The Sun-Herald

The Tribal Mind: Wudjarava be bold or beautiful?

by David Dale
ON Wednesday, the print media went into a frenzy about The Great Health Debate between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott, on the assumption that the whole nation was talking about it. But like a tree falling in a forest, can a debate be said to influence voters if nobody actually watched it?

The ratings agency OzTAM estimated that 274,000 people in the mainland capitals watched Channel Nine's "worm" coverage (in which 100 swinging voters gave instant reactions by turning dials in an auditorium in Melbourne) and 180,000 people watched Channel Seven's "polliegraph" (57 swinging voters turning dials in an auditorium in Sydney). On the same afternoon, 463,000 daytime stay-at-homes watched The Bold and The Beautiful, 369,000 watched Huey's Cooking Adventures, and 287,000 watched Judge Judy.

Does an afternoon victory for The Bold and The Beautiful imply that Australians might not be mentally engaged with politics at this moment in history? Were Wednesday's assertions about "the winner" and "the loser" just a wank by the political journalists, who habitually bypass the real concerns of Australians to argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Beware of first impressions. In fact, a total of 725,000 people in the mainland capitals watched the debate on Tuesday afternoon, an audience figure made up of these elements: Nine 274,000; ABC1 183,000; Seven 180,000; Ten 63,000; Sky News 25,000. In isolation, any of those numbers would suggest Australians are sunk in traditional apathy. But when you total them, you get more viewers than the 527,000 who sat through the daytime Oscars earlier this month. As it turns out, 725,000 is close to an all-time record audience for any program between midday and 2pm.

Add to that the 1.4 million who watched Seven's polliegraph coverage on that night's news, which declared Rudd "the winner", and the 1.1 million who watched the Nine news coverage, which also declared Rudd "the winner", and you might conclude the tree did fall in the forest and the debate could have influenced the voting intentions of the vulgar masses.

In the 2008 edition of his book Advance Australia ... Where?, the social analyst Hugh Mackay suggested that over the past two decades Australians fluctuated between "Dreamy Periods", when they were "relaxed", "comfortable" and "disengaged", re-electing old leaders because we couldn't be bothered thinking about politics; and, alternatively, "Re-emergent Periods" when we were enthusiastic about social change and making demands on all politicians.

Mackay says we entered a Dreamy Period in the late 90s, when we were happy to let John Howard set national priorities, and became "Re-Emergent" in the mid noughties, when we demanded new approaches from all politicians (and our media). After the 2007 election result, Mackay wrote: "It's fair to suggest that with a freshly engaged electorate, incumbent governments - federal, state or territory - will feel less secure over the next five years than they might have over the past five ... Voters at every level of government will be more alert, more critical, more demanding and less acquiescent."

Alternatively, the 2007 result might have been the last gasp of re-engagement, after which we returned to our cocoons, focussing on our children, our gardens, and our widescreen TV sets. Mackay wondered: "Could it be that we are seeing the beginning of a Dreamy Period Stage 2?".

Last Saturday's Tasmanian and South Australian election results suggested Australians are still engaged in the political process. The 725,000 figure for the great debate confirms it. Neither Rudd nor Abbott can take their audience for granted.

Go to Comments to discuss if you prefer your politics bold or beautiful.

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

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:39 PM
• Comments (2)

The Who We Are update: Week 13

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 whether Australians are politically engaged or back in a Dreamy Period, go to The Tribal Mind.
To suggest Great Lost Aussie Inventions, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10am Sunday
Channel Seven won the week, largely because of the final of My Kitchen Rules. If this column's theory of a political link is correct, Kevin Rudd will rise in the opinion polls.

The prime time audience shares for the week went like this: SBSTWO 0.3%; ABC3 0.4%; ABC2 1.1; ONE 1.4; 7TWO 2.6; GO 3.0; SBS1 4.1; ABC1 11.4; Ten 15.5; All Pay Stations 16.1; Nine 19.9; Seven 22.0.

This was Pay TV's account of itself for the week: "The Melbourne Storm held off a resurgent Penrith Panthers in FOX Sports' coverage of their Rugby League match, Live: NRL Panthers v Storm, watched by 220,000 people on Saturday evening. In Australian Rules, 183,000 watched Live: AFL Brisbane Lions v West Coast, 172,000 watched Live: Cricket: Test NZ v Aus 2nd Test and Live: Rugby Union: S14 Waratahs v Blues was seen by 96,000 viewers (all on FOX Sports).

"American Idol Performance Show on FOX8 was watched by 105,000 people, Hannah Montana on Disney Channel was seen by 88,000 and Legend of the Seeker on FOX8 had its best result of the year with 83,000 viewers. NCIS on TV1 was seen by 83,000 people, Location, Location, Location on Lifestyle Channel was viewed by 67,000 people and Keeping Up With The Kardashians on E! had its best result of the year with 62,000 viewers. Most watched non-sporting shows were The Simpsons, with 112,000, and Family Guy with 107,000, both on Fox8.

"In week 13, subscription TV channels had more viewers than any other network around Australia with 22.5% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 22.4% of all regional viewing and 57.0% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

What Australia recorded and watched later, week ending March 20
Description STN Overnight With timeshifted 000's Increase % Increase
1 HOUSE Network TEN 872,000 1,002,000 130,000 14.90%
2 BROTHERS & SISTERS-TUE Network 7 899,000 1,019,000 120,000 13.30%
3 GREY'S ANATOMY Network 7 1,089,000 1,204,000 115,000 10.60%
4 BROTHERS & SISTERS Network 7 982,000 1,096,000 114,000 11.60%
5 CRIMINAL MINDS Network 7 1,206,000 1,318,000 112,000 9.30%
6 THE GOOD WIFE Network TEN 1,123,000 1,231,000 109,000 9.70%
7 THE MENTALIST Network 9 1,277,000 1,386,000 109,000 8.50%
8 NCIS Network TEN 1,409,000 1,515,000 106,000 7.50%
9 BONES Network 7 1,381,000 1,485,000 104,000 7.50%
10 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP2 Network 9 708,000 808,000 100,000 14.10%

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,223,000 278,000 419,000 252,000 117,000 157,000
2 ABC NEWS-SAT ABC1 914,000 263,000 310,000 162,000 93,000 86,000
3 NINE NEWS SAT Nine 892,000 259,000 302,000 165,000 84,000 81,000
4 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 745,000 217,000 223,000 152,000 77,000 77,000
5 The BILL ABC1 718,000 213,000 204,000 120,000 87,000 94,000
6 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 693,000 82,000 295,000 85,000 74,000 156,000
7 M-ALICE IN WONDERLAND Seven 686,000 225,000 218,000 81,000 74,000 88,000
8 CROCODILE DUNDEE -RPT Nine 639,000 203,000 198,000 119,000 53,000 66,000
9 BED OF ROSES ABC1 617,000 187,000 190,000 114,000 67,000 59,000
10 BLUE MURDER ABC1 615,000 188,000 153,000 95,000 91,000 88,000
29 NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD SBS ONE 258,000 64,000 82,000 55,000 26,000 31,000
56 SATURDAY NIGHT AFL ONE 137,000 16,000 36,000 32,000 14,000 39,000
228 WAFL LIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL 2010-PM ABC1 20,000 20,000
237 THE SANFL-PM ABC1 18,000 18,000
238 RUGBY LEAGUE: (QLD) 2010-PM ABC1 17,000 17,000
272 AFL CLASSICS 7TWO 10,000 1,000 9,000 0 0 0
275 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 1: GEELONG VS ESSENDON Seven 9,000 4,000 6,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, week ending March 27
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Seven 1,530,000 457,000 543,000 293,000 180,000 56,000
2 NCIS Ten 1,503,000 419,000 432,000 279,000 158,000 214,000
3 AIR WAYS Seven 1,462,000 380,000 466,000 270,000 158,000 187,000
4 BONES Seven 1,450,000 367,000 424,000 310,000 159,000 190,000
5 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,407,000 314,000 446,000 320,000 124,000 204,000
6 BORDER SECURITY -TUE (R) Seven 1,397,000 416,000 390,000 249,000 157,000 185,000
7 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,384,000 354,000 443,000 262,000 147,000 180,000
8 TOP GEAR Nine 1,360,000 341,000 468,000 252,000 162,000 137,000
9 CUSTOMS Nine 1,358,000 401,000 400,000 177,000 169,000 211,000
10 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,325,000 438,000 341,000 263,000 167,000 117,000
11 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,324,000 346,000 374,000 242,000 146,000 215,000
12 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,310,000 387,000 498,000 201,000 105,000 120,000
13 THE FORCE (R) Seven 1,286,000 359,000 362,000 215,000 138,000 213,000
14 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,256,000 333,000 353,000 230,000 144,000 197,000
15 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,223,000 278,000 419,000 252,000 117,000 157,000
16 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,203,000 303,000 345,000 257,000 140,000 158,000
17 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,190,000 302,000 412,000 183,000 137,000 156,000
18 THE MENTALIST Nine 1,171,000 368,000 402,000 215,000 101,000 85,000
19 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,166,000 337,000 290,000 269,000 122,000 149,000
20 60 MINUTES Nine 1,157,000 337,000 348,000 253,000 90,000 128,000
21 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,155,000 336,000 380,000 235,000 90,000 115,000
22 SEVEN'S FOOTY SHOW Seven 1,150,000 396,000 329,000 199,000 110,000 115,000
23 RPA Nine 1,128,000 327,000 349,000 168,000 152,000 132,000
24 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,120,000 250,000 388,000 219,000 118,000 145,000
25 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 1,118,000 328,000 411,000 154,000 97,000 127,000
26 NINE NEWS Nine 1,112,000 307,000 352,000 232,000 103,000 118,000
27 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,102,000 352,000 306,000 186,000 131,000 127,000
28 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,095,000 337,000 373,000 202,000 104,000 79,000
29 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,088,000 307,000 362,000 190,000 109,000 121,000
30 THE GOOD WIFE Ten 1,086,000 328,000 331,000 192,000 126,000 110,000
31 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,067,000 342,000 285,000 196,000 112,000 133,000
32 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,056,000 299,000 359,000 193,000 84,000 122,000
33 THE MENTALIST -RPT Nine 1,055,000 282,000 363,000 201,000 106,000 103,000
34 CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT Seven 1,015,000 275,000 260,000 243,000 108,000 129,000
35 CASTLE Seven 998,000 267,000 304,000 189,000 120,000 117,000
36 HOME AND AWAY Seven 990,000 289,000 270,000 175,000 127,000 129,000
37 ABC NEWS ABC1 986,000 266,000 325,000 155,000 101,000 138,000
38 BONDI RESCUE Ten 965,000 315,000 275,000 198,000 77,000 100,000
39 DOMESTIC BLITZ Nine 953,000 292,000 257,000 212,000 96,000 96,000
40 THE BIGGEST LOSER (AUS) - THE WEIGH-IN Ten 952,000 294,000 246,000 196,000 75,000 141,000

The ratings race, updated 8am Friday
Channel Seven boasts that it had the top rating program in Sydney last night. In the chart below, it is labelled "Seven's Footy Show", but in Sydney and Brisbane it is actually The Matty Johns Show (while in the AFL states in the same timeslot there will be a show called The Bounce). Did any biffo fan in this forum manage to watch Matty Johns? I watched it (because I am required to discuss it on radio next Tuesday) but I could not understand what the audience was laughing at. Can you help?

Meanwhile in Melbourne, the AFL's first match of the season between Carlton and Richmond was watched by 449,000 people on Channel Ten. And Channel Nine put out this release:

Three of the Nine Network's most popular marquee programs launch in April: Underbelly, Hey Hey It's Saturday, and Sea Patrol. "I'm proud of the network's commitment to top quality Australian production across all genres. These three shows are great programs which our audiences love and we are excited to have them all back on the schedule," Mr Michael Healy, Nine Network Programming Director, said today.

