40,000
153 WAFL LIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 27,000 27,000
169 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 12: CARLTON VS ST KILDA Seven 19,000 15,000 4,000
176 SATURDAY LATE NIGHT AFL Ten 15,000 15,000

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,564,000 496,000 342,000 320,000 173,000 234,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,364,000 407,000 334,000 270,000 159,000 194,000
3 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,362,000 421,000 370,000 209,000 181,000 181,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,246,000 380,000 412,000 177,000 127,000 150,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,207,000 306,000 395,000 258,000 110,000 138,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,151,000 286,000 380,000 267,000 116,000 102,000
7 SILENT WITNESS ABC1 1,056,000 330,000 297,000 168,000 104,000 158,000
12 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 12: CARLTON VS ST KILDA Seven 920,000 29,000 553,000 13,000 177,000 149,000
17 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 704,000 364,000 340,000
36 THE PERFECT VAGINA SBS 345,000 120,000 84,000 65,000 42,000 34,000
37 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 330,000 215,000 Not shown 114,000 Not shown Not shown
122 POKER: EUROPEAN TOUR ONE 63,000 13,000 21,000 6,000 12,000 11,000
147 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 45,000 Not shown 30,000 Not shown 15,000 Not shown
157 BOXING: KO TV CLASSIC ONE 39,000 1,000 24,000 6,000 7,000 2,000
175 DRAG RACING: ANDRA CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 RPT ONE 29,000 7,000 2,000 8,000 11,000 2,000
205 2009 ICC WORLD TWENTY20 CRICKET Nine 15,000 7,000 8,000
208 MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL LIVE ONE 14,000 2,000 8,000 0 3,000 1,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,596,000 453,000 413,000 322,000 169,000 239,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,491,000 395,000 420,000 303,000 166,000 207,000
3 GETAWAY Nine 1,369,000 345,000 445,000 293,000 136,000 150,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,323,000 395,000 419,000 172,000 164,000 172,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,263,000 347,000 418,000 270,000 109,000 118,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,230,000 351,000 389,000 252,000 119,000 119,000
7 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,174,000 341,000 354,000 245,000 120,000 114,000
8 20 TO 1 Nine 1,159,000 301,000 393,000 203,000 114,000 147,000
13 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 1,013,000 230,000 411,000 140,000 110,000 122,000
19 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 846,000 248,000 261,000 163,000 85,000 89,000
23 THE ASCENT OF MONEY ABC1 809,000 277,000 205,000 148,000 77,000 102,000
26 HOT SEAT Nine 635,000 165,000 252,000 97,000 64,000 57,000
35 SUNRISE Seven 375,000 102,000 98,000 91,000 33,000 51,000
37 INSPECTOR REX RPT SBS 354,000 112,000 106,000 60,000 33,000 44,000
41 TODAY Nine 303,000 102,000 95,000 64,000 20,000 23,000
52 MAD MEN SBS 231,000 102,000 59,000 30,000 19,000 20,000
77 THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW Nine 159,000 38,000 52,000 19,000 25,000 25,000
88 MORNINGS WITH KERRI-ANNE Nine 133,000 49,000 52,000 18,000 7,000 8,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,667,000 471,000 468,000 303,000 181,000 244,000
2 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,531,000 430,000 500,000 295,000 137,000 170,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,509,000 411,000 508,000 244,000 169,000 177,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,436,000 381,000 393,000 318,000 153,000 192,000
5 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,426,000 456,000 427,000 240,000 140,000 162,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,380,000 380,000 504,000 233,000 143,000 120,000
7 RPA Nine 1,374,000 415,000 404,000 275,000 143,000 138,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,356,000 435,000 435,000 238,000 124,000 124,000
9 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,287,000 360,000 383,000 254,000 140,000 151,000
18 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 903,000 274,000 262,000 164,000 88,000 114,000
28 TRACEY ULLMAN'S STATE OF THE UNION ABC1 696,000 190,000 231,000 120,000 70,000 85,000
29 HOT SEAT Nine 677,000 206,000 246,000 82,000 79,000 64,000
57 PRISON BREAK Seven 226,000 51,000 87,000 30,000 34,000 24,000
88 MORNINGS WITH KERRI-ANNE Nine 152,000 64,000 47,000 27,000 4,000 10,000
89 NEW IDEA TV Seven 152,000 47,000 50,000 30,000 12,000 13,000
The ratings race, updated 6pm Wednesday
This just in from the ABC publicity dept: "ABC Managing Director Mark Scott today announced Amanda Duthie has been removed as the Head of ABC TV Comedy. The decision, made with the ABC's Director of Television, Kim Dalton, followed a review of the processes which led to the screening of the Chaser "Make A Realistic Wish" segment last week.

