The Sun-Herald

The Who We Are update: Week 30

This forum is now a heritage item - worth studying but no longer current.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 Australia's best satires of all time, go to The Tribal Mind.
To find out how to become a republic and absorb New Zealand, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
In the picture, you see Channels Seven, Nine and Ten. Once upon a time, Nine would have been the biggest fish. Now Seven is the one with the teeth. Channel Ten, which was looking for a while as if it could become the second-biggest fish, frittered away its advantage early in the week, and the prime time audience shares ended thus: Seven 29.3 per cent, Nine 24.3, Ten 22.4, ABC 17.6, SBS 6.3.

This was Pay TV's rather contorted account of itself: "Examples of the largest and the smallest winning margins were seen on subscription TV this weekend. In Live: NRL Raiders v Broncos, 270,000 viewers watched the Canberra Raiders trounce the Brisbane Broncos by 56-0, delivering the Brisbane team its biggest ever loss. In Live: AFL Sydney v St Kilda, 196,000 people saw the Saints beat the Sydney Swans by a single point after scoring a behind with 20 seconds left in the match. In other sport, 139,000 people watched Live: Cricket: Ashes: Day 2 Session 1, 129,000 saw Live: AFL: On the Couch and 101,000 subscribers watched Live: NRL Saturday Pre Game Show (all on FOX Sports).

"This week's episode of America's Next Top Model on FOX8 was watched by 123,000 viewers (210,000 with the Plus2 audience included). The Sunday night broadcast of NCIS on TV1 was seen by 116,000 people while Monday night's Law & Order on W was watched by 109,000 people. The new season of Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel set a year-to-date record of 105,000 people, this week's episode of Project Runway Australia on Arena was seen by 99,000 people and Curious George on Nick Jr. had its best result of the year with an audience of 85,000.

"In week 31, STV channels represented 21.8% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 20.7% of all regional viewing and 57.1% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

What Australia watched, week ending August 1
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,983,000 488,000 553,000 413,000 273,000 256,000
2 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,932,000 576,000 619,000 322,000 181,000 233,000
3 DANCING WITH THE STARS 9 Seven 1,619,000 476,000 451,000 324,000 170,000 197,000
4 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,616,000 491,000 505,000 255,000 148,000 217,000
5 WORLD'S STRICTEST PARENTS Seven 1,595,000 486,000 425,000 319,000 170,000 195,000
6 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,565,000 462,000 394,000 330,000 159,000 220,000
7 NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM Ten 1,534,000 497,000 405,000 241,000 201,000 190,000
8 SURF PATROL Seven 1,510,000 432,000 423,000 306,000 163,000 186,000
9 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,469,000 496,000 375,000 278,000 149,000 171,000
10 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,464,000 454,000 419,000 251,000 165,000 175,000
11 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,456,000 512,000 408,000 247,000 138,000 152,000
12 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,449,000 419,000 369,000 320,000 147,000 194,000
13 AIR WAYS Seven 1,412,000 415,000 371,000 270,000 164,000 192,000
14 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,410,000 461,000 404,000 283,000 129,000 132,000
15 MERLIN Ten 1,407,000 437,000 335,000 274,000 132,000 228,000
16 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,381,000 398,000 478,000 251,000 106,000 147,000
17 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,380,000 358,000 368,000 326,000 149,000 178,000
18 GETAWAY Nine 1,300,000 336,000 460,000 266,000 118,000 120,000
19 SEA PATROL -EP2 Nine 1,284,000 381,000 366,000 246,000 149,000 142,000
20 SEA PATROL -EP1 Nine 1,282,000 387,000 365,000 247,000 131,000 151,000
21 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,256,000 370,000 327,000 258,000 156,000 144,000
22 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,248,000 419,000 380,000 161,000 150,000 137,000
23 UNITED STATES OF TARA ABC1 1,235,000 413,000 371,000 189,000 123,000 139,000
24 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,222,000 392,000 347,000 220,000 111,000 152,000
25 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,218,000 394,000 400,000 194,000 100,000 130,000
26 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,205,000 338,000 383,000 229,000 118,000 137,000
27 BONES Seven 1,176,000 336,000 311,000 250,000 146,000 131,000
28 NINE NEWS Nine 1,159,000 306,000 380,000 234,000 136,000 101,000
29 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,151,000 312,000 371,000 248,000 104,000 116,000
30 RUSH Ten 1,147,000 325,000 439,000 159,000 106,000 117,000
31 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,125,000 310,000 350,000 245,000 118,000 101,000
32 20 TO 1 Nine 1,118,000 319,000 327,000 227,000 125,000 120,000
33 NCIS EP 2 RPT Ten 1,097,000 282,000 323,000 197,000 133,000 162,000
34 NCIS RPT Ten 1,079,000 272,000 319,000 202,000 129,000 157,000
35 M-FINDING NEMO Seven 1,073,000 338,000 267,000 220,000 114,000 134,000

36 ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER? Ten 1,064,000 345,000 304,000 179,000 109,000 127,000
37 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,058,000 313,000 301,000 177,000 133,000 135,000
38 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,056,000 301,000 342,000 165,000 131,000 117,000
39 ABC NEWS ABC1 1,046,000 349,000 279,000 186,000 103,000 130,000
40 THE AMAZING RACE Seven 1,032,000 272,000 318,000 201,000 119,000 121,000

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,380,000 358,000 368,000 326,000 149,000 178,000
2 M-FINDING NEMO Seven 1,073,000 338,000 267,000 220,000 114,000 134,000
3 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,058,000 313,000 301,000 177,000 133,000 135,000
4 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,056,000 301,000 342,000 165,000 131,000 117,000
5 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 938,000 284,000 273,000 197,000 89,000 94,000
6 THE BILL ABC1 834,000 249,000 235,000 131,000 95,000 124,000
7 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 810,000 129,000 370,000 105,000 115,000 90,000
8 SUPERMAN RETURNS Nine 792,000 318,000 187,000 124,000 88,000 74,000
9 TEN NEWS AT FIVE SAT Ten 763,000 156,000 280,000 122,000 105,000 99,000
10 EAST OF EVERYTHING ABC1 749,000 237,000 187,000 158,000 74,000 93,000
15 SATURDAY AFTERNOON AFL Ten 576,000 53,000 290,000 21,000 139,000 74,000
83 SIMPLY FOOTY Ten 70,000 70,000
125 VFL FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 36,000 36,000
132 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009-PM ABC1 32,000 32,000
133 RUGBY LEAGUE: (QLD) 2009-PM ABC1 31,000 31,000
164 WAFL LIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 16,000 16,000
170 THE SANFL-PM ABC1 12,000 12,000
173 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 12,000 5,000 1,000 5,000
182 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 18: NORTH MELBOURNE VS CARLTON Seven 8,000 3,000 4,000
(OZTAM preliminary ratings, mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,464,000 454,000 419,000 251,000 165,000 175,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,427,000 409,000 340,000 344,000 147,000 187,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,307,000 356,000 311,000 331,000 141,000 168,000
4 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,124,000 328,000 258,000 267,000 150,000 119,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,039,000 258,000 351,000 223,000 123,000 84,000
6 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,021,000 265,000 319,000 211,000 104,000 123,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 995,000 269,000 302,000 218,000 124,000 83,000
8 ABC NEWS ABC1 964,000 343,000 260,000 156,000 93,000 112,000
13 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 683,000 387,000 296,000
15 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 678,000 213,000 163,000 143,000 79,000 80,000
17 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 18: NORTH MELBOURNE VS CARLTON Seven 641,000 18,000 387,000 14,000 121,000 101,000
19 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Ten 625,000 207,000 165,000 110,000 79,000 64,000
22 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST3 DAY2 S1 SBS ONE 522,000 164,000 163,000 74,000 63,000 58,000
32 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 351,000 200,000 150,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,498,000 441,000 391,000 310,000 149,000 206,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,398,000 398,000 365,000 316,000 135,000 183,000
3 GETAWAY Nine 1,301,000 336,000 460,000 266,000 119,000 121,000
4 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,217,000 329,000 345,000 255,000 147,000 141,000
5 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,210,000 361,000 391,000 221,000 112,000 125,000
6 RUSH Ten 1,147,000 325,000 439,000 159,000 106,000 117,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,133,000 305,000 391,000 224,000 100,000 113,000
8 20 TO 1 Nine 1,117,000 319,000 327,000 227,000 125,000 119,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,111,000 309,000 367,000 208,000 123,000 105,000
10 THE AMAZING RACE Seven 1,032,000 272,000 318,000 201,000 119,000 121,000
11 ABC NEWS ABC1 1,013,000 344,000 251,000 196,000 104,000 117,000
12 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 957,000 214,000 390,000 146,000 97,000 112,000
13 DOUBLE TAKE Seven 942,000 294,000 230,000 190,000 109,000 118,000
17 TV BURP Seven 846,000 261,000 231,000 143,000 113,000 97,000
18 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Ten 835,000 223,000 265,000 170,000 80,000 96,000
21 NEIGHBOURS Ten 786,000 203,000 274,000 132,000 80,000 97,000
23 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 767,000 186,000 282,000 149,000 67,000 82,000
24 TRUE BEAUTY Seven 743,000 254,000 235,000 73,000 94,000 87,000
41 THE 7PM PROJECT DAY RPT Ten 339,000 81,000 95,000 72,000 47,000 44,000
74 PLONSTERS-AM ABC1 161,000 65,000 46,000 25,000 14,000 11,000

The ratings race, updated 10am Thursday
One door closes, another opens. The Chaser ends, but ushers in the stunning dramedy United States of Tara, in which Toni Collette gets to play four characters who inhabit the one body. That helped to give the ABC 22.4 per cent of the prime time audience last night -- well ahead of Ten's rapidly diminishing share.

With three more ratings days to go, the scores for the week stand at: Seven 29.7 per cent, Ten 23.9, Nine 23.0, ABC 17.4, SBS 6.1. Nine looks like coming in second for the week, not through any successes of its own (look at Australia's Perfect Couple in the chart) but because Ten has nothing after Tuesdays.

The 7pm Project has only 30,000 more viewers to lose before it reaches the point at which Taken Out got Yasmined.

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,629,000 477,000 436,000 331,000 158,000 226,000
2 WORLD'S STRICTEST PARENTS Seven 1,595,000 486,000 425,000 319,000 170,000 195,000
3 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,459,000 493,000 372,000 277,000 148,000 170,000
4 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,452,000 510,000 406,000 247,000 137,000 151,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,425,000 451,000 355,000 274,000 144,000 200,000
6 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,329,000 433,000 347,000 249,000 156,000 143,000
7 UNITED STATES OF TARA ABC1 1,276,000 427,000 381,000 198,000 127,000 143,000
8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,275,000 334,000 432,000 225,000 118,000 166,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,166,000 296,000 377,000 233,000 148,000 113,000
10 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,143,000 302,000 352,000 269,000 115,000 106,000
11 ABC NEWS ABC1 1,081,000 324,000 313,000 181,000 129,000 134,000
13 RPA Nine 1,014,000 282,000 343,000 180,000 96,000 113,000
14 THE ALL NEW SIMPSONS WED Ten 1,005,000 270,000 300,000 195,000 98,000 142,000
22 NEIGHBOURS Ten 827,000 212,000 242,000 148,000 109,000 116,000
23 AUSTRALIA'S PERFECT COUPLE Nine 762,000 237,000 269,000 126,000 55,000 76,000
25 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 701,000 175,000 205,000 146,000 77,000 98,000
26 AT THE MOVIES ABC1 635,000 236,000 210,000 70,000 61,000 58,000
71 PRISON BREAK Seven 181,000 42,000 69,000 19,000 30,000 22,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Wednesday
This column asked the Channel Ten publicist responsible for 7PP if Ten was planning any changes in the light of the ratings collapse. He said no, and Ten would give it time to find an audience. "It's a slow-build kind of show," he said. More like fast-demolish, I'd have thought. 7PP's slight gain last night can be explained by people switching on early for Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, which should be on at 7pm five nights a week.