Take 24 sailors from all walks of life, with different ages and temperaments, living cheek by jowl, away from family and friends for months at a time, in seas of all conditions and temperatures to make them boil. This is navy life in SEA PATROL, the third new program in Nine's massive week of April entertainment. The adventures on SEA PATROL forge deep and lasting friendships while the crew of HMAS Hammersley confront explosive situations and mysterious events with deadly consequences.
SEA PATROL returns with 16 action-packed episodes on Thursday, April 15, at 8.30pm.

Are you excited? Will this win the year for Channel Nine? Will this offer many opportunities for Bogie nominations?

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,224,000 298,000 372,000 226,000 141,000 186,000
2 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,190,000 302,000 412,000 183,000 137,000 156,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,160,000 291,000 334,000 218,000 134,000 183,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,042,000 276,000 319,000 222,000 104,000 121,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 979,000 277,000 332,000 197,000 82,000 91,000
6 ABC NEWS ABC1 895,000 230,000 304,000 154,000 92,000 116,000
7 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 889,000 240,000 302,000 173,000 73,000 102,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 868,000 261,000 253,000 148,000 97,000 110,000
9 WHITECHAPEL ABC1 861,000 279,000 234,000 127,000 114,000 107,000
11 SEVEN'S AFL: RND 1: GEELONG VS ESSENDON Seven 711,000 18,000 467,000 7,000 110,000 109,000
13 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 654,000 399,000 254,000
22 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 454,000 313,000 140,000
39 HITLER'S BODYGUARD SBS ONE 251,000 60,000 95,000 39,000 21,000 37,000
179 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 39,000 29,000 6,000 4,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,305,000 335,000 402,000 228,000 144,000 195,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,221,000 316,000 362,000 217,000 132,000 194,000
3 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,176,000 316,000 397,000 263,000 95,000 105,000
4 THE MENTALIST -RPT Nine 1,054,000 282,000 362,000 202,000 105,000 102,000
5 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,049,000 266,000 371,000 196,000 88,000 128,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,038,000 285,000 337,000 234,000 91,000 91,000
7 ABC NEWS ABC1 970,000 288,000 327,000 150,000 83,000 122,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 937,000 270,000 230,000 168,000 131,000 138,000
9 GETAWAY Nine 924,000 279,000 280,000 196,000 74,000 96,000
10 COUGAR TOWN Seven 816,000 266,000 204,000 165,000 86,000 95,000
15 SEVEN'S FOOTY SHOW Seven 647,000 396,000 42,000 199,000 2,000 8,000
16 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE AUSTRALIA - RESULTS Ten 636,000 216,000 143,000 160,000 40,000 77,000
22 THURSDAY NIGHT AFL Ten 515,000 382,000 84,000 49,000
26 I, PSYCHOPATH ABC1 448,000 191,000 102,000 65,000 41,000 49,000
34 FAMILY GUY Seven 339,000 109,000 130,000 33,000 28,000 39,000
36 TOP GEAR GO! 308,000 90,000 84,000 60,000 36,000 38,000
66 STARGATE ATLANTIS 7TWO 148,000 59,000 18,000 23,000 26,000 23,000
80 HEROES 7TWO 117,000 44,000 10,000 30,000 17,000 16,000
93 FIFTH GEAR 7TWO 103,000 27,000 17,000 30,000 14,000 15,000
252 THURSDAY LATE NIGHT AFL Ten 20,000 11,000 9,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 CUSTOMS Nine 1,349,000 399,000 398,000 176,000 165,000 210,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,308,000 338,000 355,000 262,000 146,000 208,000
3 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,294,000 386,000 426,000 257,000 93,000 132,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,228,000 323,000 335,000 235,000 141,000 194,000
5 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,199,000 303,000 345,000 257,000 137,000 157,000
6 RPA Nine 1,131,000 327,000 350,000 168,000 154,000 132,000
7 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 1,117,000 330,000 410,000 156,000 95,000 126,000
8 NINE NEWS Nine 1,105,000 317,000 362,000 218,000 98,000 110,000
9 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,082,000 352,000 352,000 177,000 87,000 115,000
10 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,079,000 346,000 288,000 198,000 113,000 134,000
16 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE AUSTRALIA Ten 818,000 261,000 257,000 160,000 60,000 80,000
19 HUNGRY BEAST ABC1 657,000 200,000 180,000 105,000 67,000 105,000
38 POH'S KITCHEN ABC1 351,000 123,000 114,000 55,000 25,000 34,000
51 LOST 7TWO 190,000 79,000 40,000 47,000 11,000 14,000
66 FRINGE GO! 151,000 34,000 48,000 20,000 31,000 18,000
71 TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES GO! 139,000 44,000 32,000 23,000 28,000 13,000
264 EMMERDALE 7TWO 18,000 8,000 0 2,000 5,000 3,000
275 CORONATION STREET 7TWO 15,000 6,000 1,000 1,000 6,000 2,000
291 SHORTLAND STREET ABC1 12,000 3,000 5,000 2,000 1,000 1,000
314 ALL MY CHILDREN 7TWO 7,000 7,000 0 0 0 0

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 NCIS Ten 1,502,000 420,000 432,000 279,000 158,000 213,000
2 BORDER SECURITY (R) Seven 1,397,000 416,000 390,000 249,000 157,000 185,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,391,000 375,000 369,000 231,000 147,000 269,000
4 TOP GEAR Nine 1,359,000 341,000 468,000 251,000 162,000 137,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,318,000 370,000 354,000 231,000 141,000 222,000
6 THE FORCE (R) Seven 1,288,000 359,000 362,000 215,000 138,000 215,000
7 NINE NEWS Nine 1,123,000 318,000 345,000 237,000 104,000 120,000
8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,114,000 301,000 359,000 237,000 93,000 124,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,058,000 329,000 284,000 163,000 137,000 146,000
10 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,054,000 306,000 333,000 224,000 82,000 109,000
13 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 943,000 248,000 276,000 174,000 99,000 145,000
14 NCIS: LOS ANGELES Ten 907,000 234,000 296,000 141,000 98,000 138,000
16 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP1 Nine 803,000 236,000 286,000 140,000 75,000 66,000
18 PRIVATE PRACTICE Seven 788,000 212,000 235,000 155,000 78,000 108,000
20 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP2 Nine 755,000 240,000 250,000 127,000 62,000 76,000
41 NINE NEWS SPECIAL Nine 274,000 78,000 94,000 67,000 18,000 18,000
51 NATIONAL PRESS CLUB ADDRESS ABC1 183,000 63,000 62,000 28,000 14,000 15,000

The ratings race, updated 10am Tuesday
AGB Nielsen, which provides ratings data to Oztam, has put out this bizarre warning with the data for last night: "CAUTION: Production and viewing levels for Perth ratings data for yesterday have been affected by severe weather conditions. Care should be exercised when analysing ratings data in Perth for 20100322 as results may be more variable than normal." Who knew the people-meters were so fragile? Or is it the people in Perth? Can anybody explain?

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Seven 1,525,000 457,000 543,000 293,000 180,000 51,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,391,000 384,000 374,000 263,000 155,000 215,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,346,000 359,000 377,000 246,000 169,000 195,000
4 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,311,000 390,000 496,000 201,000 105,000 119,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,252,000 390,000 404,000 231,000 95,000 132,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,233,000 341,000 384,000 244,000 113,000 150,000
7 THE MENTALIST Nine 1,171,000 367,000 402,000 215,000 101,000 85,000
8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,159,000 341,000 411,000 182,000 82,000 144,000
9 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,094,000 307,000 362,000 190,000 109,000 126,000
10 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,092,000 337,000 371,000 202,000 104,000 78,000
18 THE BIGGEST LOSER (AUS) - ELIMINATION Ten 772,000 221,000 252,000 171,000 51,000 75,000
28 MAN VS WILD SBS ONE 409,000 139,000 140,000 47,000 57,000 26,000
29 SUNRISE Seven 391,000 116,000 94,000 85,000 40,000 56,000
31 TODAY Nine 344,000 100,000 105,000 78,000 25,000 36,000
59 30 ROCK Seven 183,000 53,000 70,000 9,000 21,000 30,000

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 AIR WAYS Seven 1,467,000 382,000 468,000 272,000 158,000 187,000
2 BONES Seven 1,451,000 366,000 425,000 309,000 159,000 191,000
3 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,407,000 314,000 446,000 320,000 124,000 204,000
4 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,358,000 346,000 437,000 255,000 145,000 176,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,325,000 438,000 341,000 264,000 165,000 117,000
6 60 MINUTES Nine 1,156,000 336,000 347,000 253,000 92,000 128,000
7 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,126,000 250,000 390,000 222,000 118,000 146,000
8 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,102,000 352,000 306,000 186,000 131,000 127,000
9 THE GOOD WIFE Ten 1,086,000 328,000 331,000 192,000 126,000 110,000
10 CASTLE Seven 1,012,000 269,000 307,000 195,000 121,000 120,000
11 DOMESTIC BLITZ Nine 953,000 292,000 255,000 211,000 99,000 96,000
12 THE BIGGEST LOSER (AUS) - THE WEIGH-IN Ten 952,000 294,000 246,000 196,000 75,000 141,000
14 V Nine 854,000 282,000 243,000 147,000 88,000 93,000
15 HOUSE Ten 813,000 216,000 286,000 126,000 104,000 81,000
17 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 531,000 339,000 not shown 193,000 not shown not shown
18 SURVIVORS Nine 499,000 148,000 145,000 79,000 75,000 52,000
19 SCRUBS Seven 495,000 120,000 167,000 103,000 50,000 54,000
26 DESPERATE ROMANTICS ABC1 360,000 91,000 127,000 59,000 32,000 52,000
43 V -ENCORE Nine 210,000 41,000 54,000 55,000 24,000 36,000
60 FAWLTY TOWERS Seven 149,000 149,000 not shown not shown not shown not shown

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

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 05:44 PM
• Comments (48)

The Tribal Mind: Lets bring sex into it

To suggest Great Lost Aussie Inventions, go to Who We Are.

by David Dale
THE distinct possibility is emerging that women may be different from men. And boy, are the television networks grateful for that difference. If they had to rely on blokes for their viewing, they'd be putting up "liquidation sale" signs by now. The drift away from mainstream amusements is happening much more rapidly among males than among females.

The Bureau of Statistics tells us that a woman is more likely than a man to be: alive after 70, reading a book, going to the theatre, walking for exercise, living alone, in a botanic garden; doing more than 10 hours a week of unpaid housework; sexually assaulted; suffering arthritis or asthma; holding a university degree; using contraception.

To that list we may now add "watching TV". These days programs which seem to rate so poorly that you'd expect them to be moved to late night slots are kept in prime time by the networks because most of the remaining viewers are female, making the show a finely focused niche for advertising. OzTAM's dissection of its ratings data by gender allows advertisers to target their customers with precision. Thus programs such as Grey's Anatomy and Brothers and Sisters evade the axeman.

Consider these charts, which show the number of people from particular demographics who were watching TV last week in the mainland capitals:

What women aged 25-54 watch: 1 My Kitchen Rules (7) 472,000 viewers;
2 Grey's Anatomy (7) 443,000; 3 Desperate Housewives (7) 427,000; 4 Brothers and Sisters (7) 422,000; 5 V (9) 408,000; 6 NCIS (10) 406,000; 7 Two and a Half Men (9) 378,000; 8 Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation(10) 366,000.

What men aged 25-54 watch: 1 V (9) 412,000 viewers; 2 Two and a Half Men (9) 383,000; The Big Bang Theory (9) 338,000; 4 Top Gear (9) 332,000; 5 Spicks and Specks (ABC) 292,000; 6 NCIS (10) 286,000; 7 My Kitchen Rules (7) 273,000; 8 Friday Night Football (9) 272,000.