"The segment should not have been broadcast. We recognise that it caused unnecessary and unreasonable hurt and offence to our viewers and the broader community and we have apologised for this," Mr Scott said. "We have determined this was not a breakdown in our Editorial Policy processes but rather an error of judgement."

Mr Scott said the processes are clear and amply set out in the ABC's Editorial Policies. "Where staff are concerned about the potential for satirical material to cause harm they should refer the matter to the next level of management. In this instance, the Head of Arts, Entertainment and Comedy reviewed the segment and did not refer it up. This was an error of judgement."

ABC TV's Executive Head of Content Creation, Courtney Gibson, will assume direct responsibility for comedy programs until a new Head of Comedy is appointed. Amanda will continue to be responsible for Arts and Entertainment programs."

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,668,000 463,000 453,000 340,000 188,000 224,000
2 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,655,000 467,000 554,000 256,000 166,000 212,000
3 NCIS RPT Ten 1,559,000 395,000 459,000 299,000 170,000 235,000
4 THE ZOO Seven 1,470,000 446,000 440,000 264,000 152,000 168,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,457,000 434,000 516,000 259,000 124,000 124,000
6 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,409,000 379,000 379,000 301,000 149,000 200,000
7 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,370,000 414,000 415,000 225,000 141,000 176,000
8 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,357,000 393,000 449,000 204,000 157,000 154,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,322,000 388,000 440,000 256,000 120,000 118,000
10 NCIS EP 2 RPT Ten 1,300,000 301,000 418,000 242,000 152,000 187,000
59 KITCHEN NIGHTMARES U.S.A. Nine 224,000 Not shown 224,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown
76 HELL'S KITCHEN Nine 174,000 Not shown 174,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown

The ratings race, updated 10am Tuesday
There was a HUGE amount of tellyviewing last night. Every program was up at least 100,000 on its usual score. At home for the monarch's birthday, urban Australians parked themselves in front of the box at 5pm and gave record audiences to Eddie McGuire's Hot Seat AND Andrew O'Keefe's Deal Or No Deal AND TEN'S early news, and then distributed themselves evenly among all the Monday evening fare.

The Scrubs finale would have had more than a million viewers, but apparently Melbourne saw a different episode, so it's listed separately.

By 10 pm they'd exhausted themselves, so audiences for Flight of The Conchords and 30 Rock were surprisingly low. We have no way of measuring yet how many recorded those shows for later viewing (OzTAM won't start reporting those results till next year).

At this point in the week, Seven has 26.6 per cent of the prime time audience, Ten has 26.1, Nine has 25.5, ABC has 16.5 and SBS has 5.2. So everybody's happy.