The prime time audience shares stand at: Seven 30.0 per cent, Ten 25.4, Nine 22,5, ABC 15.8, SBS 6.2.

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,926,000 574,000 618,000 322,000 181,000 232,000
2 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,616,000 491,000 505,000 255,000 148,000 217,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,572,000 482,000 372,000 323,000 162,000 234,000
4 SURF PATROL Seven 1,505,000 431,000 419,000 305,000 163,000 187,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,479,000 441,000 372,000 318,000 151,000 198,000
6 AIR WAYS Seven 1,414,000 416,000 371,000 270,000 165,000 192,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,311,000 386,000 350,000 247,000 165,000 163,000
8 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,262,000 423,000 385,000 164,000 151,000 140,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,222,000 315,000 402,000 261,000 154,000 90,000
10 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,132,000 326,000 321,000 226,000 131,000 127,000
11 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,130,000 297,000 351,000 254,000 133,000 95,000
16 GRAND DESIGNS ABC1 975,000 310,000 262,000 158,000 111,000 134,000
18 NEIGHBOURS Ten 809,000 260,000 233,000 121,000 102,000 92,000
20 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 786,000 207,000 260,000 133,000 93,000 92,000
23 THE SIMPSONS Ten 759,000 209,000 212,000 108,000 105,000 125,000
25 20 TO 1 -TUE Nine 676,000 192,000 222,000 121,000 64,000 76,000
26 THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE Nine 654,000 178,000 217,000 138,000 55,000 66,000
53 LIBERAL RULE SBS ONE 241,000 126,000 48,000 30,000 13,000 25,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Tuesday
Until 8.30 this morning, Channel Ten could console itself with the possibility that the plummeting audience for The 7pm Project happened because many viewers under 40 go out on Thursday and Friday nights. When Monday's ratings data arrived, it became apparent that the under-40s are actively avoiding The 7pm Project. Programs immediately before it and after it get many more viewers.

Go to Comments to tell us why you think 7PP has turned off so many. I mean, it's not THAT bad. Is it because Dave Hughes tries so hard he has now morphed from likeable to annoying? Is it because the newsreader imagines she can be as witty as Hughes and Charlie Pickering? Or is it because Ten failed to make use of what could have been the show's biggest asset: Ruby Rose?

In case you're wondering who is in the picture that accompanies this text, it's Yasmin. Remember her? Channel Ten does. It also remembers Taken Out, another 7pm project which got axed when it sank to 670,000. 7PP has 90,000 viewers still to lose before it reaches the limit of Ten's patience and gets taken out and Yasmined.

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,700,000 502,000 429,000 343,000 180,000 246,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,626,000 446,000 436,000 360,000 165,000 219,000
3 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,382,000 396,000 482,000 252,000 105,000 147,000
4 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,370,000 409,000 438,000 259,000 122,000 143,000
5 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,301,000 378,000 337,000 271,000 161,000 155,000
6 SEA PATROL -EP2 Nine 1,289,000 383,000 368,000 247,000 148,000 142,000
7 SEA PATROL -EP1 Nine 1,279,000 385,000 365,000 247,000 131,000 151,000
8 NINE NEWS Nine 1,238,000 353,000 398,000 245,000 130,000 112,000
9 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,217,000 394,000 400,000 194,000 100,000 130,000
10 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,214,000 389,000 345,000 219,000 109,000 151,000
13 ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER? Ten 1,064,000 345,000 304,000 179,000 109,000 127,000
16 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 992,000 261,000 302,000 179,000 117,000 134,000
17 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 960,000 273,000 276,000 165,000 108,000 139,000
21 THE SIMPSONS Ten 868,000 239,000 263,000 142,000 114,000 110,000
25 TOP GEAR RPT SBS ONE 767,000 194,000 229,000 152,000 98,000 95,000
26 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 764,000 231,000 212,000 149,000 71,000 101,000
28 SPOOKS ABC1 633,000 197,000 195,000 89,000 69,000 82,000
29 SUPERNATURAL Ten 573,000 180,000 152,000 102,000 58,000 81,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
Even without MasterChef, Ten managed to humiliate Nine again last night. The prime time audience shares were: Ten 29.8 per cent, Seven 29.7 per cent, Nine 21.3, ABC 13.7, SBS 5.6. Dancing With The Stars enjoyed a resurgence, but Seven could not compete with Ten's two final treats for all the kids about to return to school: Merlin and Night At The Museum. It's true that movies no longer work on television, except sometimes ...

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,975,000 488,000 553,000 413,000 265,000 256,000
2 DANCING WITH THE STARS 9 Seven 1,618,000 476,000 451,000 324,000 170,000 197,000
3 NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM Ten 1,524,000 494,000 402,000 240,000 200,000 189,000
4 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,408,000 461,000 403,000 283,000 129,000 132,000
5 MERLIN Ten 1,407,000 437,000 335,000 274,000 132,000 228,000
6 BONES Seven 1,166,000 333,000 309,000 248,000 145,000 130,000
7 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,151,000 312,000 371,000 248,000 104,000 116,000
8 60 MINUTES Nine 979,000 252,000 324,000 197,000 87,000 120,000
9 CASSOWARIES ABC1 919,000 294,000 232,000 183,000 109,000 101,000
10 ABC NEWS-SUN ABC1 895,000 296,000 239,000 168,000 87,000 105,000
12 OCEAN'S THIRTEEN Nine 746,000 232,000 222,000 146,000 65,000 82,000
16 THE LAST ENEMY ABC1 566,000 175,000 163,000 91,000 74,000 63,000
17 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 17: ESSENDON VS RICHMOND Seven 557,000 7,000 314,000 58,000 101,000 77,000
18 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 541,000 349,000 191,000
39 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 17: ADELAIDE VS PORT ADELAIDE Seven 233,000 233,000
46 OCEAN'S ELEVEN -RPT Nine 213,000 56,000 66,000 43,000 25,000 23,000
48 LAS VEGAS Seven 208,000 74,000 Not shown 59,000 38,000 37,000
70 TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 HIGHLIGHTS SBS ONE 138,000 32,000 31,000 43,000 16,000 16,000
83 SUPER LEAGUE Nine 112,000 61,000 51,000
84 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 17: MELBOURNE VS SYDNEY Seven 111,000 65,000 47,000
119 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL LATE Nine 40,000 20,000 13,000 7,000
155 HILLSONG WITH BRIAN HOUSTON Ten 18,000 9,000 2,000 3,000 1,000 3,000

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 07:49 AM
• Comments (72)

The Tribal Mind: Lets cut the crap about MasterChef

To find out how to become a republic and absorb New Zealand, go to Who We Are.

by David Dale
The phrase "of all time" was thrown around a lot last week, in relation to the final episode of the TV series MasterChef. Some radio stations were calling it the most-watched non-sports program of all time. The Daily Telegraph described the final cook-off as "the third most watched program of all time, behind Channel 7's coverage of the men's Australian Open tennis final between Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin in 2005 (4.04 million) and the Australia versus England 2003 rugby World Cup final (4.02 million)."

This nonsense was repeated in The Sunday Telegraph, which described the final as "the third highest rating program ever". Channel Ten more modestly asserted in a press release that "MasterChef Australia: The Winner Announced is TEN's highest rating show since OzTAM ratings began".

Time for a reality check. Based on its sample of 3,000 households, OzTAM estimated that 3.74 million people in the mainland capitals (where the potential TV audience is 13 million) watched the last 40 minutes of MasterChef. This made it the third most watched program of the decade -- unless you think the decade began in 2000, when 6 million in the mainland capitals watched the opening and closing of the Olympics and a swim by Ian Thorpe and a run by Cathy Freeman. The MasterChef winner announcement would be the seventh most watched event in a decade that included 2000. But "of all time" is a different story.

OzTAM ratings began officially in 2001. Before that, the audience measurement company was ACNielsen. If we look at Nielsen's measurements since 1965 (when Channel Ten opened for business), we get another impression of MasterChef's place in the record books...

Australia's most watched non-sporting TV programs of all time
1 Funeral of Diana Spencer, 1997
2 Wedding of Charles and Diana, 1981
3 The World of the Seekers, 1968
4 The Sound of Music first TV showing, 1977
5 Roots miniseries, 1977
6 The landing on the moon, 1969
7 Royal Charity Concert, 1980
8 Holocaust miniseries, 1978
9 Raiders of the Lost Ark first TV showing, 1985
10 Great Moscow Circus, 1971
11 Homicide, 1971
12 Against The Wind miniseries, 1978
13 Bodyline miniseries, 1984
14 Star Wars first TV showing, 1982
15 MasterChef winner announced, 2009.

How did we make this educated guess? Before 1990, ratings were reported only for Sydney and Melbourne, and were expressed as a percentage of households that owned a TV set. So we had to turn the MasterChef ratings into a comparable figure. At 9.30 last Sunday night, 32 per cent of households in Sydney and 41 per cent in Melbourne watched Julie and Poh get hugged by their families.

Compare that with the day in 1981 when 75 per cent of homes in Sydney and 82 per cent in Melbourne watched the wedding of Charles Windsor and Diana Spencer (on four channels). Or 1997, when 79 per cent of sets in Sydney and 79 per cent in Melbourne were tuned to Diana's funeral (on four channels).

Or the first time The Sound of Music was shown on television (12 years after it was first in cinemas), when 57 per cent of homes in Melbourne and 52 per cent in Sydney made it the most watched film ever shown on television (before or since).

Or the period in 1971 when, week after week, 52 per cent in Melbourne and 43 per cent in Sydney followed the trilby-hatted detectives in Homicide. Or the day in 1969 when 47 per cent in Sydney and 57 per cent in Melbourne (plus uncounted thousands in schools, pubs, cafes, and hospitals) saw humans walk on the moon. (That same year, a boxing match between Lionel Rose and Alan Rudkin was watched by 67 per cent in Melbourne and 47 per cent in Sydney - the most watched single channel broadcast "of all time" until the Olympics in 2000).

What do we learn from this? That some media do not do their homework, and that in the 21st century, TV programs rarely unite the nation the way they used to. On Sunday, while 3.7 million were watching MasterChef, 3.5 million were watching other things on television, and 6 million people in the mainland capitals had found better entertainments elsewhere. Much as I enjoyed Poh's perfomance, I find that revelation about Australian culture encouraging.

Go to Comments to discuss how Australia has changed. Go to The TV shows Australia loved for more details on the other big shows of the 21st and 20th century. And please, if you were one of the millions who watched this show called Royal Charity Concert in 1980, tell us what was so great about it.

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 The Tribal Mind at 05:11 PM
• Comments (7)

WHO WE ARE: Come join us, please

To learn the shocking truth about MasterChef, go to The Tribal Mind.

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald 26/7/2009
There's an easy way to avoid the embarrassment that flowed from this column's revelation last week that Australia's favourite wine is made in New Zealand. All we need to do is amalgamate the two countries, and then Marlborough becomes a wine region of Australia and its Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc become an Aussie drop (for details on our drinking habits, go to last week's column).