It's apparent not only that men enjoy different programs from women, but that fewer men than women can be bothered watching the gender favourites.

Now lets see how the genders use the recording devices which are available in 27 per cent of households.

What women aged 25-54 record and watch later: 1 House (10) 53,000 timeshifts;
2 Grey's Anatomy (7) 49,000; 3 Brothers and Sisters (7) 45,000; 4 Criminal Minds (7) 44,000; 5 Desperate Housewives (7) 43,000; 6 The Good Wife (10) 43,000.

What men aged 25-54 record and watch later: 1 House (10) 40,000 timeshifts; 2 How I Met Your Mother (7) 25,000; 3 Top Gear (9) 24,000; 4 Lost (7TWO) 24,000; 5 Cougar Town (7) 22,000; 6 Burn Notice (10) 21,000.

This is surprising. Timeshifting involves the use of a gadget, and you might assume that men would enjoy doing that. But clearly women are pressing the buttons far more than men.

Back in the 1980s, before the advent of effective recording systems, before most homes had two TV sets, and before the advent of such distractions as the internet, sociologists portrayed family viewing time as a nonstop gender war for control of the remote. As Jerry Seinfeld observed: "Men don't want to know what's on television - they want to know what else is on television." Now the war is no longer necessary. Most men don't care what's on the box most of the time, because they have so many other entertainment options on which to shorten their attention spans.

When the man of the house can't even be bothered to fiddle with the recording system, the networks are in big trouble.

Go to Comments to discuss the gender divisions in your home.

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

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:45 PM
• Comments (2)

WHO WE ARE: Great Lost Aussie Inventions, part one

To learn how women are different from men, go to The Tribal Mind.

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald, 21/3/2010
FUNNY how a smell can be a stronger sense memory than a sight or a sound. In this case, the smell was a mixture of salt and rubber, the sight was light green, and the sound was slurpy whooshing. I'm remembering the Surfo-Plane I used to ride at the beach in the 1960s. The other day I realised that it's a Great Lost Aussie Invention, and its creator is one of this nation's undersung heroes.

The undersung have been on my mind because the status of two or Australia's fully-sung heroes has been challenged in recent weeks - Harry "Breaker" Morant and Germaine Greer. Breaker Morant was a bush poet who, we thought, was a victim of British injustice when he was executed during the Boer War in 1902. The story until now was that he'd only been following British orders, but a War Memorial historian told an inquiry last week that Morant and his colleagues "were all guilty of cold-blooded murder of prisoners of war."

And we'd always thought of Germaine Greer as a visionary refresher of outmoded attitudes. But on the 40th anniversary of the appearance of her book The Female Eunuch, Greer is being described as "grotesque", "demented" and "a befuddled and exhausted old woman".

Many others will rush to defend Morant and Greer, ensuring their status as martyrs and icons, but who will speak up for Dr Ernest Smithers, if I don't?

At Sydney's Bronte Beach, he spent eight years developing the Surfo-Plane, a kind of fat blowup surfboard with handles, and was awarded a trademark by the Patent Office in 1933.

By the 1950s, S-o-Ps ruled Australia's waves, rented by the half hour at every beach and purchased as top Christmas present for every eight-year-old. By the 1970s, they had vanished, replaced by the boogie board.

The problem was that when it was deflated and stored in the cupboard over winter, the rubber interiors of the S-o-P would stick together, so you had to buy a new one next summer.

That perishabilty does not diminish the four-decade contribution of Ernest Smithers to Australian culture. He's an example of the undersung heroes we should start commemorating in the names of streets and suburbs across the nation.

A year ago this column wrote about a pioneer named Giuseppe Zuzza, who was the first person to bring tiramisu to this land. Now we learn that The Glebe Society has placed this plaque upon the wall of his former restaurant:

"The popularity of tiramisu started here at The Mixing Pot, when Giuseppe Zuzza was the proprietor. Giuseppe had been a waiter in Treviso, the town where tiramisu was invented in 1972 as a way of using up leftover coffee. He first served it in a Sydney restaurant, Darcy's, and it became his signature dish when he opened The Mixing Pot. Customers responded instantly to the layers of coffee-soaked sponge covered with mascarpone. Other restaurants copied it and the fad began. This plaque was presented to the Mixing Pot by the Glebe Society, prompted by articles written by David Dale in ... The Sun-Herald on 1 February, 2009."

Surely the inventor of the Surfo-Plane deserves at least a statue at Bronte Beach.

Who else should be honoured in this way? Go to Comments to offer your undersung nominations.

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

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 06:18 AM
• Comments (3)

The Who We Are update: Week 12

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 how women are different from men, go to The Tribal Mind.
To suggest Great Lost Aussie Inventions, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10am Sunday
Channel Seven won the week, largely because of the semi-finals of My Kitchen Rules. If this column's theory of a political link is correct, Kevin Rudd will rise in the opinion polls.

The prime time audience shares for the week went like this: SBSTWO 0.3%; ABC3 0.4%; ABC2 1.0; ONE 1.6; 7TWO 2.6; GO 2.7; SBS1 3.8; ABC1 11.3; Ten 14.5; All Pay Stations 16.7; Nine 20.2; Seven 22.6.

This was Pay TV's account of itself: "The extra time period of the A-League Grand Final, in which Sydney FC beat Melbourne Victory 4-2 in penalty kicks, topped the week for subscription TV with 272,000 viewers (listed as Live: Football: A-League Post Game Show on FOX Sports). Live: NRL Wests Tigers v Sea Eagles was seen by 241,000 people, Live: Cricket: Test NZ v Aus 1st Test was watched by 163,000 people and Live: Rugby Union: S14 Reds v Force was viewed by 88,000 subscribers (all on FOX Sports).

"American Idol Performance Show on FOX8 was watched by 108,000 people, NCIS on TV1 was seen by 88,000 and That '70s Show on 111Hits had its best result of the year with 75,000 viewers. Coronation Street on UKTV was seen by 71,000 people, Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney Channel was viewed by 66,000 people and Megastructures: Icebreaker premiered on National Geographic with 61,000 viewers.

"In week 12, subscription TV channels had more viewers than any other network around Australia with 23.4% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 22.0% of all regional viewing and 58.1% of all viewing in subscription TV homes."

Most timeshifted shows, week ending March 13
Description Overnight audience Consolidated audience 000's Increase % Increase
1 HOUSE Network TEN 854,000 978,000 124,000 14.50%
2 CRIMINAL MINDS Network 7 1,295,000 1,399,000 104,000 8.00%
3 GREY'S ANATOMY Network 7 1,050,000 1,150,000 100,000 9.50%
4 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP1 Network 9 774,000 874,000 100,000 12.90%
5 BONES Network 7 1,270,000 1,369,000 99,000 7.80%
6 MIDSOMER MURDERS RPT Network ABC1 476,000 574,000 97,000 20.50%
7 BROTHERS & SISTERS Network 7 974,000 1,070,000 96,000 9.90%
8 THE GOOD WIFE Network TEN 1,084,000 1,177,000 94,000 8.60%
9 NCIS Network TEN 1,519,000 1,611,000 92,000 6.00%
10 V Network 9 1,295,000 1,386,000 91,000 7.00%

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,268,000 315,000 380,000 278,000 135,000 159,000
2 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 842,000 198,000 289,000 151,000 102,000 102,000
3 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 808,000 235,000 259,000 174,000 39,000 102,000
4 M-FINDING NEMO Seven 787,000 215,000 273,000 118,000 87,000 95,000
5 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 765,000 231,000 205,000 146,000 76,000 108,000
6 BED OF ROSES ABC1 726,000 206,000 190,000 142,000 108,000 80,000
7 THE BILL ABC1 713,000 221,000 219,000 119,000 53,000 100,000
8 TEN NEWS AT FIVE SAT Ten 622,000 150,000 177,000 125,000 67,000 102,000
9 M-BRUCE ALMIGHTY Seven 612,000 170,000 230,000 103,000 45,000 64,000
10 BLUE MURDER ABC1 598,000 172,000 199,000 102,000 26,000 100,000
12 RUNAWAY VACATION -RPT Nine 517,000 145,000 139,000 103,000 58,000 73,000
13 DESTINATION: FIFA WORLD CUP RPT SBS ONE 465,000 124,000 154,000 102,000 33,000 52,000
15 MRS. DOUBTFIRE RPT Ten 433,000 116,000 151,000 78,000 36,000 52,000
27 IRON CHEF SBS ONE 266,000 74,000 100,000 43,000 16,000 33,000
37 SA STATE ELECTION: SA VOTES 2010 ABC1 179,000 179,000
55 M-TO SIR, WITH LOVE ABC2 138,000 24,000 37,000 44,000 11,000 22,000
68 NINE'S HORSE RACING Nine 108,000 30,000 43,000 14,000 10,000 10,000
{OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, week ending March 20
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MY KITCHEN RULES-TUE Seven 1,562,000 444,000 513,000 260,000 152,000 194,000
2 AIR WAYS Seven 1,489,000 460,000 434,000 244,000 178,000 173,000
3 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,480,000 468,000 422,000 237,000 178,000 174,000
4 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,434,000 346,000 486,000 283,000 127,000 190,000
5 NCIS Ten 1,409,000 393,000 389,000 275,000 159,000 193,000
6 BONES Seven 1,381,000 352,000 448,000 254,000 166,000 161,000
7 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,364,000 293,000 394,000 317,000 154,000 206,000
8 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Seven 1,357,000 365,000 422,000 240,000 166,000 163,000
9 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,349,000 341,000 399,000 249,000 152,000 209,000
10 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,335,000 339,000 398,000 248,000 153,000 197,000
11 TOP GEAR Nine 1,311,000 317,000 379,000 286,000 149,000 180,000
12 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,307,000 397,000 390,000 256,000 153,000 112,000
13 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,293,000 317,000 401,000 259,000 147,000 169,000
14 CUSTOMS Nine 1,286,000 365,000 423,000 229,000 116,000 152,000
15 THE MENTALIST Nine 1,277,000 337,000 422,000 227,000 121,000 170,000
16 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,268,000 315,000 380,000 278,000 135,000 159,000
17 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,223,000 309,000 381,000 260,000 107,000 165,000
18 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,212,000 331,000 427,000 218,000 110,000 127,000
19 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,206,000 315,000 337,000 216,000 136,000 202,000
20 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,183,000 304,000 380,000 201,000 143,000 155,000
21 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,142,000 306,000 376,000 198,000 132,000 131,000
22 60 MINUTES Nine 1,132,000 303,000 335,000 275,000 94,000 125,000
23 THE GOOD WIFE Ten 1,123,000 303,000 350,000 216,000 118,000 136,000
24 NINE NEWS Nine 1,121,000 318,000 348,000 223,000 108,000 123,000
25 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,089,000 279,000 344,000 218,000 101,000 147,000
26 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,080,000 259,000 388,000 206,000 112,000 116,000
27 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,059,000 301,000 351,000 206,000 82,000 119,000
28 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,037,000 261,000 366,000 200,000 78,000 132,000
29 RPA Nine 1,025,000 275,000 369,000 162,000 114,000 104,000
30 BONDI RESCUE Ten 1,024,000 314,000 280,000 227,000 93,000 110,000
31 CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT Seven 1,023,000 253,000 313,000 196,000 115,000 145,000
32 V Nine 1,022,000 282,000 327,000 188,000 111,000 115,000
33 CASTLE Seven 1,008,000 263,000 337,000 158,000 127,000 123,000
34 HOME AND AWAY Seven 997,000 285,000 298,000 173,000 114,000 126,000
35 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 996,000 238,000 353,000 201,000 80,000 125,000
36 BROTHERS & SISTERS Seven 982,000 265,000 364,000 155,000 94,000 105,000
37 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 964,000 282,000 250,000 180,000 120,000 132,000
38 THE MENTALIST -RPT Nine 948,000 240,000 345,000 149,000 109,000 104,000
39 GETAWAY Nine 943,000 275,000 362,000 132,000 80,000 94,000
40 ABC NEWS ABC1 935,000 251,000 293,000 167,000 90,000 133,000