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,957,000 560,000 552,000 373,000 211,000 261,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,802,000 522,000 587,000 281,000 216,000 195,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,699,000 468,000 488,000 335,000 194,000 214,000
4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,465,000 479,000 463,000 258,000 140,000 125,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,401,000 459,000 414,000 268,000 144,000 117,000
6 SEA PATROL Nine 1,366,000 403,000 398,000 237,000 157,000 171,000
7 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,355,000 360,000 454,000 269,000 119,000 154,000
8 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,287,000 392,000 410,000 232,000 107,000 146,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,268,000 391,000 346,000 226,000 157,000 148,000
10 RECRUITS Ten 1,265,000 473,000 316,000 199,000 122,000 154,000
11 HOT SEAT - $1M EPISODE Nine 1,224,000 318,000 458,000 209,000 112,000 127,000
13 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 1,167,000 306,000 383,000 187,000 158,000 132,000
14 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 1,075,000 330,000 341,000 173,000 121,000 110,000
15 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,065,000 325,000 305,000 179,000 124,000 132,000
25 HOT SEAT Nine 812,000 285,000 267,000 124,000 65,000 71,000
26 SCRUBS - MON Seven 798,000 296,000 245,000 127,000 130,000
27 MONDAY AFTERNOON AFL Ten 774,000 90,000 471,000 57,000 120,000 38,000
29 SUPERNATURAL Ten 701,000 187,000 210,000 143,000 79,000 82,000
32 TOP GEAR AUSTRALIA SBS 545,000 165,000 164,000 101,000 53,000 62,000
37 SCRUBS-MON Seven 392,000 392,000
43 SUNRISE Seven 314,000 105,000 54,000 75,000 23,000 57,000
50 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SBS 275,000 93,000 75,000 44,000 21,000 42,000
51 NEW IDEA TV Seven 275,000 89,000 79,000 64,000 27,000 15,000
53 TODAY Nine 252,000 90,000 69,000 61,000 10,000 21,000
68 30 ROCK Seven 196,000 69,000 72,000 15,000 20,000 21,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,767,000 482,000 467,000 376,000 177,000 265,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,427,000 381,000 470,000 205,000 165,000 206,000
3 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,406,000 392,000 491,000 229,000 166,000 129,000
4 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,275,000 365,000 323,000 253,000 156,000 178,000
5 MERLIN Ten 1,231,000 337,000 333,000 235,000 122,000 204,000
6 60 MINUTES Nine 1,122,000 309,000 380,000 225,000 83,000 126,000
7 BONES Seven 1,122,000 334,000 293,000 213,000 129,000 154,000
8 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,098,000 328,000 250,000 215,000 128,000 177,000
9 BORDER SECURITY USA Seven 1,079,000 337,000 253,000 207,000 126,000 156,000
10 ROVE Ten 1,065,000 277,000 367,000 174,000 97,000 149,000
11 HOME MADE Nine 967,000 262,000 318,000 185,000 92,000 111,000
12 CASTLE Seven 908,000 244,000 277,000 163,000 104,000 120,000
13 ABC NEWS-SUN ABC1 850,000 287,000 258,000 122,000 81,000 101,000
14 BALLET SHOES ABC1 822,000 256,000 246,000 107,000 84,000 130,000
15 CSI Nine 809,000 220,000 258,000 139,000 107,000 86,000
21 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 11: HAWTHORN VS SYDNEY Seven 560,000 93,000 305,000 41,000 116,000 5,000
26 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 467,000 282,000 177,000 8,000
50 AFL GAME DAY Seven 205,000 148,000 21,000 35,000
74 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 11: WEST COAST VS GEELONG Seven 140,000 140,000
79 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 11: ESSENDON VS ADELAIDE Seven 126,000 126,000

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 07:53 PM
• Comments (48)

The Tribal Mind: It's all fun and games

To learn what makes Australians sick, go to Who We Are.

by David Dale
Now is the winter of our mass content. Undeterred by recession and swine flu, Australians are rushing to stimulate themselves in every conceivable way - at the cinema, on disc, via the handsets of their games machines, via the earphones of their music players, on the box, on the computer screen, and even via that most ancient of mediums, ink on paper.

Malcolm Turnbull can yell "Stop laughing, this is serious" as often as he likes -- we don't want to know. Over the past six weeks, more than a million people bought tickets to see each of these movies: Angels and Demons, Star Trek, Wolverine, Monsters Vs Aliens, Fast and Furious and Night at the Museum 2. On DVD, we've bought more than 100,000 copies of Twilight, Australia, and Slumdog Millionaire.

On TV, 2 million people a week watch Thank God You're Here, Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, Masterchef, and (when there's no competing footy) Spicks and Specks and The Chaser's War on Everything. On our gameboxes we're playing Pokemon Platinum, UFC 2009 Undisputed, WiiFit, EaSports Active and GH Metallica.

And we're spending more than $40 million a month on recordings. The music industry was supposed to be bankrupt by now, but over the Noughties it morphed into a new shape. Nobody buys singles in physical form any more, but this year we've downloaded thousands of digital versions of Pokerface by Lady Gaga, So What by Pink, Single Ladies by Beyonce and Love Story by Taylor Swift.

And that quaint concept called "the album" is thriving. Last month the Australian Record Industry Assocation announced that I'm Not Dead by Pink had gone "10 platinum" (where "one platinum" means 70,000 copies distributed by the record company). These are the albums that have sold more than half a million copies this decade ...

The music Australians are hearing: Innocent Eyes, Delta Goodrem; 1, The Beatles; I'm Not Dead, Pink; The Sound of White, Missy Higgins; Only By the Night, Kings of Leon; Funhouse, Pink; Back to Bedlam, James Blunt; Get Born, Jet; Come Away With Me, Nora Jones; The Eminem Show, Eminem; Odyssey Number 5, Powderfinger. In addition, music DVDs are booming. These sold more than 150,000 since 2003 ...

The music Australians are seeing: Live in Australia, Andre Rieu; Hell Freezes Over, The Eagles; What We Did Last Summer, Robbie Williams; Delta, Delta Goodrem; Live from Wembley Arena, Pink; Number 1s, Michael Jackson; Pulse, Pink Floyd; Greatest Hits Live, Neil Diamond. You may question Australia's taste, but you can't doubt its eagerness to spend money on musical experiences.