The only foreseeable problem with this scheme is that absorbing the Kiwis might delay another vital nation-building project -- abolishing our State governments. To persuade them to join us, we'd have to offer them the chance to be not one but two States within a new enlarged federation, and thus be represented by 12 senators in Canberra (or Wellington, a nice new capital for Australasia). It would hardly be cricket to promise the Kiwis some semblance of individual identity and, having got their signatures on the treaty, immediately deprive them of local self-government.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today's column is supposed to be about Grand Visions For The Future of Australia. Since it seems we're not going to suffer too badly from the global financial crisis, we can afford to lift our eyes from short term goals and reflect on how our country should advance over the next two decades. Here's a theory ...

The National To-Do List
1 Become a republic
2 Amalgamate with New Zealand
3 Fix the coat of arms
4 Abolish the States
6 Build a system of canals between Darwin and Adelaide.

Number 1 is the easiest, involving just a bit of paperwork. At the moment, the Governor General is nominated by the Government and, if there's no outcry from the Opposition, rubber-stamped by the monarch in London. Arguments have bogged down in whether an elected head of state would have powers likely to compete with the powers of the prime minister. So lets avoid the menacing term "President". Lets call the new figurehead The Administrator, nominated by the government and rubber-stamped by Parliament. There you have it -- Republic Lite, and straight on to task 2.

The hard part will be convincing them to get into bed with us. Viewers of the TV series Flight of the Conchords will know the paranoia of New Zealanders about their neighbour. The former NZ prime minister Robert Muldoon observed that every time a Kiwi is silly enough to move to Australia, that raises the average IQ of both countries.

Yes, they do feel superior to us, and not just in winemaking. So we must make this transformation worth their while. We can write into the new Constitution our belief that the smartest person in Australia is John Clarke.

And maybe NZ will need to be classified as three States - called North Island, South Island and The Wellington Coffee Enclave - plus having the right to impose their pronunciation on the teaching of English in schools (test phrase "Lits git some fush en chups for the cet un the het").

Of course we'll need to put a kiwi to the coat of arms. Easiest would be to replace that other flightless bird, the emu, even if that introduced problems of scale with the kangaroo on the other side. At the same time, we could replace the star that currently sits atop the shield with an octopus, to symbolize the ocean connecting the various States and the contribution of immigrants to changing our cooking preferences in the past 50 years. The Kiwis would probably prefer a whitebait up there, but we can hold that as a bargaining chip when we move on to No 4.

Out of space, so we'll save abolishing the States for the next column, which will include the contributions you make by going to Comments

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 10:08 AM
• Comments (33)

The Who We Are update: Week 29

This week's 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 the about Australia's favourite TV shows of all time (and MasterChef ain't one of them), go to The Tribal Mind.
To find out how to become a republic and absorb New Zealand, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
Thursdays and Fridays are always slow nights, so the sudden slump of The 7pm Project (down from 1.28 million on Monday to 656,000 on Friday) should induce only moderate panic at Channel Ten. It's still doing well with the 16-39s (who go out on Fridays). But if 7PP fails to recover this Monday and Tuesday, Ten will hear Yasmin calling, and the axeman will arrive with his friends The Simpsons. (Unless Ten puts Australian Idol on every weeknight at 7 -- could anybody stand that much Sandilands?)

Seven will be delighted with the 1.5 million result for Airways and World's Strictest Parents but nervous about its new Thursday comedies. Double Take and the marginally less embarrassing TV Burp got a million viewers each. That's nowhere near the Yasmintude of The Perfect Couple or True Beauty, but Seven will be sweating on its OzTAM data next Friday.

Nine started the week with an act of sheer stupidity - putting its $200,000 backpacker up against the final of MasterChef -- and continued at this level with a launch followed by an axing of Dance Your Ass Off. This was the final result of a ratings week that started stunningly for Ten: Seven 27.3 per cent of the prime time audience, Ten 25.0, Nine 23.4, ABC 16.5, and SBS 7.8.

And this was Pay TV's account of itself: "In week 30, Disney Channel's contemporary take on the Prince and the Pauper story, The Princess Protection Program, premiered with 157,000 viewers. On Arena, The Debbie Rowe Interview detailed life with the former King of Pop Michael Jackson to 87,000 people. America's Next Top Model on FOX8 was watched by 142,000 people, NCIS on TV1 was seen by 141,000 viewers and Project Runway Australia on Arena continued to grow with a season-to-date best audience of 106,000 viewers.

"Without a Trace on W had its best result of the year watched by 86,000, Dora's Fairytale Adventure on Nick Jr. was watched by a 2009 high of 85,000 people and the movie Get Smart premiered on Movie One with 83,00 people.

"On FOX Sports, Live: NRL Eels v Storm had 306,000 viewers, Live: AFL St Kilda v Adelaide was watched by 257,000 people and, as the second Ashes test drew to a close, 214,000 people watched Live: Cricket: Ashes: Day 5 Session 1. This week, Live: AFL Pre Game Show was seen by 116,000 subscribers, Live: Golf: British Open Final Round Part 1 was watched by 79,000 (both on FOX Sports) and Sky Raceday on Sky Racing was seen by 71,000 people.

"In week 30, STV channels represented 21.5% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 21.1% of all regional viewing and 57.0% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

What Australia watched, week ending July 25
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - WINNER ANNOUNCED Ten 3,726,000 999,000 1,278,000 615,000 383,000 452,000 (and to learn why this is NOT a record, go to The Tribal Mind)
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - FINALE NIGHT Ten 3,293,000 863,000 1,172,000 556,000 323,000 378,000
3 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,857,000 519,000 586,000 344,000 197,000 211,000
4 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,713,000 410,000 465,000 408,000 200,000 230,000
5 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,585,000 472,000 472,000 284,000 148,000 210,000
6 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,562,000 452,000 391,000 330,000 173,000 216,000
7 AIR WAYS Seven 1,549,000 395,000 467,000 312,000 176,000 198,000
8 WORLD'S STRICTEST PARENTS Seven 1,540,000 432,000 439,000 297,000 175,000 197,000

9 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,491,000 420,000 474,000 227,000 170,000 201,000
10 SURF PATROL Seven 1,485,000 383,000 431,000 314,000 181,000 175,000
11 MERLIN Ten 1,478,000 407,000 462,000 285,000 137,000 186,000
12 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,473,000 439,000 366,000 328,000 123,000 217,000
13 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,470,000 395,000 481,000 289,000 178,000 127,000
14 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,402,000 349,000 484,000 297,000 122,000 149,000
15 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,391,000 385,000 351,000 313,000 163,000 179,000
16 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,386,000 399,000 386,000 281,000 159,000 162,000
17 SEA PATROL -EP1 Nine 1,284,000 367,000 320,000 271,000 145,000 181,000
18 NINE NEWS Nine 1,261,000 352,000 414,000 247,000 130,000 118,000
19 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,257,000 360,000 323,000 261,000 166,000 148,000
20 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,246,000 356,000 395,000 183,000 163,000 150,000
21 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,225,000 350,000 404,000 233,000 120,000 117,000
22 GETAWAY Nine 1,223,000 349,000 380,000 230,000 129,000 136,000
23 SEA PATROL -EP2 Nine 1,205,000 328,000 319,000 259,000 149,000 150,000
24 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,200,000 343,000 409,000 215,000 117,000 117,000
25 DANCING WITH THE STARS 9 Seven 1,192,000 359,000 295,000 284,000 104,000 151,000
26 THE AMAZING RACE Seven 1,190,000 307,000 392,000 204,000 129,000 157,000
27 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,186,000 369,000 317,000 217,000 142,000 141,000
28 RECRUITS Ten 1,180,000 378,000 325,000 211,000 112,000 153,000
29 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,179,000 333,000 379,000 243,000 105,000 119,000
30 NCIS RPT Ten 1,159,000 306,000 296,000 214,000 153,000 189,000
31 RUSH Ten 1,145,000 302,000 386,000 196,000 124,000 138,000
32 GLEE Ten 1,144,000 300,000 405,000 196,000 90,000 152,000
33 20 TO 1 Nine 1,106,000 320,000 347,000 217,000 113,000 109,000
34 DOUBLE TAKE Seven 1,084,000 325,000 311,000 186,000 101,000 161,000
35 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,080,000 272,000 348,000 233,000 88,000 139,000
36 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,076,000 353,000 376,000 134,000 97,000 116,000
37 CRIMINAL MINDS (R) Seven 1,060,000 288,000 312,000 194,000 114,000 152,000
38 THE ALL NEW SIMPSONS WED Ten 1,053,000 270,000 350,000 203,000 119,000 111,000
39 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,048,000 336,000 256,000 229,000 105,000 123,000
40 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,032,000 269,000 305,000 224,000 122,000 112,000
41 NCIS EP 2 RPT Ten 1,027,000 249,000 267,000 188,000 154,000 169,000
42 RPA Nine 1,018,000 269,000 304,000 202,000 115,000 127,000
43 GRAND DESIGNS ABC1 1,016,000 267,000 340,000 166,000 113,000 131,000
44 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,011,000 286,000 288,000 195,000 104,000 138,000
45 THE SIMPSONS WED Ten 1,009,000 265,000 355,000 187,000 106,000 96,000
46 TV BURP Seven 1,008,000 330,000 271,000 148,000 104,000 156,000