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,223,000 295,000 407,000 205,000 134,000 183,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,218,000 320,000 362,000 211,000 137,000 188,000
3 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,183,000 304,000 380,000 201,000 143,000 155,000
4 HOME AND AWAY Seven 964,000 272,000 290,000 160,000 115,000 127,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 964,000 275,000 285,000 201,000 97,000 106,000
6 ABC NEWS ABC1 918,000 229,000 308,000 168,000 83,000 130,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 875,000 239,000 282,000 186,000 76,000 92,000
8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 851,000 211,000 323,000 165,000 49,000 104,000
9 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 806,000 197,000 272,000 136,000 75,000 126,000
10 M-THE HOLIDAY Seven 796,000 255,000 237,000 119,000 81,000 104,000
11 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 700,000 432,000 269,000
12 CRIMINAL JUSTICE ABC1 607,000 171,000 175,000 115,000 70,000 76,000
24 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 400,000 266,000 135,000
27 SUNRISE Seven 360,000 123,000 73,000 84,000 32,000 49,000
32 TODAY Nine 292,000 85,000 97,000 50,000 25,000 35,000
36 HITLER'S BODYGUARD SBS ONE 278,000 69,000 106,000 50,000 32,000 20,000
83 THE BLACK ADDER GO! 107,000 31,000 35,000 17,000 11,000 15,000
199 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 38,000 not shown 24,000 not shown 9,000 5,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,368,000 357,000 427,000 264,000 128,000 191,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,334,000 343,000 424,000 232,000 135,000 200,000
3 NINE NEWS Nine 1,122,000 342,000 347,000 224,000 99,000 110,000
4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,080,000 302,000 365,000 215,000 72,000 127,000
5 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,047,000 240,000 418,000 173,000 69,000 146,000
6 HOME AND AWAY Seven 955,000 275,000 278,000 175,000 100,000 127,000
7 THE MENTALIST -RPT Nine 949,000 241,000 345,000 149,000 109,000 104,000
8 GETAWAY Nine 943,000 274,000 362,000 133,000 79,000 95,000
9 THE BIGGEST LOSER (AUS) Ten 908,000 255,000 228,000 230,000 71,000 124,000
10 ABC NEWS ABC1 876,000 224,000 276,000 172,000 84,000 120,000
11 COUGAR TOWN Seven 876,000 221,000 256,000 178,000 91,000 130,000
16 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE AUSTRALIA - RESULTS Ten 792,000 244,000 250,000 155,000 61,000 83,000
29 ITALIAN FOOD SAFARI SBS ONE 367,000 87,000 156,000 50,000 31,000 43,000
31 FAMILY GUY Seven 349,000 97,000 108,000 50,000 54,000 41,000
32 SUNRISE Seven 346,000 91,000 75,000 88,000 37,000 55,000
33 TODAY Nine 324,000 93,000 112,000 65,000 23,000 32,000
53 STARGATE ATLANTIS 7TWO 172,000 57,000 37,000 33,000 19,000 26,000
61 HEROES 7TWO 146,000 53,000 33,000 35,000 9,000 17,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,367,000 349,000 392,000 253,000 157,000 216,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,264,000 319,000 344,000 231,000 164,000 205,000
3 CUSTOMS Nine 1,260,000 358,000 415,000 227,000 111,000 148,000
4 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,206,000 315,000 337,000 216,000 136,000 202,000
5 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,143,000 306,000 376,000 198,000 132,000 131,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,106,000 309,000 357,000 208,000 109,000 122,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,087,000 294,000 407,000 198,000 88,000 100,000
8 RPA Nine 1,035,000 277,000 373,000 164,000 115,000 106,000
9 CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT Seven 1,024,000 253,000 313,000 196,000 115,000 146,000
10 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,008,000 247,000 369,000 188,000 86,000 119,000
12 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 974,000 284,000 254,000 182,000 122,000 132,000
21 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 671,000 163,000 190,000 166,000 71,000 81,000
22 HUNGRY BEAST ABC1 640,000 190,000 158,000 118,000 85,000 89,000
29 BURN NOTICE Ten 468,000 119,000 163,000 83,000 54,000 48,000
47 KEITH URBAN - PERFORMANCE Seven 200,000 38,000 67,000 41,000 26,000 28,000
53 LOST 7TWO 183,000 62,000 56,000 35,000 9,000 21,000
59 FRINGE GO! 154,000 33,000 37,000 33,000 35,000 16,000
64 TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES GO! 143,000 39,000 35,000 33,000 24,000 11,000
71 LOST - ENCORE Seven 130,000 27,000 47,000 27,000 20,000 9,000

What Australiawatched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MY KITCHEN RULES Seven 1,563,000 444,000 513,000 260,000 152,000 194,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,446,000 351,000 411,000 289,000 168,000 227,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,423,000 363,000 404,000 277,000 164,000 214,000
4 NCIS Ten 1,409,000 393,000 389,000 275,000 159,000 193,000
5 TOP GEAR Nine 1,314,000 317,000 380,000 287,000 148,000 182,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,159,000 331,000 357,000 222,000 110,000 139,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,097,000 326,000 314,000 234,000 86,000 137,000
8 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,084,000 279,000 340,000 218,000 101,000 147,000
11 BONDI RESCUE Ten 1,025,000 314,000 281,000 227,000 93,000 110,000
13 BROTHERS & SISTERS Seven 899,000 247,000 315,000 141,000 83,000 113,000
18 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP1 Nine 735,000 244,000 216,000 121,000 66,000 88,000
19 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP2 Nine 710,000 234,000 212,000 118,000 59,000 86,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,431,000 346,000 486,000 283,000 125,000 190,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,398,000 360,000 410,000 264,000 174,000 189,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,379,000 339,000 407,000 258,000 161,000 213,000
4 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Seven 1,355,000 365,000 421,000 240,000 166,000 163,000
5 THE MENTALIST Nine 1,276,000 337,000 422,000 227,000 120,000 170,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,236,000 335,000 385,000 254,000 123,000 139,000
7 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,224,000 309,000 381,000 260,000 109,000 165,000
8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,168,000 305,000 401,000 236,000 85,000 141,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,146,000 337,000 381,000 198,000 94,000 136,000
10 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,083,000 259,000 389,000 207,000 112,000 116,000
13 BROTHERS & SISTERS Seven 983,000 265,000 364,000 155,000 94,000 105,000
14 CSI: MIAMI Nine 875,000 242,000 277,000 156,000 90,000 110,000
18 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 757,000 146,000 245,000 161,000 100,000 106,000
19 FOUR CORNERS ON TONY ABBOTT ABC1 731,000 224,000 215,000 148,000 60,000 84,000
20 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 729,000 144,000 227,000 190,000 72,000 96,000
32 MAN VS WILD SBS ONE 408,000 115,000 108,000 77,000 58,000 51,000
40 MYTHBUSTERS RPT SBS ONE 301,000 82,000 103,000 36,000 37,000 43,000
57 30 ROCK Seven 180,000 45,000 70,000 24,000 15,000 26,000

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 AIR WAYS Seven 1,488,000 460,000 434,000 244,000 179,000 172,000
2 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,474,000 467,000 421,000 236,000 177,000 173,000
3 BONES Seven 1,383,000 353,000 448,000 254,000 166,000 162,000
4 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,364,000 293,000 394,000 317,000 154,000 206,000
5 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,300,000 397,000 386,000 255,000 151,000 111,000
6 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,295,000 317,000 401,000 260,000 147,000 170,000
7 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,212,000 330,000 427,000 218,000 110,000 127,000
8 60 MINUTES Nine 1,134,000 303,000 336,000 276,000 94,000 125,000
9 THE GOOD WIFE Ten 1,123,000 304,000 350,000 216,000 118,000 136,000
10 CASTLE Seven 1,012,000 264,000 337,000 160,000 127,000 124,000
11 DOMESTIC BLITZ Nine 911,000 259,000 279,000 191,000 92,000 90,000
12 HOUSE Ten 872,000 211,000 304,000 150,000 106,000 102,000
14 THE BIGGEST LOSER (AUS) - THE WEIGH-IN Ten 853,000 244,000 247,000 192,000 63,000 107,000
15 V Nine 799,000 282,000 328,000 189,000
20 NINE'S SUNDAY FOOTBALL Nine 456,000 287,000 Not shown 169,000 Not shown Not shown
24 V -ENCORE Nine 399,000 61,000 78,000 73,000 72,000 115,000
25 DESPERATE ROMANTICS ABC1 379,000 95,000 125,000 70,000 44,000 45,000
31 TOP GEAR GO! 317,000 57,000 91,000 61,000 60,000 47,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)
David Dale is the author of The Little Book of Australia -- A snapshot of who we are (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 08:52 AM
• Comments (47)

The Tribal Mind: How do we love Oscar? Count the ways

by David Dale
THE OSCARS exist for one purpose: to boost audiences -- at the cinema, on TV and for DVDs. They achieve that goal pretty effectively in America, but what happens 12,000 kilometres away from LA's Kodak Theatre? Are Australians moved by the Hollywood hype?

On television, yes we are. Between noon and 4pm last Monday, 527,000 people in the mainland capitals sat through the live presentations from the Kodak, and later that same night, another 701,000 sat through three hours of edited highlights. In this year of sagging TV numbers, that makes the awards ceremony a huge hit. Mind you, last year Hugh Jackman attracted 1.2 million to the late night version alone, and another 545,000 to the daytime version. But he's always exceptional. It was still worth Channel Nine buying the rights this year.

In cinemas, the Oscar effect is powerful. These were the nominated movies showing in Australian cinemas last week (followed by their total earnings so far and the percentage change in ticket sales since the previous week): The Blind Side ($6.5 million, down 25 per cent during peak Oscar publicity); Avatar ($110m, down 36 per cent); The Hurt Locker ($2.2m, up 12 per cent); A Single Man ($745,000, down 13 per cent); Up in The Air ($8m, down 25 per cent); Precious ($1.1m, down 6 per cent); Invictus ($7m, down 49 per cent). The biggest earner was Alice in Wonderland, which stunned everyone by taking $14 million in its first week, needing no nominations because it has The Depp Factor.

On average, any movie's takings decline about 30 per cent from one week to the next. So a drop of less than 30 (as with The Blind Side, The Hurt Locker, A Single Man, Up in the Air and Precious) means Oscar buzz made a difference, and the punters were apparently saying "I wasn't going to see that, but since it was nominated for awards, I'd better rush off to the flicks and give it a go".

The biggest winner, The Hurt Locker, will go on to even bigger growth in coming weeks. Precious probably won't be much assisted by its wins for Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. A low budget tale of squalor and child abuse sounds too much like a typical Australian film to attract Australian audiences.

Of course, the cinema industry doesn't need as much help from the Oscars as does the DVD industry. The multiplexes are holding up brilliantly against the onslaught of alternative media. Last year Australians bought $1.09 billion worth of movie tickets -- 15 per cent more than the record figure in 2008. Last year, we spent $1.58 billion buying 83.02 million DVDs - an impressive score until you discover that in 2008 we spent $1.56 billion buying 85.28 million DVDs. So the sales of the silver disc have started a slow decline.

DVD distributors would love to be able to attach to their boxes a sticker saying "Winner of three Academy Awards", or even just "Oscar-nominated", which is no doubt why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year increased the number of best picture nominees from five to ten.