Another entertainment industry that was supposed to be terminally ill, newspaper publishing, is enjoying the revelation that its death throes are so slow as to be unnoticeable. The latest report of the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows that over the 12 months to March, the sales of daily and weekly newspapers in this country declined by a massive one per cent. That puts Australia out of step with Britain and America, where total newspaper circulations this decade have been dropping by 6 per cent a year and publishers are in a panic to find a financial model that works online.

Every weekday, 2.2 million Australians buy a printed newspaper. On Saturdays, 3 million buy a paper. On Sundays, 3.3 million buy a paper. Dying? That doesn't even look like a mild case of flu.

Go to Comments to discuss if your amusements match the masses

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 06:06 AM
• Comments (3)

The Who We Are update: Week 24

This forum is now a heritage item - worth studying but no longer current. For the latest on Australian attitudes and media trends, go to blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.
To learn how Australians are stimulating themselves this month, go to The Tribal Mind.
To learn what makes Australians sick, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Sunday
It's just as well The Chaser team decided to do their satire on sentimental fundraising on a night when their show was up against one of the biggest biffo events of the year. The State of Origin distracted 400,000 of the Chaser's most conservative fans and therefore saved them from being shocked and offended. When some of them tuned in to ABC2 for the repeat later in the week, to see what the fuss was about, they found the controversial item had been deleted.

The biffo gave Nine a narrow victory for the week, with 27.1 per cent of the prime time audience (Seven on 26.4, Ten on 24.5, ABC on 17.1, SBS on 4.8).

This was Pay TV's account of itself: "FOX Sports' coverage of Live: AFL Collingwood v Port Adelaide topped the week on subscription TV with 252,000 people watching last Sunday afternoon's Australian Rules match. In other sport, 237,000 viewers watched Live: NRL Rabbitohs v Raiders; 130,000 people watched the Rugby Union match between the Wallabies and the Barbarians in Live: Rugby Union: Test Match; 110,000 subscribers saw Live: Cricket: ICC World Twenty20 on Saturday night and Live: Tennis: French Open Day 11 drew 100,000 viewers (all on FOX Sports).

"This week, 211,000 people saw Laura Mitchell eliminated from Australia's Next Top Model on FOX8, leaving just six contestants in the current series of the show. 113,000 people watched Sunday night's episode of NCIS on TV1; 88,000 saw Law & Order on W; 88,000 also watched Eastenders on UKTV and 80,000 viewed Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney Channel. That '70s Show on 111HITS had a year-to-date best audience with 76,000 viewers; Grand Designs on Lifestyle drew 74,000 people and Stargate SG-1 on Sci Fi had its biggest audience of 2009 so far with 72,000 subscribers.

"Subscription TV was the number one source of television across all Australian homes in week 23. STV channels accounted for 22.6% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, was 21.6% of all regional viewing and 57.4% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

What Australia watched, week ending June 8
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 1ST - MATCH Nine 2,322,000 991,000 330,000 845,000 73,000 83,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,831,000 415,000 541,000 495,000 172,000 208,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,643,000 453,000 463,000 315,000 178,000 234,000
4 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,625,000 475,000 522,000 262,000 167,000 199,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,620,000 535,000 506,000 269,000 190,000 121,000
6 NCIS Ten 1,590,000 388,000 497,000 301,000 203,000 202,000
7 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 1ST - PRE MATCH Nine 1,590,000 627,000 302,000 596,000 65,000
8 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,568,000 493,000 511,000 226,000 180,000 159,000
9 THE ZOO Seven 1,472,000 397,000 438,000 295,000 176,000 166,000
10 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,469,000 412,000 419,000 373,000 90,000 176,000
11 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,417,000 381,000 392,000 293,000 147,000 204,000
12 60 MINUTES Nine 1,417,000 393,000 434,000 337,000 140,000 113,000
13 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,391,000 398,000 446,000 254,000 146,000 148,000
14 BONES Seven 1,372,000 404,000 396,000 272,000 147,000 153,000
15 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,371,000 331,000 417,000 324,000 146,000 153,000
16 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,359,000 411,000 406,000 216,000 152,000 174,000
17 MERLIN Ten 1,338,000 437,000 359,000 212,000 161,000 169,000
18 NCIS RPT Ten 1,321,000 314,000 442,000 226,000 172,000 167,000
19 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,315,000 374,000 384,000 235,000 143,000 179,000
20 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,286,000 333,000 418,000 276,000 109,000 151,000
21 SEA PATROL Nine 1,279,000 393,000 334,000 235,000 138,000 179,000
22 GETAWAY Nine 1,261,000 368,000 380,000 248,000 123,000 141,000
23 NINE NEWS Nine 1,252,000 342,000 406,000 273,000 117,000 113,000
24 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,223,000 343,000 390,000 266,000 115,000 109,000
25 20 TO 1 Nine 1,223,000 343,000 359,000 210,000 144,000 168,000
26 STATE OF ORIGIN 1ST - POST MATCH Nine 1,205,000 582,000 624,000
27 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,199,000 363,000 389,000 184,000 135,000 127,000
28 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,172,000 338,000 352,000 226,000 134,000 123,000
29 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,158,000 343,000 326,000 203,000 145,000 142,000
30 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,152,000 323,000 319,000 215,000 126,000 169,000
31 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,143,000 333,000 352,000 239,000 84,000 135,000
32 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,137,000 323,000 308,000 227,000 135,000 144,000
33 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,136,000 357,000 340,000 143,000 134,000 162,000
34 RECRUITS Ten 1,132,000 325,000 359,000 170,000 104,000 174,000
35 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,130,000 297,000 332,000 213,000 132,000 156,000
36 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,125,000 372,000 380,000 123,000 110,000 141,000
316 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING (the censored repeat) ABC2 137,000 54,000 31,000 27,000 9,000 15,000
Continued here