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,473,000 439,000 366,000 328,000 123,000 217,000
2 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,048,000 336,000 256,000 229,000 105,000 123,000
3 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,032,000 269,000 305,000 224,000 122,000 112,000
4 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 994,000 308,000 291,000 182,000 105,000 109,000
5 TEN NEWS AT FIVE SAT Ten 929,000 220,000 270,000 157,000 96,000 186,000
6 M-THE WILD Seven 920,000 248,000 265,000 206,000 90,000 111,000
7 THE BILL ABC1 868,000 256,000 234,000 143,000 93,000 142,000
9 M-NATIONAL TREASURE Seven 824,000 264,000 234,000 162,000 89,000 75,000
10 EAST OF EVERYTHING ABC1 794,000 263,000 185,000 167,000 74,000 106,000
11 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 778,000 433,000 120,000 103,000 121,000
12 SATURDAY AFTERNOON AFL Ten 744,000 75,000 352,000 59,000 77,000 182,000
18 MYTHBUSTERS SBS ONE 430,000 115,000 125,000 88,000 58,000 45,000
36 THE 7PM PROJECT SAT DAY RPT Ten 203,000 40,000 71,000 53,000 17,000 21,000
37 TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 STAGE 20 SBS ONE 202,000 59,000 69,000 36,000 21,000 17,000
47 AUSTRALIA'S PERFECT COUPLE -ENCORE Nine 164,000 41,000 48,000 49,000 11,000 16,000
50 DANCE YOUR ASS OFF -ENCORE Nine 160,000 42,000 38,000 48,000 14,000 17,000
109 VFL FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 52,000 52,000
128 RUGBY LEAGUE: (QLD) 2009 ABC1 35,000 35,000
129 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009 ABC1 33,000 33,000
158 THE SANFL-PM ABC1 19,000 19,000
160 SATURDAY LATE NIGHT AFL Ten 18,000 18,000
174 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 14,000 3,000 7,000 4,000
189 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 17: CARLTON VS COLLINGWOOD Seven 10,000 3,000 7,000
207 WAFL LIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL 2009 ABC1 5,000 5,000
212 SATURDAY LATE NIGHT AFL ONE 4,000 4,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,491,000 420,000 474,000 227,000 170,000 201,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,447,000 430,000 335,000 320,000 165,000 197,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,271,000 335,000 314,000 299,000 150,000 173,000
4 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,163,000 315,000 357,000 259,000 99,000 132,000
5 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,154,000 327,000 281,000 252,000 146,000 149,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,145,000 320,000 359,000 243,000 117,000 107,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,091,000 325,000 320,000 233,000 102,000 111,000
8 TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION: THE BOX ABC1 952,000 321,000 238,000 161,000 102,000 129,000
12 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 17: CARLTON VS COLLINGWOOD Seven 768,000 12,000 497,000 5,000 133,000 121,000
17 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 665,000 359,000 306,000
18 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 656,000 230,000 180,000 97,000 60,000 89,000
20 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Ten 589,000 185,000 150,000 107,000 60,000 86,000
28 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 386,000 228,000 158,000
83 TORCHWOOD ABC2 131,000 26,000 31,000 28,000 19,000 27,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,610,000 448,000 416,000 349,000 166,000 231,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,453,000 390,000 361,000 349,000 172,000 181,000
3 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,297,000 357,000 343,000 268,000 174,000 156,000
4 GETAWAY Nine 1,229,000 350,000 382,000 232,000 130,000 135,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,191,000 342,000 399,000 225,000 122,000 103,000
6 THE AMAZING RACE Seven 1,190,000 307,000 392,000 204,000 129,000 157,000
7 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,146,000 342,000 377,000 219,000 98,000 110,000
8 RUSH Ten 1,145,000 302,000 386,000 196,000 124,000 138,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,118,000 316,000 370,000 213,000 112,000 107,000
10 20 TO 1 Nine 1,103,000 319,000 344,000 218,000 113,000 108,000
11 DOUBLE TAKE Seven 1,084,000 325,000 311,000 186,000 101,000 161,000
12 TV BURP Seven 1,007,000 330,000 270,000 148,000 103,000 156,000
19 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 806,000 169,000 297,000 164,000 65,000 111,000
20 TRUE BEAUTY Seven 804,000 255,000 219,000 104,000 102,000 124,000
32 Q & A ABC1 464,000 163,000 114,000 89,000 45,000 52,000
36 INSPECTOR REX RPT SBS ONE 392,000 117,000 115,000 45,000 56,000 60,000
69 THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW Ten 179,000 42,000 57,000 28,000 20,000 32,000
76 THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW Nine 148,000 39,000 50,000 36,000 7,000 15,000
86 MORNINGS WITH KERRI-ANNE Nine 135,000 53,000 51,000 19,000 7,000 6,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,565,000 439,000 392,000 324,000 186,000 224,000
2 WORLD'S STRICTEST PARENTS Seven 1,541,000 432,000 439,000 297,000 175,000 198,000
3 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,394,000 402,000 387,000 283,000 160,000 162,000
4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,306,000 371,000 432,000 246,000 144,000 113,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,297,000 330,000 340,000 295,000 160,000 171,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,296,000 379,000 403,000 252,000 141,000 122,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,285,000 384,000 324,000 264,000 173,000 140,000
8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,207,000 320,000 405,000 235,000 140,000 108,000
9 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 1,199,000 371,000 322,000 220,000 144,000 142,000
10 ABC NEWS ABC1 1,109,000 356,000 310,000 175,000 104,000 164,000
11 CRIMINAL MINDS (R) Seven 1,058,000 288,000 312,000 194,000 114,000 150,000
12 THE ALL NEW SIMPSONS WED Ten 1,053,000 270,000 350,000 203,000 119,000 111,000
13 THE SIMPSONS WED Ten 1,009,000 265,000 355,000 187,000 106,000 96,000
14 COLD CASE Nine 1,006,000 288,000 305,000 168,000 118,000 127,000
15 RPA Nine 1,003,000 265,000 300,000 200,000 113,000 125,000
21 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 874,000 220,000 292,000 173,000 82,000 107,000
24 AUSTRALIA'S PERFECT COUPLE Nine 798,000 207,000 269,000 150,000 80,000 93,000
25 MY NAME IS EARL Seven 737,000 201,000 231,000 122,000 84,000 99,000
89 PRISON BREAK Seven 147,000 40,000 53,000 25,000 14,000 15,000

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,857,000 519,000 586,000 344,000 197,000 211,000
2 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,580,000 471,000 470,000 283,000 147,000 208,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,564,000 466,000 389,000 326,000 175,000 208,000
4 AIR WAYS Seven 1,549,000 395,000 467,000 312,000 176,000 198,000
5 SURF PATROL Seven 1,485,000 383,000 431,000 314,000 181,000 175,000
6 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,427,000 416,000 369,000 311,000 167,000 163,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,349,000 364,000 391,000 275,000 167,000 152,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,340,000 385,000 486,000 233,000 108,000 128,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,255,000 303,000 455,000 241,000 126,000 131,000
10 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,247,000 356,000 395,000 183,000 163,000 151,000
13 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 1,073,000 283,000 363,000 197,000 98,000 132,000
19 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 908,000 281,000 259,000 179,000 97,000 92,000
21 DANCE YOUR ASS OFF Nine 797,000 236,000 271,000 156,000 57,000 77,000
25 HOT SEAT Nine 705,000 173,000 222,000 167,000 91,000 53,000
33 LITTLE BRITAIN Nine 419,000 125,000 148,000 72,000 31,000 43,000
36 THE 7PM PROJECT DAY RPT Ten 363,000 72,000 110,000 81,000 51,000 49,000
46 GAVIN & STACEY - TUE Seven 266,000 117,000 80,000 16,000 28,000 25,000
52 LIBERAL RULE SBS ONE 243,000 104,000 64,000 22,000 24,000 30,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,624,000 474,000 423,000 331,000 175,000 221,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,497,000 449,000 368,000 312,000 164,000 205,000
3 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,399,000 349,000 482,000 297,000 123,000 148,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,392,000 417,000 443,000 271,000 139,000 122,000
5 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 1,285,000 347,000 412,000 255,000 120,000 151,000
6 SEA PATROL -EP1 Nine 1,281,000 365,000 319,000 270,000 145,000 181,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,273,000 354,000 408,000 245,000 136,000 130,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,211,000 370,000 278,000 248,000 171,000 144,000
9 SEA PATROL -EP2 Nine 1,197,000 326,000 318,000 256,000 147,000 150,000
10 RECRUITS Ten 1,176,000 376,000 324,000 211,000 111,000 153,000
11 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,158,000 320,000 370,000 248,000 87,000 133,000
12 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,076,000 353,000 376,000 134,000 97,000 116,000
13 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,076,000 270,000 348,000 231,000 88,000 140,000
18 BROTHERS & SISTERS Seven 930,000 297,000 341,000 121,000 85,000 87,000
28 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST2 DAY5 S1 SBS ONE 710,000 222,000 249,000 111,000 70,000 58,000
29 SPOOKS ABC1 623,000 163,000 198,000 94,000 68,000 99,000
32 SUPERNATURAL Ten 527,000 143,000 128,000 115,000 60,000 82,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
It's been reported that Channel Nine paid $200,000 for the tale of the lost backpacker. Having busted its budget, you might imagine Nine would have shown the story at a time when it could attract some viewers -- such as A Current Affair on Monday night. Apparently this strategy did not occur to Nine's schedulers. Instead, they put the boy on 60 MInutes, up against a show that could not fail to attract less than 3 million viewers. See the chart below for what happened.

All kinds of records were broken last night. It may well have been the lowest audience for 60 Minutes this decade. It was certainly the best audience for Channel Ten this decade. Ten attracted 41.3 per cent of the prime time viewers in the mainland capitals (Seven 21.7, Nine 17.6, ABC 11.6, SBS 7.8). What may be worrying for Ten is that its new comedy Glee, shown immediately after MasterChef, started with 2 million viewers but ended with less than a million. It might be a bit too American for Australians in their current nationalist mood.

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - WINNER ANNOUNCED Ten 3,745,000 1,003,000 1,285,000 620,000 385,000 453,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - FINALE NIGHT Ten 3,313,000 870,000 1,177,000 559,000 326,000 382,000
3 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,712,000 410,000 465,000 408,000 198,000 230,000
4 MERLIN Ten 1,478,000 407,000 462,000 285,000 137,000 186,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,470,000 395,000 481,000 289,000 177,000 128,000
6 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,203,000 343,000 410,000 216,000 120,000 115,000
7 GLEE Ten 1,185,000 311,000 419,000 203,000 95,000 157,000
8 DANCING WITH THE STARS 9 Seven 1,183,000 356,000 292,000 281,000 104,000 150,000
9 60 MINUTES Nine 901,000 293,000 226,000 188,000 78,000 116,000
10 CASTLE Seven 889,000 228,000 271,000 164,000 122,000 103,000
17 MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III Nine 628,000 177,000 191,000 124,000 64,000 71,000
18 THE LAST ENEMY ABC1 614,000 199,000 164,000 95,000 77,000 80,000
20 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 485,000 278,000 207,000
21 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 16: RICHMOND VS NORTH MELBOURNE Seven 430,000 47,000 251,000 53,000 79,000
24 THE SUNDAY FOOTY SHOW Nine 397,000 97,000 158,000 83,000 35,000 23,000
28 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST2 DAY4 S1 SBS ONE 339,000 103,000 110,000 64,000 28,000 33,000
41 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 16: PORT ADELAIDE VS WEST COAST Seven 230,000 100,000 130,000
54 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 16: ST KILDA VS ADELAIDE Seven 168,000 168,000
67 AFL GAME DAY Seven 151,000 74,000 31,000 46,000
90 SUPER LEAGUE Nine 94,000 50,000 44,000

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 The Tribal Mind, in whoweare-index at 01:41 PM
• Comments (118)

WHO WE ARE: Savvy nong plonk

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald 19/7/2009
Try saying the phrase "shiraz socialist" five times fast after a couple of glasses of pinot noir. The inherent pronunciation difficulties may explain why certain politicians persist with the phrase "chardonnay socialist" as their preferred term of abuse, even though it reveals their utter ignorance of what most Australians actually drink.

The implication within "chardonnay socialist" is that the accused pretends to have working class sympathies but actually has elitist tastes. It was coined in the 1980s, when chardonnay was an expensive novelty favoured by businessmen desperate to display their wealth. The theory was that true Aussies drink beer or, at worst, cask plonk containing no identifiable grape. Anyone who drinks differently must be unAustralian.

Unbeknownst to conservative politicians, the insult had lost its sting by the early noughties, when Queen Adelaide chardonnay was revealed as the beverage of choice for millions of people who met all other definitions of real, normal, average, decent, patriotic Aussies.

Is chardonnay still part of our national identity? Disturbing rumours about changes in our drinking habits provoked this column to check the latest data from the Bureau of Statistics and the research organisation AC Nielsen. Here's what emerged ...

Wine consumption: The average Australian over the age of 15 drinks 28.3 litres of wine a year (up from 28.1 in 2006). That's the equivalent of five glasses a week, of which three would be white and two would be red.

Favourite styles: The most-planted white grape in this country is still chardonnay, while the most planted red grape is shiraz. But most-planted is not the same as most-purchased, which turns out like this ...

The national reds: Wyndham Estate Bin 555 Shiraz, Pepperjack Shiraz.

The national bubblies: Yellowglen Yellow Sparkling, Jacob's Creek Chardonnay Pinot.