Last year's top selling DVDs included Australia, Twilight, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen -- none of which had won Oscars. The main Oscar winner of 2009, Slumdog Millionaire, didn't make the sales top 30.

This year's DVD chart will doubtless be topped by Avatar, which has already proved it needs no peer approval to saturate the market. But if The Hurt Locker should gather even a couple of thousand extra sales when its disc comes out next month, then all the embarrassment of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin last Monday will not have been in vain.

Go to Comments to discuss how Oscar buzz affects your entertainment choices.

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

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 04:08 PM
• Comments (4)

The Who We Are update: Week 11

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 discuss if Oscars boost Australian audiences, go to The Tribal Mind.
To explain why Australians don't report serious crimes, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10am Monday
Channel Nine won the week, largely because of the NRL in Sydney and Brisbane (Seven was on top until Thursday). If this column's theory of a political link is correct, Tony Abbott will rise in the opinion polls.

The prime time audience shares for the week went like this: SBSTWO 0.3%; ABC3 0.4%; ONE 0.8; ABC2 1.0; 7TWO 2.5; GO 2.7; SBS1 3.9; ABC1 11.8; Ten 15.1; All Pay Stations: 17.2; Seven 20.6; Nine 21.2.

This was Pay TV's account of itself: "Some 257,000 viewers watched Live: NRL Sharks v Storm on FOX Sports and saw defending premiers Melbourne Storm beat the Cronulla Sharks in the first round of the 2010 National Rugby League competition. In other sport, 209,000 people watched the Australian and New Zealand cricket teams play each other in Live: Cricket: ODI NZ V Aus 5th ODI S2, 177,000 viewers saw Melbourne Victory earn a home ground grand final by beating Sydney FC during Live: Football: A-League Major SF Syd v Melb and 82,000 watched the ACT Brumbies prevail in Live: Rugby Union: S14 Brumbies v Sharks (all on FOX Sports). [This pic is designed to illustrate the reference to Aus v NZ cricket, and is in no way an attempt to exploit a personal tragedy involving two national icons]

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button premiered on Movie One with 133,000 viewers, NCIS had its best result of the year so far with 99,000 watching the program on TV1, Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney Channel also had a year-to-date largest audience with 99,000 viewers and the American Idol Performance Show on FOX8 was watched by 94,000 viewers. Movie Extra's live coverage of the Oscars, The 82nd Academy Awards Live 2010, was seen by 84,000 people, How I Met Your Mother on Arena was watched by 70,000 people and Property Ladder on Lifestyle Channel was seen by 69,000 people.

"In week 11, subscription TV channels had more viewers than any other network around Australia with 24.0% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 23.1% of all regional viewing and 59.3% of all viewing in subscription TV homes." (These figures seem at odds with OzTAM's earlier summary, which suggests Pay TV had only 17.2 pewr cent of the prime time audience. We are seeking clarification.)

Most timeshifted shows, week ending March 6
Description STN Overnight Consolidated 000's Increase % Increase
1 HOUSE TEN 772,000 901,000 129,000 16.70%
2 THE GOOD WIFE TEN 912,000 1,017,000 105,000 11.50%
3 MIDSOMER MURDERS RPT ABC1 460,000 560,000 100,000 21.80%
4 BROTHERS & SISTERS-TUE 7 887,000 980,000 93,000 10.50%
5 BONES 7 1,231,000 1,321,000 91,000 7.40%
6 NCIS TEN 1,365,000 1,454,000 89,000 6.50%
7 GREY'S ANATOMY 7 1,048,000 1,136,000 88,000 8.40%
8 CASTLE 7 907,000 994,000 87,000 9.60%
9 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES 7 1,027,000 1,112,000 86,000 8.30%
10 BROTHERS & SISTERS 7 895,000 979,000 84,000 9.40%
11 CRIMINAL MINDS 7 1,264,000 1,348,000 84,000 6.60%
12 LOST 7TWO 186,000 262,000 76,000 41.20%
(OzTAM)

What Australia watched, week ending March 13
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TWO AND A HALF MEN 9 1,588,000 340,000 636,000 310,000 126,000 177,000
2 NCIS TEN 1,519,000 423,000 416,000 296,000 168,000 217,000
3 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Network 7 1,471,000 336,000 503,000 326,000 123,000 183,000
4 MY KITCHEN RULES-TUE Network 7 1,462,000 361,000 522,000 271,000 154,000 154,000
5 BORDER SECURITY 7 1,444,000 389,000 413,000 286,000 156,000 200,000
6 AIR WAYS Network 7 1,434,000 413,000 403,000 271,000 141,000 205,000
7 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Network 7 1,396,000 361,000 452,000 245,000 171,000 167,000
8 CUSTOMS Network 9 1,349,000 342,000 475,000 238,000 136,000 158,000
9 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Network 9 1,311,000 382,000 454,000 209,000 147,000 118,000
10 THE MENTALIST Network 9 1,310,000 369,000 457,000 230,000 99,000 155,000
11 V Network 9 1,295,000 401,000 382,000 240,000 100,000 172,000
12 CRIMINAL MINDS Network 7 1,295,000 314,000 364,000 272,000 140,000 205,000
13 THE BIG BANG THEORY Network 9 1,270,000 294,000 461,000 267,000 98,000 149,000
14 BONES Network 7 1,270,000 354,000 352,000 254,000 135,000 174,000
Continuedhere

15 SEVEN NEWS Network 7 1,268,000 304,000 374,000 241,000 157,000 192,000
16 TODAY TONIGHT Network 7 1,224,000 300,000 361,000 240,000 149,000 174,000
17 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Network TEN 1,202,000 384,000 360,000 207,000 103,000 148,000
18 SUNDAY NIGHT Network 7 1,170,000 256,000 382,000 266,000 119,000 146,000
19 NINE NEWS Network 9 1,164,000 309,000 394,000 232,000 116,000 114,000
20 TOP GEAR Network 9 1,147,000 319,000 325,000 260,000 118,000 125,000
21 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Network 7 1,133,000 270,000 328,000 231,000 137,000 166,000
22 60 MINUTES Network 9 1,102,000 305,000 355,000 230,000 100,000 111,000
23 THE GOOD WIFE Network TEN 1,084,000 327,000 352,000 180,000 104,000 121,000
24 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Network 7 1,083,000 291,000 357,000 202,000 111,000 122,000
25 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Network 7 1,078,000 276,000 279,000 241,000 109,000 173,000
26 A CURRENT AFFAIR Network 9 1,067,000 290,000 368,000 209,000 87,000 114,000
27 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Network 9 1,063,000 244,000 396,000 215,000 92,000 115,000
28 RPA Network 9 1,058,000 269,000 378,000 174,000 118,000 120,000
29 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Network 7 1,055,000 251,000 325,000 182,000 141,000 155,000
30 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Network 9 1,051,000 271,000 362,000 219,000 80,000 119,000
31 GREY'S ANATOMY Network 7 1,050,000 263,000 339,000 225,000 114,000 108,000
32 AUSTRALIAN STORY-EV Network ABC1 1,033,000 269,000 392,000 193,000 68,000 111,000
33 THE MENTALIST -RPT Network 9 1,026,000 288,000 369,000 156,000 106,000 107,000
34 ABC NEWS Network ABC1 1,007,000 277,000 337,000 160,000 100,000 134,000
35 SPICKS AND SPECKS Network ABC1 999,000 341,000 285,000 157,000 112,000 105,000
36 HOME AND AWAY Network 7 997,000 275,000 287,000 192,000 118,000 125,000
37 ABC NEWS-SU Network ABC1 997,000 247,000 341,000 177,000 101,000 130,000
38 GETAWAY Network 9 994,000 280,000 349,000 152,000 95,000 119,000
39 CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT Network 7 991,000 239,000 265,000 205,000 116,000 166,000
40 FOUR CORNERS Network ABC1 978,000 304,000 289,000 180,000 87,000 118,000

What Australia watched. Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,078,000 276,000 279,000 241,000 109,000 173,000
2 NINE NEWS SAT Nine 947,000 276,000 256,000 194,000 122,000 99,000
3 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 843,000 217,000 268,000 166,000 92,000 100,000
4 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS Nine 755,000 216,000 194,000 151,000 87,000 107,000
5 M-OVER THE HEDGE Seven 725,000 234,000 190,000 128,000 80,000 93,000
6 BILL ABC1 684,000 214,000 156,000 127,000 82,000 105,000
7 BLUE MURDER ABC1 624,000 185,000 178,000 88,000 83,000 90,000
8 M-JUST LIKE HEAVEN Seven 583,000 171,000 155,000 109,000 75,000 73,000
9 BED OF ROSES-EV ABC1 578,000 167,000 153,000 129,000 66,000 62,000
12 2010 brand name CUP - GRAND FINAL W BULLDOGS V ST KILDA Ten 542,000 18,000 369,000 22,000 61,000 71,000
13 MUSIC & LYRICS -RPT Nine 501,000 122,000 144,000 105,000 70,000 61,000
14 MIDSOMER MURDERS RPT ABC1 479,000 138,000 162,000 46,000 72,000 61,000
27 IRON CHEF SBS ONE 268,000 85,000 73,000 41,000 35,000 34,000
71 2010 brand name CUP - GRAND FINAL W BULLDOGS V ST KILDA ONE 112,000 11,000 43,000 31,000 14,000 14,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 NINE NEWS Nine 1,069,000 296,000 329,000 218,000 106,000 120,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,065,000 238,000 315,000 213,000 143,000 155,000
3 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,055,000 251,000 325,000 182,000 141,000 155,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 992,000 239,000 279,000 214,000 116,000 143,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 953,000 267,000 314,000 189,000 81,000 102,000
6 ABC NEWS ABC1 904,000 272,000 267,000 144,000 85,000 136,000
7 NINE'S LIVE FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 884,000 526,000 Not shown 358,000 Not shown Not shown
14 CRIMINAL JUSTICE ABC1 520,000 145,000 129,000 100,000 66,000 79,000
19 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Nine 453,000 317,000 Not shown 136,000 Not shown Not shown
21 SLEUTH 101 ABC1 426,000 130,000 140,000 61,000 35,000 59,000
26 M-ATONEMENT Seven 366,000 72,000 129,000 64,000 44,000 57,000
37 HITLER'S BODYGUARD SBS ONE 269,000 84,000 93,000 39,000 22,000 31,000
208 NINE'S FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LATE Nine 32,000 not shown 20,000 not shown 6,000 6,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,194,000 302,000 296,000 258,000 152,000 186,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,158,000 290,000 318,000 224,000 151,000 175,000
3 THE MENTALIST -RPT Nine 1,022,000 286,000 369,000 157,000 104,000 107,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 990,000 288,000 312,000 184,000 98,000 109,000
5 GETAWAY Nine 989,000 279,000 343,000 156,000 93,000 118,000
6 ABC NEWS ABC1 978,000 283,000 331,000 159,000 81,000 123,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 957,000 276,000 250,000 185,000 123,000 123,000
8 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 939,000 263,000 312,000 192,000 76,000 96,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 928,000 256,000 310,000 181,000 80,000 101,000
10 COUGAR TOWN Seven 857,000 233,000 209,000 197,000 104,000 115,000
14 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 828,000 245,000 205,000 188,000 99,000 90,000
16 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 811,000 199,000 319,000 103,000 92,000 98,000
17 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE AUSTRALIA - RESULTS Ten 792,000 239,000 246,000 156,000 58,000 93,000
21 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 622,000 140,000 162,000 157,000 69,000 94,000
31 FAMILY GUY Seven 383,000 75,000 140,000 59,000 64,000 45,000
32 SUNRISE Seven 345,000 105,000 71,000 85,000 32,000 52,000
36 GOURMET FARMER SBS ONE 309,000 97,000 92,000 55,000 28,000 37,000
37 TODAY Nine 303,000 107,000 88,000 51,000 24,000 32,000 0
55 E.R. GO! 163,000 59,000 37,000 37,000 15,000 15,000
63 STARGATE ATLANTIS 7TWO 138,000 49,000 39,000 13,000 19,000 19,000

The ratings race, updated 2pm Wednesday
The ABC issued this surprising statement yesterday: "In a first for ABC TV, the new series of Doctor Who will launch on ABC iView - the ABC's internet broadcasting service - two days prior to its broadcast on ABC1. Less than two weeks after the first episode airs on the BBC in the UK, Australian viewers will be able to stream it on iView from midnight on Friday 16 April at abc.net.au/iview. The episode will then be shown on ABC1 on Sunday 18 April at 7.30pm.