37 LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT Ten 1,124,000 342,000 365,000 184,000 121,000 113,000
38 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,122,000 308,000 322,000 195,000 143,000 154,000
39 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,121,000 289,000 378,000 236,000 100,000 119,000
40 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,118,000 289,000 375,000 194,000 130,000 129,000
41 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,112,000 362,000 307,000 216,000 81,000 146,000
42 YOU SAVED MY LIFE Nine 1,111,000 291,000 345,000 229,000 110,000 134,000
43 ABC NEWS-SU ABC1 1,077,000 353,000 342,000 175,000 102,000 105,000
44 DOCTOR WHO: PLANET OF THE DEAD ABC1 1,057,000 390,000 231,000 188,000 104,000 145,000
(OzTAM mainland capitals)

What Austalia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,371,000 331,000 417,000 324,000 146,000 153,000
2 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,152,000 323,000 319,000 215,000 126,000 169,000
3 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,130,000 297,000 332,000 213,000 132,000 156,000
4 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,118,000 289,000 375,000 194,000 130,000 129,000
7 THE BILL ABC1 863,000 253,000 247,000 140,000 94,000 128,000
10 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 748,000 433,000 77,000 92,000 146,000
23 SEVEN'S R.U: AUS V BARBARIANS Seven 374,000 219,000 155,000
101 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009-PM ABC1 59,000 59,000
107 VFL FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 51,000 51,000
109 SEVEN'S R.U: AUS V BAA Seven 50,000 25,000 17,000 8,000
129 RUGBY LEAGUE: (QLD) 2009-PM ABC1 38,000 38,000
149 THE SANFL-PM ABC1 27,000 27,000
152 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 26,000 20,000 5,000 1,000
171 SATURDAY LATE NIGHT AFL Ten 21,000 21,000
172 WAFL LIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 20,000 20,000
185 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 11: RICHMOND VS BULLDOGS Seven 14,000 11,000 3,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

The ratings race, updated 10 am Saturday
Channel Seven won Friday night, but couldn't overcome Nine's big advantage from the biffo, so at this point in the week, Nine has 27.7 per cent of the prime time audience, Seven has 26.7, Ten has 24.7, ABC has 16.3 and SBS has 4.6. We'd like to hear predictions of how tonight's programming will affect that result.