The national whites: Oyster Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Giesen Sauvignon Blanc.

Hang on a minute. Oyster Bay and Giesen are both from New Zealand. So in this year's wine purchases, Australians are propping up an enemy economy by replacing elitist chardys with foreign savvys (as the New Zealanders insist on calling them).

It's a national disaster. Apparently we're so jaded by the Barossa, the Hunter and the Margaret River that we seek novelties an ocean away. Don't panic. Help is on its way. Oddly enough, the good news, like the bad news, comes from across the Tasman - but not over that way, down that way.

Tasmania is about to launch an attack on the mainland with a view to reclaiming control of our wine tastes. Next month a travelling roadshow called Tasmania Unbottled 2009, representing 30 of our south island's bravest winemakers, will invade Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The Tasmanians know it will take a while to wean us off weedy kiwi sauvignon blancs, so their first weapon of choice will be bubbles, followed by a blitzkrieg of pinot noirs (for more information, go here) .

To support them (and the economy), our politicians will need to create a new term of abuse for those who are drinking against the national interest. How about "savvy-wankers"?

Go to Comments to discuss how we can fight back against kiwi plonk. And to discuss whether most Australians are too stupid to function in the 21st century, go to last week's column.

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 12:02 PM
• Comments (33)

The Tribal Mind: Bring on the binge

To find out why drinking Australia's favourite wine is an act of treachery, go to Who We Are

by David Dale
It's all downhill from here. MasterChef finished last Sunday (having transformed Australia into a nation of foodies) and Desperate Housewives finishes this Monday (having kept Channel Seven alive against the onslaught of Underbelly). Then the TV bus goes over the cliff.

On Tuesday, Channel Nine launched an American series called Dance Your Ass Off, signalling the desperation that will inspire programming for the rest of 2009. It's not about waltzing with donkeys, but a blend of The Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance.

After a surprisingly interesting first half, which brought hundreds of thousands back to mainstream television, the networks have reached the bottom of the barrel. The 15 million Australians who do not have access to Pay TV are in for a pretty dry spring.

But 19 million Australians have access to a DVD player, which empowers them to take control of their entertainment destiny. The best television is not on TV -- it's on disc. We can become our own programmers.

Boxed sets of shows ignored or maltreated by the networks now occupy as much space as movies on the shelves of DVD stores. Take a bunch of them home, cook one of the feasts you saw on MasterChef, carry it on a tray to the TV room, and prepare to binge.

Here are some bingeworthies I found on a tour of DVD stores last week ...

The Wire It starts as a police procedural about a squad that taps phones used by drug dealers, but turns into a study of corruption and decay in a city that could easily be Sydney. Initially you'll have trouble with the Baltimore street slang, but, like the cops, you'll pick it up on the job. The best news for lovers of suspense is that the first four seasons are on special for $20 each (at JB Hi-Fi in the Strand Arcade).

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Sadly, the smartest sci-fi series of the decade has just been cancelled in the US, but on disc, Season One will cost you $33 and the even-better Season Two will be out soon. The recent film was crap, but the TV show takes the best ideas from the first two movies and becomes a character study of a hot mother and a hotter robot.

30 Rock Channel Seven has been showing Tina Fey's screwball satire on the TV industry at 11.30 pm. Non-insomniacs can now buy the first two seasons at $20 each.

State of Play The British miniseries about political dirty tricks, which is much better than the Russell Crowe film it inspired, is on special for $16.

True Blood Season One of this scary and sexy tale of vampire lust in the Louisiana swamps costs $30.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry David, the writer of Seinfeld, plays an obnoxious version of himself in this scathing sitcom which Channel Nine used to show at midnight. Each of its six seasons costs $38.

The West Wing Everything Obama has been doing this year was foreshadowed five years ago in this series about a perfect president and his hyperactive advisers. Currently each of its seven seasons costs $76, but it regularly goes on special, so check the bargain bins after you've finished with The Wire. Since you've read this far, you're probably the kind of person who has already seen The West Wing, but it's worth a third binge.

Then there's all seven seasons of fast-talking Gilmore Girls as a box set for $215, four seasons of foulmouthed Entourage at $38 each, two seasons of sweetly murderous Dexter at $45 each, two seasons of weird Weeds at $20 each, Season One of intense In Treatment at $70, Season One of operatic Damages at $16, and much much more to see you through till February. Go to Comments to add your recommendations.

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 The Tribal Mind at 06:48 AM
• Comments (31)

WHO WE ARE: Just smart enough?

To discuss if Transformers 2 sucks more than any blockbuster in history, go to The Tribal Mind.

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald, 12/7/2009
By now Australia was supposed to have changed from the lucky country to the clever country. But the Bureau of Statistics keeps releasing data which suggests most of us are too dumb to function in the 21st century.

The bureau's latest discovery is that we don't even know how to look after our own bodies - 59 per cent of Australians "have difficulty with tasks such as locating information on a bottle of medicine about the maximum number of days the medicine could be taken, or drawing a line on a container indicating where one third would be". This follows the revelation last year that 69 per cent of adults lack problem-solving skills that are "the minimum required for individuals to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work in the emerging knowledge-based economy" (go here for that column).

Clearly we should not be too hard on the Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey, whose office had to apologise earlier this month for putting out a nonsensical press release based on his wrong reading of an economics graph.

The term "the lucky country" was coined in the 1960s by the writer Donald Horne, and it wasn't a compliment. He meant that through sheer dumb luck, Australians had stumbled onto resources that allowed us to prosper among world economies, and we'd been coasting ever since. Here's his entire quote: "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck."

Horne said later: "I had in mind in particular the lack of innovation in Australian manufacturing and some other forms of Australian business, banking for example. In these, as a colonial carry over, Australia showed less enterprise than almost any other prosperous industrial society."

In the 1990s, Horne joined a campaign to raise education standards, aiming to make us a "clever country" with the skills to thrive without such props as iron ore and coal. He said: "I think we should realise that the lucky country provides a descriptive phrase, condemning Australia for what it was, whereas the clever country is a pre-scriptive phrase, suggesting to Australia what it might become."

Are we there yet? The latest Social Trends report from the Bureau of Stats has good news about young Australians. Here are the results of the latest testing on 8,000 students in what is called TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study):

"Australian students performed well in 2007 when compared with other participating countries, but were outperformed by England, the United States and most of the Asian countries, especially Singapore and Chinese Taipei. Australian students achieved an international ranking of 14th (out of 49) for Years 4 and 8 maths and 13th for Years 4 and 8 science." In science, our kids were equal to students in Germany, Italy, Lithuania and Sweden, which doesn't sound too bad at all (go here for the details).

But in the same Social Trends report, the bureau reveals the results of another test called ALLS (Adult Literacy and Life Skills), conducted on 9,000 people aged 15-74: "The ability to access and use health information is a fundamental skill which allows people to make informed decisions and helps them to maintain basic health ... Skill level 3 is regarded as the minimum required to allow individuals to meet the complex demands of everyday life. In 2006, 41 per cent of adults were assessed as having adequate or better health literacy skills, scoring at level 3 or above. At this level, people could generally perform tasks such as combining information in text and a graph to correctly assess the safety of a product." (Go here for the details.)

Only 41 per cent have "adequate" literacy? So if Joe Hockey had been able to understand that graph, he'd have been unAustralian.

Go to Comments to discuss whether Australians are as dumb as the data suggests.

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 04:37 PM
• Comments (2)

The Who We Are Update: Week 28

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 nominate the most bingeworthy TV series on DVD, go toThe Tribal Mind.
To discuss whether Australians are too dumb to function in the 21st century, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
Julie won MasterChef. Go to The TV shows Australia loved to see if the finale created a ratings record. Then go to The new week's blog to tell us what you make of the result.

Readers who were shocked by the ending of Grey's Anatomy on Thursday night should go here and after that also here for a modicum of solace. You will find interviews by Entertainment Weekly with the show's creator, Shonda Rimes, and answers to who will survive to next season. The finale pulled an extra 200,000 viewers to GA, and helped Channel Seven push Channel Nine to third place in audience share.

Then on Friday, a non-competitive episode of MasterChef helped Ten to counteract any footy advantage enjoyed by Seven and Nine (and if you're someone who prefers kicking to cooking, every bit of biffo for Friday and Saturday, no matter how esoteric, is presented in the charts below).

On Saturday, Harry Potter conjured a nightly win for Nine, but that wasn't enough to save it from humiliation for the week, which ended with these prime time audience shares: Ten 26.4 per cent, Seven 24.8, Nine 24.5, ABC 15.6, SBS 8.7. That's not supposed to happen in a State of Origin week.

This was Pay TV's account of itself: "In the month of July, subscription TV has an abundance of high quality sport bringing viewers to the platform. Live: NRL Titans v Eels on FOX Sports had 259,000 viewers, while Saturday's night's first Tri-Nations match between Australia and New Zealand, Live: Rugby Union: Bledisloe Cup, was watched by 230,000 people and Live: AFL West Coast v St Kilda by 224,000 people. Live: Cricket: Ashes: Day 5 Session 1 had 216,000 viewers, Live: AFL: On the Couch had its biggest audience of the year so far with 143,000 viewers and Live: Golf: British Open Round 1 Part 1 was seen by 93,000 viewers (all on FOX Sports).

"In entertainment programming, FOX8's America's Next Top Model was seen by 115,000 people, Hannah Montana on Disney Channel had its best audience of the year so far with 107,000 viewers, NCIS on TV1 was watched by 103,000 people and the new season of Project Runway Australia on Arena was watched by 97,000 people.

"In week 29, STV channels were the number one source of TV around Australia, accounting for 20.9% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 20.8% of all regional viewing and 55.5% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

What Australia watched, week ending July 18
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 2,193,000 592,000 764,000 352,000 221,000 264,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,981,000 568,000 638,000 335,000 204,000 236,000
3 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE 3RD - MATCH Nine 1,907,000 837,000 279,000 659,000 66,000 66,000
4 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,794,000 473,000 582,000 351,000 186,000 202,000
5 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,668,000 349,000 522,000 407,000 142,000 248,000
6 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,639,000 453,000 549,000 361,000 169,000 107,000
7 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,601,000 449,000 434,000 321,000 170,000 227,000
8 SURF PATROL Seven 1,532,000 375,000 475,000 316,000 172,000 193,000
9 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,492,000 416,000 469,000 244,000 162,000 201,000
10 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,488,000 430,000 388,000 307,000 159,000 203,000
11 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,406,000 444,000 342,000 409,000 120,000 91,000
12 RECRUITS Ten 1,383,000 392,000 437,000 212,000 135,000 206,000
13 DANCING WITH THE STARS 9 Seven 1,357,000 372,000 395,000 306,000 134,000 150,000
14 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,356,000 395,000 365,000 302,000 147,000 147,000
15 SEA PATROL Nine 1,346,000 362,000 399,000 232,000 157,000 196,000
16 MERLIN Ten 1,299,000 388,000 349,000 229,000 145,000 188,000
17 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,239,000 390,000 354,000 197,000 150,000 149,000