"The new series stars Matt Smith (Party Animals) as the 11th Doctor -introduced to viewers at the end of the recent two-part special 'The End Of Time' - and Karen Gillan as his companion Amy Pond. Bafta-winning writer Steven Moffat (Coupling, Jekyll) is replacing Russell T Davies as lead writer and executive producer. The first three episodes have been confirmed as 'The Eleventh Hour' and 'The Beast Below' by Steven Moffat, and 'Victory of the Daleks' by Mark Gatiss.

"Director of Television, Kim Dalton, said: "We hope the lure of Doctor Who - and what a fun and exciting lure it is - will provide incentive for more viewers to discover iView, and experience how convenient and easy-to-use it is." Doctor Who was ABC TV's highest rating program on iView in April to December last year - with 378,000 views during that period. The next highest program was Four Corners, with 260,600 views. In February 2010, ABC iView recorded 411,000 visitors, its highest number of visitors to date."

Will this stop you downloading?

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 CUSTOMS Nine 1,309,000 335,000 461,000 235,000 126,000 151,000
2 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,295,000 314,000 364,000 272,000 140,000 205,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,288,000 331,000 400,000 214,000 141,000 202,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,225,000 335,000 343,000 238,000 142,000 166,000
5 NINE NEWS Nine 1,190,000 320,000 407,000 244,000 110,000 110,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,147,000 312,000 391,000 240,000 82,000 122,000
7 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,134,000 270,000 329,000 231,000 137,000 166,000
8 RPA Nine 1,066,000 267,000 381,000 178,000 120,000 121,000
12 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,002,000 343,000 285,000 157,000 113,000 104,000
18 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE AUSTRALIA Ten 790,000 251,000 250,000 150,000 60,000 79,000
22 HUNGRY BEAST ABC1 665,000 221,000 176,000 118,000 74,000 76,000
34 POH'S KITCHEN ABC1 370,000 98,000 138,000 54,000 36,000 44,000
62 LOST 7TWO 158,000 68,000 39,000 25,000 10,000 17,000
64 FRINGE GO! 153,000 24,000 52,000 24,000 38,000 15,000
70 TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES GO! 145,000 35,000 44,000 26,000 28,000 13,000
80 LOST - ENCORE Seven 127,000 37,000 43,000 23,000 11,000 12,000

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 NCIS Ten 1,517,000 420,000 417,000 295,000 168,000 217,000
2 MY KITCHEN RULES-TUE Seven 1,462,000 361,000 522,000 271,000 154,000 154,000
3 TOP GEAR Nine 1,316,000 319,000 421,000 260,000 165,000 151,000
4 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,301,000 288,000 401,000 241,000 163,000 207,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,296,000 271,000 416,000 260,000 153,000 197,000
6 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,135,000 330,000 363,000 233,000 72,000 137,000
7 NINE NEWS Nine 1,114,000 263,000 406,000 243,000 96,000 107,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,105,000 255,000 365,000 217,000 129,000 138,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,102,000 288,000 391,000 213,000 85,000 125,000
10 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,050,000 263,000 339,000 225,000 114,000 108,000
13 BONDI RESCUE Ten 915,000 270,000 237,000 209,000 79,000 120,000
14 RIVERS WITH GRIFF RHYS JONES ABC1 823,000 202,000 271,000 145,000 90,000 116,000
16 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP1 Nine 801,000 248,000 263,000 130,000 93,000 67,000
21 SURVIVOR: HEROES VS VILLAINS -EP2 Nine 698,000 260,000 208,000 102,000 70,000 59,000
25 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 578,000 116,000 204,000 87,000 79,000 92,000
26 HOT SEAT Nine 569,000 146,000 167,000 151,000 47,000 58,000
31 SUNRISE Seven 375,000 101,000 81,000 107,000 36,000 50,000
37 TODAY Nine 293,000 94,000 99,000 52,000 20,000 28,000
58 BIG LOVE SBS ONE 148,000 49,000 46,000 21,000 12,000 20,000
78 UGLY BETTY 7TWO 114,000 33,000 31,000 18,000 15,000 17,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,587,000 339,000 635,000 310,000 126,000 177,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,489,000 360,000 454,000 277,000 187,000 212,000
3 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,453,000 365,000 452,000 266,000 182,000 187,000
4 NINE NEWS / NEWS Nine 1,433,000 379,000 501,000 264,000 165,000 124,000
5 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Seven 1,396,000 361,000 452,000 245,000 171,000 167,000
6 THE MENTALIST Nine 1,311,000 369,000 458,000 230,000 99,000 155,000
7 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,286,000 277,000 512,000 250,000 103,000 144,000
8 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,265,000 293,000 458,000 267,000 98,000 149,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,212,000 327,000 431,000 220,000 120,000 114,000
12 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,083,000 291,000 357,000 202,000 111,000 122,000
13 AUSTRALIAN STORY ABC1 1,027,000 269,000 388,000 192,000 68,000 110,000
15 FOUR CORNERS ON SCIENTOLOGY ABC1 974,000 304,000 287,000 179,000 87,000 117,000
21 THE 82ND ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS Nine 701,000 227,000 234,000 105,000 60,000 76,000
28 THE 82ND ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS -LIVE Nine 527,000 118,000 241,000 82,000 54,000 32,000
51 THE 82ND ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS -RED CARPET Nine 230,000 58,000 72,000 45,000 26,000 30,000
68 30 ROCK Seven 147,000 41,000 52,000 22,000 14,000 17,000

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,471,000 336,000 503,000 326,000 123,000 183,000
2 AIR WAYS Seven 1,432,000 412,000 402,000 272,000 142,000 204,000
3 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,423,000 382,000 408,000 282,000 154,000 197,000
4 NINE NEWS SUNDAY / NEWS SUN Nine 1,309,000 382,000 454,000 209,000 147,000 117,000
5 V Nine 1,290,000 397,000 382,000 239,000 100,000 172,000
6 BONES - MON Seven 1,277,000 356,000 354,000 255,000 136,000 176,000
7 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,203,000 385,000 360,000 207,000 103,000 148,000
8 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,169,000 256,000 382,000 266,000 119,000 146,000
9 60 MINUTES Nine 1,097,000 303,000 355,000 229,000 100,000 110,000
10 THE GOOD WIFE Ten 1,081,000 326,000 351,000 179,000 103,000 121,000
11 ABC NEWS-SU ABC1 997,000 247,000 341,000 177,000 101,000 130,000
12 DOMESTIC BLITZ Nine 935,000 263,000 318,000 182,000 95,000 76,000
13 CASTLE Seven 866,000 240,000 277,000 131,000 98,000 119,000
14 TEN NEWS AT FIVE SUN Ten 861,000 258,000 278,000 132,000 69,000 123,000
15 THE BIGGEST LOSER (AUS) - THE WEIGH-IN Ten 857,000 258,000 241,000 196,000 51,000 111,000
16 HOUSE Ten 850,000 244,000 275,000 162,000 86,000 83,000
17 I AM LEGEND Nine 640,000 160,000 228,000 121,000 56,000 75,000

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

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 06:06 AM
• Comments (55)

WHO WE ARE: Crime doesn't say

To learn how television tastes predict how you'll vote, go to The Tribal Mind.

A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald, 7/3/2010
DON'T be a dobber. That's been a fundamental of Aussie etiquette for 220 years. It goes back to our convict founders, who knew the world was divided between Us and Them, and you never volunteered to one of Them what one of Us was doing, even if it was mass murder, because mate, whose side are you on? Since then, we've applied the principle in the playground, in the office, in the home and in politics.

This historical aversion to dobbing may explain the mystery contained in the report scarily titled Crime Victimisation Australia, just released by the Bureau of Statistics.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, The Bureau interviewed 25,600 people aged over 15 about whether they'd been robbed, bashed, raped or threatened. That's a massive sample from which to draw conclusions about the nation -- in television ratings, a sample of 3,000 households is used as the basis for billion dollar programming decisions.

As the statisticians would say, the data is reliable - and, at first sight, pretty reassuring. The nation of convicts is not in the grip of a crime wave. Only 3.1 per cent of people aged over 15 (527,400) said they had suffered a physical assault; only 0.6 per cent (96,700) had experienced a personal robbery; only 3.3 per cent of households (267,800) were victims of a break-in and only 1.1 per cent (91,000) had a car stolen. The crime that affected the greatest number of people was "malicious property damage", which happened to 11 per cent of households (912,500).

The bureau reports: "Types of property commonly damaged, defaced or destroyed in the most recent incident were exterior items - including walls, windows, doors and fences - (66%) and cars or other motor vehicles (29%)." Graffiti are a nuisance, but they hardly represent the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

From that section of the report, I have derived this useful advice ...

How to minimise your chances of being a victim of crime:
1. Live in South Australia (low in all types of crime); 2 Be female; 3 Be over 65; 4 Live alone (The bureau reports: "62 per cent of people who experienced a physical assault knew the offender ... with 14% indicating that the offender was a member of their family" and "29% of the most recent physical assaults occurred at the victim's home"); 5 Be married (but presumably you'd have to live separately from your partner); 6 Don't own electronic or gardening equipment (the most commonly stolen items after money); 7 Get a job.

How to maximise your chances of being a victim of crime: 1 Live in the Northern Territory (highest rate of all crimes); 2 Be single; 3 Be male; 4 Be aged between 15 and 19; 5 Be unemployed.

The bureau reported: "The victimisation rates for physical assault were 8.7% for people aged 15-19 years ... compared with 0.4% for people aged 65 years and over. The victimisation rate was higher for people who were not married (5.3%) than for people who were married (1.7%). The victimisation rate was higher for people who were unemployed (7.1%) ... than for people employed full-time (3.3%) and people employed part-time (3.7%)."

But now we come to the mystery. While Australians are happy to regale researchers from the Bureau of Statistics with their experience of theft and violence, they show a marked reluctance to talk to those who might do something about it. Around one third of the horrors discussed were never reported.

As the bureau puts it: "The proportion of crime incidents people reported to police varied depending on the type of crime: 86 per cent for motor vehicle theft; 70 per cent for break-in; 39 per cent for physical assault; 36 per cent for malicious property damage; 23 per cent for robbery; 23 per cent for threatened assault."

So 61 per cent of people who are bashed and 77 per cent of people who are robbed don't tell the cops. Why not? I can imagine three possible explanations: 1 They've got something to hide; 2 They think it would be pointless, because Underbelly has led them to believe criminals are clever and cops are dumb or corrupt; 3 The anti-dobbing philosophy is so deeply ingrained in our culture that we're prepared to expose our fellow citizens to thugs and thieves rather than give evidence against them.

Go to Comments to offer your theory.

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

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 08:47 AM
• Comments (3)

The Tribal Mind: The politics of television, and vice versa

To explain why Australians don't report serious crimes, go to Who We Are.

by David Dale
IT WORKED before, so lets see if it can work again. This is the analogy: Channel Seven is the Labor Party, and Channel Nine is the Liberal/National coalition. Follow the fortunes of Nine and Seven in the ratings, and you will anticipate the fortunes of Opposition and Government in the opinion polls. That was the tool with which this column predicted the result of the 2007 election. Will it work for the 2010 election?

