The Sun-Herald

The Tribal Mind: We're a page right out of history

For David Dale's daily update on Australian attitudes, bookmark blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare

Bloody Australians. You offer them a whole new world of choice in entertainment, and what do they go for? The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Survivor, Doctor Who, Mr Bean and people playing poker. Those are among the most watched shows on the digital channels that have suddenly popped into existence on our TV screens. Australia's response to the new abundance is not so much "back to the future" as "forward to the past".

Mind you, this week's enthusiasm for The Flintstones and The Jetsons may be based on scholarly curiosity rather than simple nostalgia. In the 1960s, The Jetsons predicted what Western society would be like in the 21st century: robot maids, flying cars, food pills, videophones and interplanetary tourism, while The Flintstones demonstrates what life will be like if we don't do something about climate change.

What no forecaster anticipated was a proliferation of media outlets combined with a massive shortage of imagination, causing a network such as Channel Nine to fill the schedule of its new station with programs that have already been regularly repeated on free to air and Pay TV.

This week the ratings agency, OzTAM, reported for the first time on audience figures for Nine's new digital offshoot GO! (the exclamation mark is part of its official title).

On Sunday GO! attracted 2.8 per cent of the prime time audience. Nine got terribly excited and put out a press release headed "GO! Makes History As Australia's Most Successful Multi-Channel Launch". It quoted Nine's CEO, David Gyngell, thus: "Viewers have embraced the channel and what it has to offer, and to be recording this sort of outcome within a couple of weeks of our soft launch is very good news for Australian television and the PBL Media Group."

By mid week, this was looking like a case of premature expostulation. GO! settled down to 1.6 per cent - close to the share gained by ABC2 and by the top Pay channel, Fox 8. Here's what the neophiliacs of the digital age were watching ...

The hits of GO!: The Big Bang Theory rpt 204,000 in the mainland capitals; Wipeout 169,000; The Flintstones rpt 131,000; Survivor: Gabon 127,000; The Nanny rpt 123,000; Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles rpt 107,000; The Jetsons rpt 99,000.

The hits of ABC2: Scrapheap Challenge 123,000; Doctor Who: The Runaway Bride rpt 115,000; Wire in the Blood USA 113,000; Mr Bean rpt 85,000; The Beast 85,000.

The hits of ONE (Channel Ten's sports station): One Week at a Time 98,000; UFC Wired 82,000; FIA Formula One World Championship 65,000; Poker: Latin American Tour 51,000.

The hits of SBSTWO: The Elegant Universe rpt 61,000; Blokes and Sheds 35,000; Nathalie rpt 32,000; Dreamship Surprise rpt 23,000.

The hits of Fox8: America's Next Top Model 146,000; The Simpsons rpt 142,000; Family Guy rpt 126,000; Futurama rpt 119,000; Dollhouse 71,000.

So the top show across the multiverse is a repeat of an American sitcom that started on Nine last year. The only hits which are not repeats are a game show and a reality show that flopped when tried out on Nine (Wipeout and Survivor) and two American cop shows that are too grim for mainstream TV (Wire in the Blood USA and The Beast).

It would seem that in their viewing choices, Australians are the modern stone age family. Go to Comments to discuss whether TV has got better or just bigger.

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.