18 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,228,000 277,000 438,000 283,000 107,000 122,000
19 AIR WAYS Seven 1,216,000 324,000 367,000 239,000 116,000 170,000
20 HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE -RPT Nine 1,205,000 341,000 403,000 219,000 119,000 123,000
21 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,200,000 392,000 374,000 187,000 110,000 137,000
22 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,192,000 336,000 374,000 185,000 169,000 128,000
23 NINE NEWS Nine 1,181,000 309,000 404,000 250,000 122,000 97,000
24 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,179,000 384,000 390,000 165,000 101,000 139,000
25 RUSH Ten 1,177,000 315,000 406,000 176,000 131,000 148,000
26 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,139,000 326,000 344,000 257,000 102,000 111,000
27 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,112,000 313,000 352,000 190,000 120,000 136,000
28 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,105,000 281,000 364,000 134,000 146,000 180,000
29 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,103,000 288,000 372,000 249,000 110,000 84,000
30 THE SIMPSONS WED Ten 1,087,000 213,000 463,000 109,000 127,000 176,000
31 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,082,000 187,000 458,000 159,000 147,000 132,000
32 BONES Seven 1,071,000 284,000 312,000 226,000 113,000 136,000
33 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,068,000 310,000 299,000 217,000 118,000 123,000
34 ROVE Ten 1,050,000 253,000 361,000 220,000 104,000 112,000
35 60 MINUTES Nine 1,029,000 267,000 334,000 234,000 92,000 102,000
36 BROTHERS & SISTERS Seven 1,010,000 306,000 360,000 142,000 101,000 102,000
37 CRIMINAL MINDS (R) Seven 1,007,000 293,000 350,000 114,000 116,000 134,000
38 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL GREAT DEBATE Ten 1,006,000 259,000 297,000 201,000 110,000 141,000
39 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,004,000 269,000 333,000 207,000 88,000 107,000
40 THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS Nine 1,003,000 305,000 303,000 167,000 115,000 113,000

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,406,000 444,000 342,000 409,000 120,000 91,000
2 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,239,000 390,000 354,000 197,000 150,000 149,000
3 HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE -RPT Nine 1,205,000 341,000 403,000 219,000 119,000 123,000
4 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,139,000 326,000 344,000 257,000 102,000 111,000
5 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,082,000 187,000 458,000 159,000 147,000 132,000
6 ABC NEWS-SAT ABC1 996,000 294,000 296,000 182,000 115,000 110,000
9 THE BILL ABC1 796,000 238,000 227,000 117,000 85,000 129,000
10 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 723,000 Not shown 390,000 65,000 128,000 140,000
14 SATURDAY AFTERNOON AFL Ten 525,000 97,000 249,000 41,000 72,000 66,000
16 SEVEN'S R.U: BLEDISLOE CUP: N Z V AUS Seven 491,000 234,000 32,000 176,000 11,000 38,000
21 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST2 DAY3 S1 SBS ONE 383,000 145,000 73,000 83,000 45,000 37,000
113 VFL FOOTBALL 2009 ABC1 52,000 Not shown 52,000 Not shown
122 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009-PM ABC1 44,000 44,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown Not shown
147 RUGBY LEAGUE: (QLD) 2009 ABC1 30,000 Not shown Not shown 30,000 Not shown Not shown
161 THE SANFL-PM ABC1 22,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown 22,000 Not shown
164 SATURDAY LATE NIGHT AFL Ten 20,000 20,000 Not shown
Not shown Not shown Not shown
172 WAFL LIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL 2009 ABC1 14,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown Not shown 14,000
189 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 8,000 Not shown 4,000 Not shown 2,000 2,000
205 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 16: ESSENDON VS WESTERN BULLDOGS Seven 5,000 1,000 Not shown 4,000 Not shown Not shown
210 SIMPLY FOOTY ONE 2,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown 2,000 Not shown
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,950,000 535,000 647,000 325,000 193,000 251,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,398,000 381,000 392,000 269,000 149,000 207,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,251,000 369,000 361,000 223,000 133,000 165,000
4 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,200,000 392,000 374,000 187,000 110,000 137,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,109,000 328,000 359,000 223,000 116,000 84,000
6 NEIGHBOURS Ten 998,000 304,000 300,000 190,000 97,000 108,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 981,000 291,000 266,000 207,000 109,000 108,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 979,000 272,000 304,000 225,000 102,000 75,000
9 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 971,000 253,000 264,000 192,000 117,000 146,000
10 TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION: RULES OF THE GAME ABC1 912,000 288,000 254,000 122,000 114,000 135,000
17 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 16: ESSENDON VS WESTERN BULLDOGS Seven 628,000 11,000 396,000 10,000 121,000 90,000
21 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 547,000 288,000 259,000
23 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST2 DAY2 S1 SBS ONE 479,000 154,000 153,000 73,000 52,000 47,000
27 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 412,000 254,000 158,000
87 TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 HIGHLIGHTS SBS ONE 121,000 47,000 23,000 21,000 13,000 17,000
154 POKER: PCA ONE 44,000 12,000 16,000 4,000 7,000 5,000
190 BOXING: KO TV CLASSIC ONE 21,000 2,000 8,000 3,000 7,000 3,000
202 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 16,000 10,000 2,000 4,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 2,360,000 648,000 844,000 363,000 228,000 276,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,607,000 431,000 425,000 341,000 184,000 226,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,460,000 406,000 364,000 319,000 174,000 197,000
4 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,356,000 395,000 365,000 302,000 147,000 147,000
5 RUSH Ten 1,167,000 312,000 403,000 175,000 130,000 147,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,140,000 295,000 360,000 279,000 119,000 87,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,096,000 299,000 355,000 257,000 106,000 78,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 999,000 275,000 261,000 233,000 115,000 115,000
9 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 974,000 252,000 307,000 170,000 117,000 128,000
10 TRUE BEAUTY Seven 970,000 309,000 283,000 162,000 101,000 114,000
27 FRIENDS RPT Ten 509,000 127,000 166,000 105,000 48,000 62,000
28 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST2 DAY1 S1 SBS ONE 495,000 162,000 160,000 75,000 55,000 43,000

The ratings race, updated 10 am Wednesday
At this rate, Sunday's finale of Masterchef could top the magic 3 million mark and Channel Ten could beat both Seven and Nine for the week. Last night's 2.23 million in the mainland capitals was Ten's biggest audience number of any show this year. It even beat the biffo, suggesting Australians would rather cook than kick. Although Nine won last night, the prime time shares for the week stand at: Ten 26.5 per cent, Seven 25.4, Nine 24.7, ABC 15.3, SBS 8.0.

We're looking for two predictions: who will win MasterChef, and how many people in the mainland capitals will watch Sunday's final? Go to Comments to display your futurological skills. Personally, this column is saying Poh and 3 million.

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 2,231,000 592,000 793,000 360,000 225,000 262,000
2 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE 3RD - MATCH Nine 1,842,000 795,000 268,000 647,000 67,000 65,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,559,000 447,000 397,000 327,000 166,000 222,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,479,000 440,000 352,000 324,000 157,000 206,000
5 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 3RD - POST MATCH Nine 1,343,000 812,000 531,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,219,000 295,000 429,000 251,000 136,000 109,000
7 THE SIMPSONS WED Ten 1,142,000 229,000 483,000 119,000 131,000 179,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,120,000 344,000 298,000 215,000 123,000 140,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,108,000 275,000 378,000 258,000 116,000 81,000
10 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,105,000 281,000 364,000 134,000 146,000 180,000
13 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 987,000 240,000 322,000 133,000 147,000 145,000
16 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 956,000 287,000 285,000 206,000 93,000 86,000
25 THE COOK AND THE CHEF ABC1 637,000 162,000 206,000 102,000 68,000 99,000
34 HUEY'S COOKING ADVENTURES Ten 416,000 104,000 123,000 81,000 58,000 50,000
44 FOOD INVESTIGATORS SBS ONE 297,000 106,000 84,000 38,000 37,000 33,000
61 READY STEADY COOK Ten 226,000 48,000 74,000 29,000 33,000 41,000
69 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 196,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown 97,000 99,000
105 THE COOKS RPT Ten 99,000 35,000 31,000 13,000 8,000 12,000
163 THE COOK AND THE CHEF MOMENTS-PM ABC2 45,000 33,000 7,000 4,000 0 1,000
165 ALIVE AND COOKING -RPT Nine 43,000 19,000 24,000

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 2,191,000 609,000 731,000 374,000 226,000 252,000
2 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,791,000 471,000 581,000 351,000 186,000 202,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,627,000 425,000 476,000 323,000 183,000 221,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,531,000 408,000 414,000 324,000 173,000 212,000
5 SURF PATROL Seven 1,526,000 374,000 473,000 315,000 172,000 193,000
6 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,495,000 417,000 470,000 244,000 163,000 201,000
7 AIR WAYS Seven 1,216,000 325,000 367,000 239,000 116,000 169,000
8 NINE NEWS Nine 1,206,000 330,000 416,000 234,000 119,000 107,000
9 ALL SAINTS Seven 1,202,000 339,000 377,000 188,000 170,000 129,000
10 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,193,000 342,000 396,000 242,000 126,000 87,000
14 HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN -RPT Nine 978,000 322,000 310,000 134,000 107,000 106,000
36 SUNRISE Seven 333,000 85,000 77,000 92,000 29,000 50,000
39 TODAY Nine 280,000 78,000 97,000 58,000 19,000 29,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 2,119,000 541,000 750,000 331,000 228,000 269,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,814,000 562,000 482,000 344,000 170,000 256,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,699,000 524,000 446,000 338,000 157,000 233,000
4 RECRUITS Ten 1,375,000 390,000 434,000 210,000 135,000 205,000
5 SEA PATROL Nine 1,350,000 364,000 399,000 233,000 158,000 196,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,207,000 294,000 446,000 255,000 116,000 97,000
7 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,170,000 381,000 387,000 164,000 100,000 138,000
13 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 1,005,000 228,000 329,000 183,000 128,000 138,000
18 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 983,000 341,000 247,000 189,000 102,000 104,000
26 TOP GEAR SBS ONE 742,000 183,000 232,000 167,000 74,000 86,000
29 HOT SEAT Nine 688,000 166,000 239,000 147,000 80,000 57,000
36 SEVEN NEWS AT 4.30 Seven 410,000 114,000 118,000 89,000 52,000 36,000
55 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SBS ONE 275,000 94,000 68,000 45,000 26,000 42,000
63 THIS AFTERNOON Nine 233,000 79,000 80,000 37,000 20,000 18,000
77 30 ROCK Seven 169,000 62,000 42,000 23,000 32,000 10,000
109 GOOD GAME ABC2 97,000 39,000 12,000 14,000 8,000 24,000
What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,978,000 567,000 637,000 335,000 204,000 235,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,668,000 349,000 522,000 407,000 142,000 248,000
3 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,640,000 453,000 548,000 361,000 172,000 106,000
4 DANCING WITH THE STARS 9 Seven 1,357,000 372,000 395,000 306,000 134,000 150,000
5 MERLIN Ten 1,299,000 388,000 349,000 229,000 145,000 188,000
6 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,224,000 276,000 436,000 282,000 107,000 123,000
7 BONES Seven 1,075,000 285,000 313,000 228,000 114,000 136,000
8 ROVE Ten 1,049,000 253,000 360,000 220,000 104,000 112,000
9 60 MINUTES Nine 1,019,000 265,000 331,000 230,000 92,000 101,000
10 THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS Nine 998,000 303,000 302,000 167,000 114,000 112,000
13 AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MISS MARPLE ABC1 876,000 277,000 204,000 137,000 124,000 135,000
14 CASTLE Seven 831,000 209,000 281,000 147,000 91,000 102,000
22 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 540,000 335,000 205,000
23 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 15: MELBOURNE VS PORT ADELAIDE Seven 487,000 42,000 267,000 45,000 134,000
56 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 ONE 187,000 34,000 64,000 40,000 28,000 21,000
62 AFL GAME DAY Seven 168,000 99,000 35,000 34,000
75 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 15: WEST COAST VS ST KILDA Seven 131,000 131,000
90 SUPER LEAGUE Nine 76,000 48,000 29,000
117 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 15: HAWTHORN VS NORTH MELBOURNE Seven 36,000 36,000
139 DURAN DURAN: LIVE FROM WEMBLEY ARENA 2000 ABC2 26,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
159 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL LATE Nine 16,000 8,000 3,000 5,000

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 08:24 AM
• Comments (71)

The Tribal Mind: Nothing succeeds like excess

To discuss whether Australians are too dumb to function in the 21st century, go to Who We Are.

by David Dale
The stupidest blockbuster ever made. The lamest movie ever to earn $300 million. The most critically panned smash hit in history. Proof that the majority of moviegoers are morons, or that the number of 11 year old boys in the world has been seriously underestimated. The best evidence yet that civilization is on the toboggan.