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,527,000 445,000 381,000 316,000 179,000 205,000
2 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,315,000 374,000 384,000 235,000 143,000 179,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,294,000 392,000 311,000 289,000 133,000 168,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,217,000 339,000 389,000 198,000 131,000 160,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,195,000 316,000 401,000 261,000 111,000 106,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,130,000 319,000 365,000 234,000 106,000 107,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,037,000 302,000 275,000 210,000 117,000 134,000
9 SILENT WITNESS ABC1 960,000 293,000 249,000 166,000 108,000 145,000
17 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 11: RICHMOND VS BULLDOGS Seven 726,000 19,000 432,000 13,000 134,000 127,000
19 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 676,000 409,000 268,000
37 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 353,000 236,000 117,000
57 THE SEX BLOG GIRLS SBS 206,000 43,000 72,000 39,000 30,000 22,000
95 LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN Ten 121,000 31,000 27,000 29,000 17,000 17,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,647,000 447,000 509,000 312,000 165,000 214,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,427,000 367,000 415,000 291,000 153,000 201,000
3 GETAWAY Nine 1,258,000 367,000 380,000 248,000 123,000 140,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,237,000 369,000 366,000 211,000 152,000 139,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,231,000 334,000 397,000 271,000 115,000 115,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,230,000 350,000 392,000 280,000 106,000 102,000
7 20 TO 1 Nine 1,223,000 343,000 358,000 211,000 143,000 167,000
8 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,173,000 338,000 352,000 226,000 134,000 123,000
9 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,158,000 343,000 326,000 203,000 145,000 142,000
10 LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT Ten 1,125,000 342,000 365,000 184,000 121,000 113,000
11 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,115,000 312,000 305,000 223,000 140,000 135,000
12 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 1,062,000 209,000 438,000 166,000 136,000 113,000
19 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 881,000 261,000 285,000 166,000 84,000 85,000
20 PRIVATE PRACTICE Seven 861,000 274,000 264,000 147,000 95,000 81,000
26 HOT SEAT Nine 681,000 221,000 221,000 111,000 67,000 61,000
40 INSPECTOR REX RPT SBS 335,000 104,000 102,000 46,000 37,000 46,000
53 MAD MEN SBS 218,000 87,000 71,000 21,000 16,000 23,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 1ST - MATCH Nine 2,287,000 971,000 328,000 834,000 73,000 82,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,673,000 445,000 501,000 294,000 195,000 239,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,485,000 508,000 408,000 198,000 170,000 202,000
4 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 1ST - PRE MATCH Nine 1,440,000 543,000 300,000 535,000 62,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,438,000 391,000 391,000 274,000 152,000 230,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,276,000 340,000 398,000 290,000 123,000 126,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,272,000 349,000 380,000 322,000 127,000 93,000
10 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,169,000 390,000 391,000 128,000 114,000 145,000
11 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,130,000 354,000 338,000 143,000 134,000 162,000
14 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 1,025,000 277,000 306,000 196,000 104,000 143,000
16 M-THE KATH & KIM MOVIE (R) Seven 941,000 246,000 345,000 105,000 117,000 128,000
47 LOST Seven 251,000 76,000 86,000 44,000 22,000 23,000

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,646,000 458,000 464,000 318,000 166,000 239,000
2 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,625,000 475,000 522,000 262,000 167,000 199,000
3 NCIS Ten 1,589,000 387,000 496,000 301,000 203,000 202,000
4 THE ZOO Seven 1,472,000 397,000 438,000 295,000 176,000 166,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,450,000 373,000 425,000 301,000 146,000 205,000
6 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,391,000 398,000 446,000 254,000 146,000 148,000
7 NCIS RPT Ten 1,315,000 312,000 441,000 225,000 171,000 167,000
8 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,278,000 424,000 375,000 204,000 141,000 135,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,211,000 326,000 424,000 249,000 102,000 110,000
10 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,201,000 288,000 401,000 255,000 112,000 146,000
11 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,199,000 363,000 389,000 184,000 135,000 127,000
12 NINE NEWS Nine 1,192,000 330,000 403,000 248,000 111,000 100,000
18 10 YEARS YOUNGER IN 10 DAYS Seven 978,000 324,000 296,000 138,000 127,000 94,000
19 HOME MADE -ELIMINATION Nine 949,000 269,000 271,000 193,000 107,000 110,000
30 MUMBAI CALLING ABC1 486,000 158,000 171,000 64,000 35,000 58,000
35 LIPSTICK JUNGLE Seven 365,000 103,000 143,000 42,000 48,000 29,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,724,000 469,000 461,000 334,000 185,000 275,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,473,000 397,000 456,000 261,000 160,000 198,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,469,000 385,000 411,000 309,000 149,000 215,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,339,000 374,000 425,000 283,000 128,000 129,000
5 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,289,000 333,000 418,000 278,000 108,000 151,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,286,000 390,000 388,000 260,000 128,000 119,000
7 SEA PATROL Nine 1,282,000 393,000 335,000 236,000 138,000 180,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,144,000 323,000 299,000 243,000 132,000 147,000
9 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,143,000 333,000 352,000 239,000 84,000 135,000
10 RECRUITS Ten 1,134,000 325,000 360,000 169,000 105,000 175,000
11 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,113,000 305,000 322,000 191,000 142,000 153,000
17 SCRUBS - MON Seven 958,000 263,000 287,000 201,000 84,000 124,000
18 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 940,000 268,000 292,000 161,000 99,000 119,000
19 BROTHERS & SISTERS Seven 927,000 288,000 329,000 148,000 65,000 97,000
27 SUPERNATURAL Ten 762,000 236,000 208,000 138,000 91,000 89,000
28 SPOOKS ABC1 662,000 180,000 224,000 102,000 60,000 95,000
29 HOT SEAT Nine 661,000 205,000 210,000 111,000 84,000 50,000
30 TOP GEAR AUSTRALIA SBS 595,000 209,000 180,000 93,000 68,000 45,000
34 THE JONATHAN ROSS SHOW Seven 452,000 136,000 160,000 62,000 52,000 42,000
71 30 ROCK Seven 180,000 54,000 65,000 26,000 22,000 14,000