Three years ago, we discussed how television tastes offer clues about the changing national mood, noting that after September 11 and the Bali bombings, Australians retreated into their cocoons. "The favourites of the early Noughties were all about lifestyle -- home renovations, gardening, domestic bliss. The dramas were about crimes solved and stability restored in a single episode ... Viewers avoided programs that required them to come back next week, because life was too crazy to allow such a commitment.

"But since 2005, our favourite shows have been serials, keeping us in constant suspense about who will be voted off the dance floor, who will be murdered on Wisteria Lane, what will the island do to the survivors, how will Dr House outsmart the cop who wants to jail him, etc. Instead of being reassured by our mass entertainment, we demand to be surprised.

"What follows from this transformation in public mood? That Australians will be inclined to vote for Kevin Rudd at the federal election. Where once they craved security, now they relish change ... Australia's current preference for Channel Seven, which offers novelty, over Channel Nine, which offers 'we know what's best for you', suggests that the nation is in sit-forward mode. If an election were held now, we'd vote for surprise and risk rather than predictability and comfort."

Three years later, lets look at the state of the stations. Nine is resurgent, Seven is sinking. In the morning, Today regularly beats Sunrise in Sydney and Melbourne. In the afternoon, The Hot Seat is neck and neck with Deal or no Deal. Nine has hits with Top Gear, The Mentalist and Two and a Half Men, soon to be followed by Underbelly: The Golden Mile (legal action permitting).

Seven's big dramas, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, have jumped the shark. Its only new hit, My Kitchen Rules, is a rehash of MasterChef, which does not suggest much imagination in the programming department. Seven's celebrity game show, The White Room, got axed after two weeks because it was hastily conceived and badly managed (just like a certain home insulation program we've heard about recently).

Over the past two weeks, the prime time audience shares have been: Seven 25.6 per cent, Nine 26.7 per cent. At the same time, the opinion polls have shown a slump for the Government and a rise for the Opposition. Kevin Rudd now finds himself where John Howard was in March of 2007 - representing stodgy stability, while Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce represent edgy unpredictability.

To restore his reputation for innovation, Rudd has just unveiled visionary schemes in education and health. If our analogy is correct, Channel Seven will need to unveil some big new programming plans very soon.

The last paragraph of this column on May 28, 2007 said this: "You can expect the prime minister to hold off the election date till as late as possible this year. He'll be watching the ratings, tracking the rise of Nine and the decline of Seven, waiting for clear evidence that we have settled back onto the sofa of life. Then he'll pounce."

Go to Comments to discuss whether this year will be different.

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

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 12:42 PM
• Comments (5)

The Who We Are update: Courtney goes down

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 how television tastes predict voting intention, go to The Tribal Mind.

To learn how Australia became the land of the short attention span, go to Who We Are.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Sunday
The decline of Cougar Town is more apparent than real. Despite being described as "a shit show" by David Leckie, the boss of Channel Seven, and dropping to No 43 in the weekly chart, Courtney Cox's sitcom is the most watched program of Thursday night with these demographics: women 16-39, men 25-54, and women 25-54. That's a strong incentive for advertisers, and a good reason for Seven to keep showing it in prime time. And as you'll see from the chart below, it's one of the most recorded prgrams each week. Go to Comments to tell us if it has got better or worse, now that it has settled in.

The prime time audience shares for the week went like this: SBSTWO 0.5%; ABC3 0.5%; ONE 0.8; ABC2 1.5; 7TWO 3.4; GO 3.4; SBS1 5.0; ABC1 14.7; Ten 19.0; Nine 25.5; Seven 26.6.

And thiw waw Pay TV's account of itself: "Live: Cricket: Twenty20: NZ v Aus Game 2 on FOX Sports topped the week for subscription TV, when 314,000 viewers watched New Zealand narrowly beat Australia in an "extra time" over. In other cricket, 244,000 people watched Australia beat NZ in the second one day international, Live: Cricket: ODI NZ v Aus 2nd ODI, 183,000 watched Football: Premier League World, 151,000 watched Live: Football: AFC Asian Cup Qualifier Aus v Ind and 123,000 watched Live: Rugby Union: S14 Waratahs v Sharks (all on FOX Sports).

"America's Next Top Model on FOX8 was viewed by 104,000 people, NCIS on TV1 was seen by 81,000 people and Two And A Half Men on Arena was watched by 76,000 viewers. Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise premiered on 13th Street with 76,000 viewers, SpongeBob SquarePants had 72,000 viewers on Nickelodeon and Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney Channel was watched by 69,000 people.

"In week 10, subscription TV channels won the week with 24.3% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 22.9% of all regional viewing and 60.4% of all viewing in subscription TV homes. "

What Australia timeshifted, week ending February 27
Description STN Overnight Consolidated 000's Increase % Increase
1 NCIS Network TEN 1,386,000 1,508,000 122,000 8.80%
2 BROTHERS & SISTERS 7 849,000 970,000 121,000 14.30%
3 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES 7 937,000 1,043,000 106,000 11.30%
4 DOCTOR WHO: THE END OF TIME Part 2 ABC1 842,000 944,000 102,000 12.10%
5 HOUSE TEN 969,000 1,070,000 101,000 10.50%
6 BROTHERS & SISTERS-TUE 7 852,000 952,000 100,000 11.70%
7 CRIMINAL MINDS 7 1,201,000 1,298,000 97,000 8.10%
8 COUGAR TOWN 7 1,017,000 1,113,000 96,000 9.40%
9 THE GOOD WIFE TEN 1,260,000 1,353,000 92,000 7.30%
10 BONES 7 1,156,000 1,236,000 80,000 6.90%
11 GREY'S ANATOMY 7 1,019,000 1,099,000 80,000 7.90%
12 BLUE MURDER ABC1 550,000 630,000 80,000 14.50%
(OzTAM mainland capitals

What Australia watched, week ending March 6
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,436,000 392,000 500,000 273,000 105,000 165,000
2 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Seven 1,410,000 383,000 443,000 277,000 160,000 147,000
3 MY KITCHEN RULES-TUE Seven 1,406,000 352,000 462,000 274,000 158,000 159,000
4 TOP GEAR -EP1 Nine 1,385,000 385,000 402,000 281,000 144,000 174,000
5 NCIS Ten 1,365,000 402,000 341,000 265,000 157,000 201,000
6 AIR WAYS Seven 1,354,000 391,000 433,000 238,000 145,000 146,000
7 THE MENTALIST Nine 1,351,000 430,000 428,000 237,000 118,000 138,000
8 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,345,000 324,000 385,000 293,000 165,000 178,000
9 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,344,000 339,000 387,000 326,000 125,000 168,000
10 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,299,000 266,000 459,000 302,000 112,000 161,000
11 WICKED LOVE: THE MARIA KORP STORY Nine 1,299,000 360,000 527,000 203,000 111,000 97,000

12 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,290,000 366,000 434,000 239,000 128,000 123,000
13 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,264,000 343,000 375,000 254,000 125,000 167,000
14 CUSTOMS Nine 1,254,000 339,000 421,000 238,000 123,000 132,000
15 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,239,000 371,000 398,000 228,000 101,000 141,000
16 BONES - MON Seven 1,231,000 342,000 324,000 260,000 175,000 130,000
17 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,228,000 293,000 360,000 263,000 142,000 170,000
18 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,226,000 362,000 421,000 232,000 77,000 134,000
19 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,178,000 330,000 389,000 222,000 126,000 111,000
20 NINE NEWS SUNDAY / NEWS SUN Nine 1,166,000 343,000 371,000 233,000 123,000 96,000
21 TOP GEAR -SPECIAL Nine 1,152,000 296,000 375,000 210,000 117,000 155,000
22 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,133,000 306,000 343,000 218,000 121,000 145,000
23 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 1,131,000 272,000 400,000 238,000 91,000 130,000
24 GETAWAY Nine 1,117,000 259,000 388,000 238,000 101,000 130,000
25 NINE NEWS / NEWS Nine 1,113,000 302,000 354,000 246,000 105,000 106,000
26 CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT Seven 1,100,000 316,000 286,000 230,000 126,000 142,000
27 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,082,000 309,000 355,000 214,000 90,000 113,000
28 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,079,000 245,000 341,000 249,000 118,000 125,000
29 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,077,000 330,000 337,000 178,000 130,000 102,000
30 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,048,000 274,000 323,000 240,000 102,000 109,000

What Australia watched, Saturday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,299,000 266,000 459,000 302,000 112,000 161,000
2 NINE NEWS SATURDAY / NEWS SATURDAY Nine 989,000 206,000 384,000 182,000 121,000 96,000
3 ABC NEWS-SA ABC1 987,000 225,000 407,000 149,000 95,000 112,000
4 M-SISTER ACT 2: BACK IN THE HABIT Seven 951,000 238,000 325,000 190,000 94,000 104,000
5 TEN NEWS AT FIVE SAT Ten 839,000 185,000 304,000 148,000 75,000 126,000
6 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEO SHOW Nine 785,000 204,000 257,000 166,000 82,000 75,000
7 GARDENING AUSTRALIA ABC1 636,000 148,000 264,000 115,000 54,000 55,000
8 BLUE MURDER ABC1 625,000 186,000 187,000 98,000 76,000 78,000
9 BILL ABC1 621,000 209,000 194,000 122,000 Not shown - What was happening in Adelaide? 95,000
10 BED OF ROSES ABC1 613,000 148,000 174,000 139,000 72,000 80,000
12 THE SIMPSONS MOVIE Ten 558,000 170,000 211,000 111,000 66,000
15 MIDSOMER MURDERS RPT ABC1 460,000 141,000 155,000 53,000 53,000 57,000
22 IRON CHEF SBS ONE 280,000 74,000 106,000 42,000 22,000 36,000
41 2010 NAB CUP - ST KILDA V FREMANTLE Ten 220,000 14,000 111,000 12,000 29,000 54,000

What Australia watched, Friday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,248,000 301,000 357,000 266,000 163,000 160,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,189,000 269,000 358,000 247,000 139,000 175,000
3 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,138,000 371,000 398,000 228,000 141,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,096,000 304,000 349,000 233,000 105,000 104,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 998,000 271,000 362,000 185,000 74,000 106,000
6 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 920,000 241,000 330,000 171,000 66,000 111,000
7 SILENT WITNESS ABC1 913,000 245,000 255,000 187,000 99,000 127,000
8 ABC NEWS ABC1 903,000 240,000 294,000 149,000 102,000 117,000
18 SLEUTH 101 ABC1 529,000 145,000 157,000 107,000 56,000 64,000
21 2010 brand name CUP: SEMI-FINAL: WESTERN BULLDOGS V PORT ADELAIDE Seven 474,000 4,000 265,000 12,000 119,000 74,000
27 SUNRISE Seven 383,000 104,000 89,000 89,000 40,000 60,000
33 TODAY Nine 325,000 102,000 111,000 57,000 26,000 30,000
38 WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH NUDITY? SBS ONE 288,000 95,000 71,000 49,000 39,000 33,000