The contender for all those titles has been seen so far by 3 million people in Australia, and is on the way to replacing The Dark Knight as our highest grossing movie of the past five years. The Dark Knight was both entertaining and thought-provoking, its success an inspiring example of the sophistication of 21st century cinemagoers. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is big and loud, and there's not nearly enough of Megan Fox to compensate for its monotony. Its success offers a different image of 21st century cinemagoers.

But is it that much worse than most of the blockbusters Hollywood has shovelled onto us in the past two decades? Consider this list ...

Movie moneymakers that seriously sucked:
1 Matrix Revolutions
2 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (the one with Jar Jar Binks)
3 Godzilla (the 1998 version)
4 Pearl Harbour
5 Batman and Robin (the one with George Clooney)
6 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
7 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
8 Van Helsing
9 Armageddon
10 Spider-Man 3.

America's best known movie critic, Roger Ebert, would put Transformers 2 at the top of that list. He has launched a crusade to convince Hollywood that the madness must end. Ebert describes Transformers 2 as "a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments". Britain's critics agree with him. "A giant, lumbering idiot of a movie," said The Daily Mirror. "Like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan," said The Guardian. "Sums up everything that is most tedious, crass and despicable about modern Hollywood", said The Daily Mail.

Ebert singles out this film because it's a tipping point in modern moviemaking. "The day will come when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be studied in film classes and shown at cult film festivals," he writes. "It will be seen, in retrospect, as marking the end of an era. Of course there will be many more CGI-based action epics, but never again one this bloated, excessive, incomprehensible, long (149 minutes) or expensive (more than $US200 million).

"Like the dinosaurs," says Ebert, "the species has grown too big to survive, and will be wiped out in a cataclysmic event, replaced by more compact, durable forms."

So how come Australians, who are neither idiots nor masochists, spent $30 million in the past two weeks going to see this film? I offer two theories:

Scholarly motives. We were curious to see how bad a movie could be. It is encouraging that takings dropped 54 per cent on the second weekend. If a film is getting good word of mouth, takings usually drop by 30 per cent or less. Having gone along to examine excess, Australians told their friends not to bother.

Patriotic motives. Two Australians are prominent in T2 - Isabel Lucas, a former soap starlet who plays a stick-thin university student with a secret, and Hugo Weaving, who voices a pile of spare parts called Megatron. Perhaps we're going along to ease their embarrassment at being forced by poverty to appear in such a shlocker.

Go to Comments to offer your theory on why we watch the worst blockbusters of all time.

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 The Tribal Mind at 10:18 AM
• Comments (18)

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 discuss if Transformers 2 sucks more than any blockbuster in history, go to The Tribal Mind.
To discuss whether Australians are too dumb to function in the 21st century, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 11 am Monday
It was another shocking week for Nine, with bits of its audience stolen not just by Ten but by SBS, which snapped up the cricket and sent Kerry Packer spinning in his grave. Nine was almost saved on Saturday when Ten failed to attract many to its footy, but the prime time audience shares ended up this way: Seven 27.5 per cent, Ten 23.1, Nine 23.0, ABC 16.1, SBS 10.4.

This was Pay TV's account of itself: "An all time series record 285,000 viewers [or 342,000 if you add the audience for the replay 2 hours later] watched Tahnee Atkinson beat Cassi Van Den Dungen in Australia's Next Top Model Live Finale on FOX8. Torchwood: Children of Earth premiered on UKTV with 141,000 viewers, NCIS on TV1 was watched by 118,000 people and Dollhouse on FOX8 was seen by 114,000 people. Sonny with a Chance had its biggest audience of the year so far on the Disney Channel with 111,000 people, The Searchers premiered on FOX Classics with 101,000 people and iCarly on Nickelodeon had its best result of the year with 91,000 people.

"In sport programs, Live: NRL Sea Eagles v Bulldogs on FOX Sports had 339,000 viewers while 244,000 people watched Live: Cricket: Ashes: Day 1 Session 1. Live: AFL Sydney v Essendon was seen by 175,000 people, Live: AFL: On the Couch was watched by 125,000 and the replay of the record making match between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, Tennis: Wimbledon: Men's Final, was seen by 75,000 people (all on FOX Sports)."

In the chart below, we track the fate of every bit of Jacksploitation on the box last week:
What Australia watched, week ending July 11
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,980,000 619,000 584,000 329,000 188,000 260,000
2 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,851,000 503,000 665,000 279,000 192,000 213,000
3 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,772,000 391,000 574,000 387,000 172,000 248,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,686,000 466,000 557,000 291,000 171,000 200,000
5 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,658,000 492,000 540,000 277,000 141,000 208,000
6 THE ZOO Seven 1,618,000 440,000 480,000 339,000 156,000 203,000
7 DANCING WITH THE STARS 9 Seven 1,579,000 459,000 447,000 323,000 173,000 178,000
Continued here

8 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,578,000 398,000 473,000 360,000 158,000 190,000
9 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,532,000 427,000 410,000 313,000 171,000 210,000
10 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,507,000 394,000 479,000 318,000 131,000 185,000
11 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,419,000 395,000 375,000 302,000 167,000 181,000
12 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,390,000 424,000 394,000 286,000 175,000 111,000
13 MERLIN Ten 1,378,000 410,000 361,000 255,000 142,000 210,000
14 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,373,000 360,000 466,000 257,000 130,000 161,000
15 BONES Seven 1,371,000 429,000 354,000 276,000 165,000 146,000
16 NINE NEWS Nine 1,279,000 332,000 440,000 273,000 130,000 104,000
17 ROVE Ten 1,276,000 348,000 444,000 184,000 107,000 193,000
18 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,252,000 387,000 432,000 203,000 89,000 141,000
19 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,246,000 338,000 336,000 275,000 150,000 148,000
20 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,226,000 336,000 325,000 232,000 142,000 192,000
21 RECRUITS Ten 1,220,000 392,000 358,000 185,000 127,000 157,000
22 GETAWAY Nine 1,219,000 328,000 415,000 237,000 112,000 126,000
23 NCIS RPT Ten 1,217,000 313,000 337,000 242,000 134,000 192,000
24 SEA PATROL Nine 1,213,000 332,000 360,000 236,000 136,000 150,000
25 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,196,000 320,000 386,000 247,000 126,000 117,000
26 MICHAEL JACKSON: THE LAST TIME Seven 1,194,000 348,000 380,000 207,000 117,000 141,000
38 TODAY TONIGHT - MICHAEL JACKSON SPECIAL Seven 1,059,000 302,000 291,000 205,000 102,000 159,000
43 THE MICHAEL JACKSON MEMORIAL CONCERT Nine 1,029,000 340,000 317,000 184,000 87,000 101,000
81 MICHAEL JACKSON IN CONCERT Nine 778,000 265,000 253,000 95,000 74,000 92,000
88 LIVING WITH MICHAEL JACKSON Seven 746,000 229,000 211,000 125,000 85,000 96,000
164 MICHAEL JACKSON'S MEMORIAL CONCERT (R) Seven 327,000 99,000 90,000 72,000 38,000 29,000
257 THE LATEST ON MICHAEL JACKSON -RPT Nine 174,000 76,000 77,000 21,000
293 MICHAEL JACKSON: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED -RPT Nine 150,000 42,000 74,000 15,000 19,000
314 SUNRISE - MICHAEL JACKSON'S MEMORIAL Seven 140,000 33,000 52,000 23,000 12,000 20,000
357 THE MICHAEL JACKSON STORY (R) Seven 116,000 35,000 29,000 26,000 14,000 11,000
371 TODAY -MICHAEL JACKSON SPECIAL Nine 107,000 32,000 39,000 13,000 11,000 11,000
382 MICHAEL JACKSON THE KING OF POP -RPT Nine 103,000 25,000 48,000 17,000 13,000
403 MICHAEL JACKSON: THE LAST TIME (R) Seven 89,000 16,000 34,000 17,000 14,000 7,000
560 THE LATEST ON MICHAEL JACKSON Nine 39,000 Not shown Not shown Not shown 39,000 Not shown
What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,578,000 398,000 473,000 360,000 158,000 190,000
2 NEW TRICKS ABC1 1,226,000 336,000 325,000 232,000 142,000 192,000
3 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 1,126,000 334,000 263,000 257,000 132,000 140,000
4 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,101,000 308,000 339,000 226,000 139,000 91,000
5 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 1,002,000 259,000 306,000 182,000 137,000 118,000
6 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS -RPT Nine 921,000 308,000 261,000 159,000 71,000 122,000
8 THE BILL ABC1 789,000 222,000 220,000 144,000 89,000 114,000
10 GARDENING AUSTRALIA-EV ABC1 696,000 174,000 218,000 130,000 100,000 75,000
11 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 696,000 362,000 100,000 148,000 86,000
12 SATURDAY AFTERNOON AFL Ten 583,000 85,000 294,000 44,000 82,000 78,000
16 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY4 S1 SBS ONE 429,000 117,000 152,000 85,000 39,000 35,000
17 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY4 S2 SBS ONE 427,000 114,000 123,000 75,000 57,000 58,000
106 VFL FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 55,000 55,000
114 RUGBY UNION: SHUTE SHIELD (NSW) 2009-PM ABC1 47,000 47,000
119 RUGBY LEAGUE: (QLD) 2009-PM ABC1 42,000 42,000
148 WAFL LIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL 2009-PM ABC1 25,000 25,000
149 SATURDAY LATE NIGHT AFL Ten 24,000 24,000
172 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 15: WESTERN BULLDOGS VS COLLINGWOOD Seven 16,000 5,000 11,000
173 THE SANFL-PM ABC1 16,000 16,000
183 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 10,000 3,000 7,000