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,830,000 415,000 541,000 495,000 171,000 208,000
2 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,621,000 535,000 506,000 269,000 190,000 121,000
3 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,565,000 492,000 510,000 225,000 179,000 159,000
4 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,469,000 412,000 419,000 373,000 90,000 176,000
5 60 MINUTES Nine 1,420,000 393,000 433,000 339,000 142,000 113,000
6 BONES Seven 1,372,000 404,000 396,000 272,000 147,000 153,000
7 MERLIN Ten 1,335,000 437,000 359,000 211,000 160,000 168,000
8 THE FORCE - BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,111,000 362,000 307,000 215,000 81,000 146,000
9 ABC NEWS-SUN ABC1 1,078,000 354,000 340,000 176,000 102,000 107,000
10 ROVE Ten 1,055,000 268,000 379,000 178,000 111,000 118,000
11 DOCTOR WHO: PLANET OF THE DEAD ABC1 1,051,000 388,000 229,000 187,000 103,000 144,000
12 BORDER SECURITY USA Seven 1,030,000 344,000 333,000 209,000 Not shown 144,000
13 CASTLE Seven 970,000 251,000 312,000 171,000 124,000 112,000
14 HOME MADE Nine 958,000 271,000 316,000 170,000 130,000 72,000
15 CSI Nine 952,000 311,000 264,000 179,000 112,000 86,000
17 FILTH: THE MARY WHITEHOUSE STORY ABC1 797,000 258,000 233,000 123,000 96,000 88,000
20 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 624,000 414,000 202,000 7,000
22 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 10: ESSENDON VS GEELONG Seven 548,000 65,000 352,000 56,000 75,000
32 SEVEN'S V8 SUPERCARS ROUND 4: SYMMONS PLAINS D2 Seven 314,000 98,000 94,000 83,000 21,000 18,000
58 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 10: COLLINGWOOD VS PORT ADELAIDE Seven 162,000 162,000
64 AFL GAME DAY Seven 150,000 130,000 19,000
71 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 10: ADELAIDE VS HAWTHORN Seven 124,000 124,000
83 GLADIATORS Seven 87,000 61,000 26,000
84 FA CUP FINAL LIVE SBS 86,000 43,000 36,000 7,000
99 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL LATE Nine 51,000 22,000 29,000

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 09:05 AM
• Comments (53)

The Tribal Mind: The diary of all the Joneses

To learn what makes Australians sick, go to Who We Are.
by David Dale
Picture this column slapping its forehead and saying "D'oh". Last week we were talkin' 'bout how generations generate generalisations (Baby Boomers are selfish, GenXers are flighty,The iGen are celebrity-obsessed, etc), and blow me down if we didn't manage to leave out a whole age group. And not just any old age group, but the most important age group of all, at least in its own mind, because it contains every current political leader in the English speaking world.

We failed to mention Generation Jones (or, as we should call it in this country, Generation Rudbull). Numerous readers were quick to fill our generation gap (go here to read the column and the comments).

Background: You're familiar with the concept of "keeping up with the Joneses" - what we're all supposedly trying to do in this competitive consumerist culture. You may be less familiar with a piece of American jargon in which the noun is turned into a verb that means craving: "I'm jonesing for a drink" or "She's jonesing to see the new Star Trek movie".

From these usages comes a label for people born between 1955 and 1964 - a group which used to be lumped in with the Baby Boomers until they started their own independence movement.

Since music is essential in defining the spirit of a generation, it's important to note that while the Boomers had their first sexual experiences to the sound of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix, the Joneses did it to Abba, Wings and Elton John. That alone is enough to establish their mindset as different from their older siblings.