What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,270,000 309,000 385,000 263,000 141,000 171,000
2 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,163,000 285,000 351,000 233,000 130,000 165,000
3 GETAWAY Nine 1,109,000 258,000 385,000 238,000 99,000 129,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,032,000 270,000 342,000 237,000 89,000 95,000
5 THE MENTALIST -RPT Nine 1,018,000 264,000 353,000 191,000 89,000 122,000
10 COUGAR TOWN Seven 916,000 246,000 260,000 188,000 91,000 131,000
11 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE AUSTRALIA - RESULTS Ten 833,000 271,000 223,000 169,000 70,000 100,000
23 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 585,000 152,000 202,000 88,000 63,000 80,000
25 HOT SEAT Nine 572,000 151,000 174,000 155,000 50,000 42,000
31 FAMILY GUY Seven 407,000 132,000 129,000 66,000 39,000 42,000
34 SUNRISE Seven 357,000 89,000 80,000 93,000 41,000 53,000
37 GOURMET FARMER SBS ONE 326,000 97,000 95,000 62,000 25,000 47,000
39 TODAY Nine 301,000 100,000 83,000 67,000 23,000 28,000
44 TOP GEAR GO! 258,000 53,000 91,000 52,000 33,000 28,000
59 STARGATE ATLANTIS 7TWO 151,000 49,000 38,000 25,000 19,000 19,000
75 FIFTH GEAR 7TWO 126,000 42,000 25,000 20,000 19,000 20,000
94 HEROES 7TWO 101,000 55,000 5,000 20,000 8,000 12,000

What Australia watched, Wednesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,305,000 299,000 370,000 284,000 161,000 192,000
2 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,264,000 343,000 374,000 254,000 125,000 167,000
3 CUSTOMS Nine 1,247,000 337,000 420,000 238,000 121,000 131,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,189,000 276,000 357,000 251,000 136,000 169,000
5 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,132,000 306,000 342,000 218,000 121,000 145,000
6 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 1,121,000 268,000 398,000 237,000 90,000 129,000
7 CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT Seven 1,100,000 316,000 286,000 230,000 126,000 142,000
8 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,076,000 329,000 338,000 179,000 128,000 102,000
13 RPA Nine 957,000 274,000 312,000 151,000 104,000 116,000
17 SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE AUSTRALIA Ten 767,000 259,000 224,000 133,000 65,000 87,000
21 HUNGRY BEAST ABC1 689,000 202,000 205,000 122,000 85,000 75,000
22 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 659,000 162,000 203,000 161,000 63,000 69,000
30 POH'S KITCHEN ABC1 437,000 123,000 134,000 94,000 40,000 45,000
37 SUNRISE Seven 338,000 93,000 77,000 79,000 40,000 48,000
39 TODAY Nine 306,000 79,000 96,000 78,000 21,000 31,000
53 LOST 7TWO 185,000 67,000 46,000 35,000 21,000 16,000
62 FRINGE GO! 153,000 21,000 62,000 30,000 27,000 13,000
64 LOST-ENCORE Seven 144,000 41,000 55,000 22,000 12,000 14,000
66 I SURVIVED A JAPANESE GAME SHOW 7TWO 139,000 42,000 41,000 16,000 26,000 14,000
67 SEINFELD GO! 136,000 23,000 45,000 37,000 21,000 11,000
72 TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES GO! 130,000 24,000 45,000 27,000 27,000 8,000

What Australia watched, Tuesday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,402,000 306,000 396,000 348,000 166,000 186,000
2 MY KITCHEN RULES-TUE Seven 1,400,000 349,000 459,000 274,000 158,000 159,000
3 TOP GEAR -EP1 Nine 1,385,000 385,000 402,000 280,000 143,000 174,000
4 NCIS Ten 1,363,000 402,000 340,000 264,000 156,000 201,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,248,000 258,000 361,000 302,000 138,000 189,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,161,000 346,000 371,000 228,000 77,000 139,000
7 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,153,000 298,000 388,000 236,000 71,000 159,000
8 TOP GEAR -SPECIAL Nine 1,152,000 296,000 375,000 210,000 117,000 155,000
9 NINE NEWS Nine 1,134,000 322,000 348,000 260,000 88,000 116,000
10 GREY'S ANATOMY Seven 1,046,000 273,000 323,000 239,000 102,000 109,000
13 BONDI RESCUE Ten 934,000 281,000 229,000 206,000 83,000 136,000
23 HOT SEAT Nine 568,000 146,000 162,000 155,000 50,000 55,000
24 DEAL OR NO DEAL Seven 567,000 155,000 155,000 121,000 66,000 71,000
31 TODAY Nine 357,000 111,000 103,000 83,000 29,000 31,000
32 SUNRISE Seven 335,000 86,000 74,000 95,000 36,000 44,000
55 BIG LOVE SBS ONE 148,000 38,000 56,000 17,000 11,000 27,000

What Australia watched, Monday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,495,000 405,000 413,000 304,000 194,000 179,000
2 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,424,000 392,000 498,000 270,000 103,000 161,000
3 MY KITCHEN RULES-MON Seven 1,408,000 382,000 443,000 277,000 160,000 147,000
4 THE MENTALIST Nine 1,347,000 428,000 428,000 238,000 116,000 137,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,342,000 377,000 373,000 277,000 158,000 156,000
6 NINE NEWS Nine 1,277,000 366,000 408,000 263,000 118,000 121,000
7 THE BIG BANG THEORY Nine 1,231,000 361,000 422,000 235,000 79,000 135,000
8 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,212,000 358,000 379,000 238,000 117,000 120,000
9 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT Nine 1,171,000 328,000 379,000 235,000 100,000 130,000
10 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,145,000 333,000 318,000 225,000 143,000 124,000
11 ABC NEWS ABC1 1,030,000 293,000 337,000 176,000 90,000 135,000
12 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Seven 1,025,000 270,000 352,000 188,000 94,000 121,000
17 GOOD NEWS WEEK Ten 815,000 230,000 242,000 150,000 102,000 91,000
20 THE 7PM PROJECT Ten 743,000 172,000 206,000 219,000 74,000 72,000
27 ROSS NOBLE'S AUSTRALIAN TRIP Ten 527,000 138,000 178,000 95,000 71,000 46,000
32 MAN VS WILD SBS ONE 383,000 98,000 135,000 53,000 52,000 46,000
33 SUNRISE Seven 377,000 102,000 85,000 103,000 31,000 56,000
37 TODAY Nine 351,000 109,000 101,000 78,000 30,000 33,000
48 JUDGE JOHN DEED 7TWO 229,000 44,000 63,000 39,000 43,000 41,000
49 HEARTBEAT 7TWO 222,000 54,000 51,000 40,000 42,000 35,000
73 30 ROCK Seven 118,000 45,000 39,000 16,000 12,000 6,000

What Australia watched, Sunday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Seven 1,344,000 338,000 387,000 326,000 125,000 168,000
2 AIR WAYS Seven 1,342,000 390,000 434,000 233,000 142,000 143,000
3 WICKED LOVE: THE MARIA KORP STORY Nine 1,295,000 358,000 526,000 203,000 111,000 97,000
4 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,275,000 357,000 431,000 239,000 126,000 122,000
5 BONES Seven 1,236,000 343,000 324,000 262,000 176,000 132,000
6 TALKIN' 'BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,180,000 330,000 390,000 222,000 126,000 111,000
7 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,162,000 343,000 369,000 232,000 123,000 96,000
8 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,073,000 243,000 338,000 249,000 118,000 126,000
9 60 MINUTES Nine 1,038,000 304,000 336,000 208,000 95,000 95,000
10 CASTLE Seven 921,000 223,000 302,000 167,000 136,000 94,000
11 ABC NEWS-SU ABC1 907,000 252,000 285,000 167,000 85,000 118,000
12 THE GOOD WIFE Ten 902,000 254,000 283,000 172,000 94,000 98,000
13 THE BIGGEST LOSER (AUS) - THE WEIGH-IN Ten 835,000 275,000 233,000 193,000 57,000 77,000
14 DOMESTIC BLITZ Nine 821,000 283,000 242,000 155,000 82,000 59,000
15 HOUSE Ten 761,000 254,000 210,000 123,000 89,000 85,000
18 BREAKING THE MOULD: THE STORY OF PENICILLIN ABC1 510,000 188,000 130,000 87,000 46,000 59,000
22 SCRUBS Seven 459,000 101,000 145,000 82,000 67,000 64,000
30 MY PLACE ABC1 281,000 108,000 68,000 45,000 29,000 31,000
36 FLYING HIGH! RPT Ten 255,000 78,000 79,000 33,000 29,000 37,000
38 MY KITCHEN RULES-ENCORE Seven 249,000 54,000 74,000 69,000 23,000 29,000

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

• by David Dale in whoweare-index at 09:34 AM
• Comments (60)

The Tribal Mind: Your chance for revenge at the Bogies

To learn why Labor needs to replace Kevin Rudd with Julia Gillard, go to Who We Are.

To find out what Australians are reading -- and what they're no longer reading -- go to Print is dead?.

by David Dale
When Channel Seven's programmers decided last week to kill off a show called The White Room, after only two weeks on air, they also killed their best chance of winning one of this year's coveted Bogie Awards. The category I had in mind for The White Room was "Lamest Ripoff of Another Station's Hit", because it so shamelessly replicated Ten's Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation (which is itself derived from the ABC's Spicks and Specks, but improved by the addition of apostrophes and Shaun Micallef).

Seven probably felt free to withdraw The White Room from contention because it has two other candidates for this award: My Kitchen Rules (cloned from Ten's MasterChef) and Gangs of Oz (a spoiler for Nine's Underbelly). But with The White Room out of the race, Channel Nine becomes the favourite with Customs, which was crafted to capture the paranoid geriatrics who cling to Seven's Border Security.

This column started the Bogies three years ago to celebrate achievements of the television industry that are mysteriously ignored by the Logies - the most irritating, embarrassing, overhyped and underrated programs and people in Australia's most popular form of entertainment.

Last week I discovered this invitation on the Logies website: "Voting for the 2010 [brand name] Logie Awards is now open! Simply by voting you will go into the draw to win a romantic getaway to [brand name] Island Resort and Spa, valued at over $10,000! Plus, each week we are giving away a [brand name] Glamour Photography pack!"

This column can't match such incentives, but I'm hoping you'll be content with eternal glory as your reward for helping to create the Bogies of 2010. We try to add at least five new categories each year.

The most popular new category in 2009 was "Best use of breasts to exploit viewers' base instincts". From a field that included Satisfaction, True Blood, Ghost Whisperer and Nigella Express, the winner was Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, which one reader spoonerised as "Overbelly: A Sale of Two Titties".

Underbelly 3 hasn't started yet, so we don't know if we'll even need that category this year. But you'll have plenty of time to reflect on such issues, and to think of categories and candidates, because we're taking suggestions all through March (go to Comments to join the game). At the beginning of April, this column will publish a voting form, and the Bogie winners will be revealed in a glittering ceremony on Saturday May 1 - one day before the Logies are announced.

Here's a summary of last year's awards: From a field that included Ricki-Lee Coulter, Krystal Forscutt and Fifi Box, the winner of "Most Unnecessary Personality" was Lara Bingle. (Fifi Box will be consoled by becoming a candidate this year for the new category "Weather presenter least likely to be promoted to a real job").

The winner of Most unnecessary adaptation of an overseas show was Top Gear Australia. "Most offputting commercial" was "the impotence one with the guys playing the piano". "Worst attempt at an accent from a country not your own" went to Matthew Newton. Most Underrated Program was Dexter.

Most annoying person (from a field that included Jason Coleman, Georgie Parker, Sam Newman, Andrew O'Keefe, Ajay Rochester and Danny Weidler) was David Koch. Most Missed Program was The Chaser's War on Everything. Most Embarrassing Program (the Naomi Robson Cup) was Today Tonight. Furthest past use-by date (the Bert Newton Trophy) was Richard Wilkins. And The Black Bogie (the Eddie McGuire Chalice) went to Kyle Sandilands.

This year Eddie McGuire's Olympic performance might make him a prime candidate for the award named after him, but that's for you to determine. Lets hear your new categories and candidates.

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

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 06:26 AM
• Comments (20)