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,413,000 367,000 391,000 278,000 162,000 214,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,392,000 374,000 481,000 235,000 132,000 170,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,248,000 326,000 346,000 282,000 149,000 145,000
4 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,246,000 338,000 336,000 275,000 150,000 148,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,217,000 309,000 426,000 254,000 133,000 94,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,015,000 265,000 324,000 234,000 112,000 80,000
9 TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION: KILL THE KING ABC1 927,000 287,000 243,000 158,000 103,000 136,000
16 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 15: WESTERN BULLDOGS VS COLLINGWOOD Seven 693,000 10,000 462,000 13,000 116,000 93,000
17 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Ten 659,000 177,000 220,000 120,000 67,000 75,000
20 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY3 S1 SBS ONE 565,000 166,000 175,000 115,000 64,000 45,000
24 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 472,000 296,000 176,000
29 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY3 S2 SBS ONE 415,000 92,000 145,000 69,000 57,000 53,000
70 TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 HIGHLIGHTS SBS ONE 184,000 54,000 61,000 37,000 23,000 9,000
98 TORCHWOOD ABC2 127,000 31,000 32,000 22,000 18,000 23,000
112 MR BEAN WITH ROWAN ATKINSON ABC2 98,000 60,000 15,000 17,000 2,000 4,000
113 MR BEAN WITH ROWAN ATKINSON ABC1 97,000 25,000 10,000 25,000 12,000 25,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,550,000 430,000 458,000 308,000 162,000 193,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,514,000 416,000 403,000 318,000 189,000 187,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,410,000 375,000 374,000 335,000 156,000 170,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,226,000 287,000 442,000 278,000 127,000 92,000
5 GETAWAY Nine 1,217,000 326,000 416,000 238,000 112,000 126,000
6 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,150,000 339,000 344,000 221,000 110,000 136,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,143,000 299,000 350,000 231,000 129,000 134,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,137,000 259,000 424,000 254,000 107,000 92,000
9 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,109,000 323,000 337,000 223,000 111,000 115,000
12 NED KELLY UNCOVERED ABC1 901,000 282,000 243,000 162,000 102,000 113,000
26 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY2 S1 SBS ONE 632,000 217,000 188,000 127,000 62,000 39,000
36 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY2 S2 SBS ONE 353,000 90,000 115,000 53,000 36,000 59,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,924,000 521,000 641,000 328,000 211,000 223,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,494,000 406,000 396,000 317,000 166,000 208,000
3 THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE Seven 1,374,000 360,000 466,000 257,000 130,000 162,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,338,000 377,000 434,000 278,000 143,000 106,000
5 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,160,000 315,000 338,000 206,000 141,000 159,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,131,000 286,000 410,000 222,000 123,000 91,000
7 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,058,000 302,000 291,000 205,000 101,000 158,000
8 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,058,000 346,000 256,000 195,000 117,000 144,000
10 THE MICHAEL JACKSON MEMORIAL CONCERT Nine 1,014,000 335,000 310,000 183,000 86,000 100,000
11 THE CHASER'S WAR ON EVERYTHING ABC1 992,000 385,000 221,000 157,000 107,000 122,000
15 MICHAEL JACKSON IN CONCERT Nine 854,000 282,000 273,000 123,000 79,000 98,000
20 LIVING WITH MICHAEL JACKSON Seven 747,000 230,000 212,000 126,000 85,000 95,000
23 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY1 S1 SBS ONE 679,000 210,000 236,000 115,000 76,000 42,000
34 THE 2009 ASHES: TEST1 DAY1 S2 SBS ONE 363,000 75,000 134,000 58,000 43,000 52,000
43 MICHAEL JACKSON'S MEMORIAL CONCERT (R) Seven 327,000 99,000 90,000 72,000 38,000 29,000
51 MORTIFIED ABC1 267,000 106,000 62,000 57,000 14,000 29,000
86 SUNRISE - MICHAEL JACKSON'S MEMORIAL CONCERT Seven 126,000 35,000 54,000 25,000 12,000
94 TODAY -MICHAEL JACKSON SPECIAL Nine 106,000 33,000 38,000 13,000 11,000 10,000

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,851,000 503,000 665,000 279,000 192,000 213,000
2 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,664,000 489,000 537,000 274,000 163,000 202,000
3 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,659,000 493,000 540,000 277,000 141,000 208,000
4 THE ZOO Seven 1,617,000 440,000 480,000 338,000 156,000 203,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,577,000 459,000 415,000 314,000 167,000 222,000
6 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,506,000 394,000 479,000 318,000 131,000 185,000
7 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,457,000 416,000 383,000 286,000 180,000 192,000
8 NINE NEWS Nine 1,301,000 360,000 431,000 277,000 112,000 122,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,262,000 384,000 407,000 253,000 101,000 116,000
16 GRAND DESIGNS ABC1 948,000 331,000 234,000 178,000 86,000 120,000
20 HOME MADE Nine 900,000 246,000 303,000 151,000 98,000 102,000
28 LITTLE BRITAIN Nine 580,000 166,000 181,000 101,000 57,000 74,000
80 THE LATEST ON MICHAEL JACKSON -RPT Nine 174,000 76,000 77,000 21,000
85 MICHAEL JACKSON: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED -RPT Nine 148,000 42,000 74,000 15,000 17,000The ratings race, updated 10 am Monday
Channel Seven's doco about Michael Jackson last night was called The Last Time, but that's unlikely to deter other channels from further Jacksploitation, since 1.2 million people in the mainland capitals clearly have not yet had enough. Seven won the night, but Ten pushed Nine back to third place, and the prime time audience shares for the week so far stand at: Seven 28.0 per cent, Ten 25.7, Nine 23.9, ABC 16.1, SBS 6.2.

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 1,804,000 507,000 604,000 308,000 176,000 209,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,697,000 506,000 459,000 333,000 175,000 223,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,545,000 457,000 393,000 304,000 180,000 211,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,289,000 327,000 455,000 273,000 129,000 105,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,255,000 323,000 459,000 273,000 110,000 90,000
6 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,253,000 387,000 432,000 203,000 89,000 142,000
7 RECRUITS Ten 1,217,000 391,000 357,000 185,000 127,000 157,000
8 SEA PATROL Nine 1,215,000 332,000 360,000 237,000 136,000 151,000
9 MICHAEL JACKSON: THE LAST TIME Seven 1,193,000 349,000 380,000 207,000 117,000 140,000
10 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,094,000 340,000 335,000 215,000 88,000 116,000
11 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 1,088,000 343,000 326,000 176,000 123,000 120,000
23 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 854,000 212,000 256,000 207,000 58,000 121,000
26 SUPERNATURAL Ten 711,000 184,000 212,000 166,000 77,000 73,000
28 TOP GEAR SBS ONE 686,000 187,000 210,000 130,000 74,000 85,000
29 SPOOKS ABC1 677,000 182,000 227,000 99,000 76,000 93,000
45 WIMBLEDON MEN'S FINAL Nine 330,000 106,000 116,000 51,000 57,000
50 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS SBS ONE 301,000 102,000 95,000 37,000 19,000 47,000
72 WALLACE AND GROMIT'S CRACKING CONTRAPTIONS ABC1 192,000 63,000 52,000 22,000 22,000 33,000
74 30 ROCK Seven 186,000 45,000 65,000 25,000 19,000 32,000

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - CHALLENGE Ten 1,979,000 619,000 584,000 329,000 188,000 260,000
2 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,768,000 391,000 574,000 387,000 172,000 244,000
3 DANCING WITH THE STARS Seven 1,571,000 456,000 445,000 320,000 171,000 179,000
4 BONES Seven 1,419,000 438,000 364,000 287,000 170,000 160,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,386,000 424,000 391,000 286,000 174,000 111,000
6 MERLIN Ten 1,378,000 410,000 361,000 255,000 142,000 210,000
7 ROVE Ten 1,290,000 351,000 448,000 187,000 109,000 195,000
8 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS Nine 1,196,000 320,000 387,000 246,000 127,000 116,000
9 60 MINUTES Nine 1,172,000 299,000 390,000 251,000 100,000 133,000
10 AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MISS MARPLE ABC1 1,119,000 384,000 302,000 169,000 128,000 137,000
11 CASTLE Seven 1,064,000 278,000 350,000 191,000 127,000 118,000
12 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 14: ST KILDA VS GEELONG Seven 964,000 19,000 626,000 13,000 155,000 151,000
16 MUSIC & LYRICS (one of the people in the picture is not Hugh Grant, but the other is Drew Barrymore) Nine 805,000 268,000 284,000 157,000 96,000
20 WIMBLEDON MEN'S FINAL Nine 608,000 170,000 199,000 78,000 79,000 82,000
21 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 552,000 339,000 206,000 7,000
52 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 14: FREMANTLE VS CARLTON Seven 165,000 165,000
58 TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 HIGHLIGHTS SBS ONE 159,000 42,000 39,000 53,000 13,000 12,000
61 TOUR DE FRANCE 2009 STAGE 2 SBS 152,000 38,000 56,000 22,000 22,000 14,000
62 AFL GAME DAY Seven 151,000 79,000 42,000 30,000
73 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 14: SYDNEY VS NORTH MELBOURNE Seven 128,000 87,000 41,000

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 05:29 AM
• Comments (65)

The Tribal Mind: Busting the box's big myths

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

by David Dale
TIME for another reality check. Network television, like printed newspapers, was supposed to be dead by now. We were meant to be getting all our news and entertainment from computers, DVDs, portable players and mobile phones.

In fact, as this column revealed recently, sales of weekly and daily papers are declining at less than 2 percent a year, which hardly suggests an imminent demise. Is television an equally stubborn survivor? Now that we have the audience data for the first half of 2009, we're in a position to do a postmortem on the still-kicking corpse. Lets address some conventional wisdoms.

Australians are losing interest in mainstream television. This is sort of true. In the first half of 2003, an average of 3.91 million people in the mainland capitals watched free TV between 6pm and midnight. This year, the figure was 3.6 million - a drop of 8 per cent. If you consider only viewers aged 16 to 39, the drop over six years was 17 per cent. It's even more worrying for the networks when you realize that Australia's population rose by a million people over that period.

BUT (and it's a big but, which is why I wrote it in capital letters) over the same period the average prime time audience for Pay TV stations rose by 60 per cent. So in total, Australians are watching about as much TV now as they were six years ago. Which makes the conventional wisdom sort of false as well.

Channel Nine is fighting back. False. Its average prime time audience this year is down 20 per cent on 2003 (and down 23 per cent with its target audience of people aged 25-54).

Channel Ten is soaring. Sort of true, if you look only at its share of the audience relative to the other free networks. In the first half of 2003, Ten had 22.6 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine had 30.7 per cent and Seven had 25.6. This year, Ten has 23.3 per cent, Nine has 26.4 and Seven has 28.0.

But in terms of the actual number of viewers, Ten had an average of 859,000 during prime time in 2003, and now has 821,000, a drop of 5 per cent (and it's down 15 per cent with viewers 16-39).

Australians prefer US dramas and comedies to anything Australian. The last time this was true was in 2005, when we went crazy for Desperate Housewives, Lost and House. Since then, those shows have slumped. Look at this year's hits ...

Favourites of the first half (and who were the main viewers)
1 State of Origin matches 1 and 2 (mostly men aged 16-24 and 25-54)
2 Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities (people 25-54)
3 The Biggest Loser final (people 5-15 and 16-24, women 25-54)
4 Packed To The Rafters (people 25-54)
5 The Logie Awards (people 25-54)
6 Seven news (people over 55)
7 Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation (people 5-15, 16-24, 25-54 )
8 Masterchef (people 5-15 and 25-54)
9 Twenty/20 Cricket Aus v NZ (men 25-54)
10 A Lion Called Christian (over 55)
11 Border Security (over 55)
12 Thank God You're Here (16-39)
13 NCIS (16-54)
15 Find My Family (over 55)
16 So You Think You Can Dance Australia (5-15, 16-39)
17 Merlin (5-15)
18 New Tricks (over 55)
19 Midsomer Murders (over 55)
20 The Simpsons (5-15).

So we've embraced Australian dramas, documentaries and talent quests, plus a couple of English dramas. Should that make us feel better about ourselves?

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 04:53 PM
• Comments (5)