The inventer of the term, American social analyst Jonathan Pontell, writes: "Generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences ... While the Boomers were out changing the world, Jonesers were still school kids -- wide-eyed, not tie-dyed. That intense love-peace-change-the-world zeitgeist stirred our impressionable hearts. We yearned to express our own voice ... Obama has The Jones. So do many of today's Western leaders. More than a quarter of all adults in many NATO and EU countries are Jonesers.

"Our size, age and influence across the board make us an irresistible force. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead. For Boomers, the legacy of the 1960s is ideology, but for Jonesers it is idealism." (Go here to read more of Pontell.)

Clearly, this is the master race, bestriding other generations like a colossus. We should be delighted that all the important decisions in this country - and all the arguments against those decisions -- are made by such demi-gods.

Last week this column analysed how the different generations watch television, finding that Gen X seemed obsessed with competitive dieting and cooking (The Biggest Loser and Masterchef) while Boomers were sentimental homebodies (A Lion Called Christian, Find My Family and Better Homes and Gardens).

These revelations caused some readers to lament that every group except The Pioneers (born before 1946 and fans of the Treasurer's budget speech) were lovers of "superficial drivel" and "prole-feed". Now that we've heard about the Joneses, we know they would not be so easily satisfied.

We asked our boffins to slice even more finely into the OzTAM audience data for April-May and examine the tastes of viewers aged between 45 and 54. This was the result ...

What Generation Rudbull watches: Underbelly; The Biggest Loser; Thank God You're Here; The Logie Awards; Seven News; NCIS; Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation; Australia's Got Talent.

The Joneses are much less interested than the boomers in Better Homes and Gardens, Find My Family, and Midsomer Murders. They are much less interested than Gen X in So You Think You Can Dance Australia and Bondi Rescue.

Over to you for interpretation. Go to comments to tell us if Generation Rudbull deserves the crown.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 03:06 AM
• Comments (14)

WHO WE ARE: Healthy, wealthy and wise, or none of the above

To learn why Generation Jones beats GenX and the Boomers, go to The Tribal Mind

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald 31/5/2009
When you say to somebody "How are you?" you don't really want the reply to be anything more than "Fine, thanks". Unless you're the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which managed last year to persuade 22,000 Australians to sit still for an hour and confess the most intimate details about their aches and pains. The Bureau has just issued a report on the survey, which offers these more-disturbing-than-reassuring insights into our state of health:

1. At least we're not a nation of hypochondriacs. In fact, it would be truer to call us a nation in denial: 85 per cent say they are in excellent, very good or good health (up three points since 2001). At the same time, 77 per cent claim to have at least one long term medical problem, and 40 per cent have three or more problems, the most common of which are long or short sightedness (52 per cent); arthritis (15 per cent), hayfever and allergic runny nose (15 per cent), back troubles (14), deafness (10), asthma (10), and hypertension (9).

2. We love our little pills. While only 13 per cent of adults say they have "high or very high psychological distress", 37 per cent say they used medication for "mental wellbeing" in the past 2 weeks. Of these medications, 72 per cent were antidepressants and 27 per cent were sleeping tablets. Australia's favourite drugs are vitamin supplements, followed by the uppers venlafaxine, citalopram and sertraline. We also relieve our mental worries in a liquid way: the proportion of people whose alcohol consumption is classified as high or risky has risen from 11 per cent in 2001 to 13 per cent in 2008.

3. We're kidding ourselves. When the bureau's researchers measured the people in the survey, they found that 68 per cent of men and 55 per cent of women could be classified as overweight or obese. But when people were asked to tell their measurements, only 63 per cent of men and 48 per cent of women gave answers that would suggest they were overweight or obese.

4. We treat our bodies shockingly. Some 54 per cent of men and 44 per cent of women eat one serving or less of fruit a day. As the bureau puts it, 95 per cent of men and 93 per cent of women have "inadequate fruit or vegetable consumption" (less than the five servings of each a day recommended by health authorities). In addition, 34 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women do no exercise of any kind.

5. We treat our kids as badly as we treat ourselves. Among children aged 5 to 17, 38 per cent eat less than one serving of fruit a day, and 37 per cent eat less than one serving of veggies a day; 17 per cent are overweight and 8 per cent are obese; 24 per cent of boys and 16 per cent of girls had consumed alcohol in the week before the interview, and of those 6 per cent of boys and 7 per cent of girls were drinking at a risky or high level.

Go here to read the complete ABS report, and to Comments to discuss whether this suggests we're a healthy nation.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 12:59 AM
• Comments (14)