Oh is it time to wake up again?
Gee that was dull telly.
It only became fleetingly interesting when the two leaders got to ask each others questions and disagree with each other.
Dull content, dull presentation, 30 mins too long. On one point I'm with Howard: I don't want three of these.
And who was heading up the Sound Department?
Anyway, list all your comments on the Great Debate here.
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Week 42 saw Seven slip its High Definition Channel under the radar with an all-but-silent launch on Monday evening as a way of trumping Nine and TEN's plans.
But if the programming is indicative of what's to come we might as well save our money on upgrades. A bunch of tired movies and a forgotten US series does not a launch make, and it's hard to see what CEO David Leckie got so excited about. This was the television equivalent of one network's dad trying to look bigger than another.
Seven didn't need to get so excited about High Def, when its Standard Def programming won the week anyway. Seven won with 30.0% over Nine's 25.7%, TEN's 20.8%, the ABC's 18.4% and SBS on 5.1.
Kath and Kim's finale was its best since its season premiere. No doubt Shane Warne's appearance helped it score 2.3m viewers, making it one of the year's top shows. Also tops were Border Security, The Force, Dancing with the Stars, City Homicide, My Name is Earl, Better Homes and Gardens, All Saints, Seven News, Today Tonight, and Home and Away. But Las Vegas has let down the network on Wednesdays and continues to plague Prison Break. The casino drama is about to be replaced. Bionic Woman is just hanging on to its audience, but Heroes, trumpeted as one of the year's hottest new shows, is now under the 1m mark. It should also be noted that Seven's shares on Monday and Tuesday well and truly thumped Nine and TEN.
It was another awful week for Nine. The best audience it could manage for the week was 1.25m for National Nine News on Tuesday, when the Ben Cousins story broke. All of its best performing shows trailed behind figures achieved by Seven, Ten and the ABC. Hanging in there for Nine were the movie Mr & Mrs Smith, McLeod's Daughters, A Current Affair, 60 Minutes, Temptation, Missing Persons Unit and Funniest Homes Videos. Some better news came on Wednesday when the return of Without a Trace over Damages saw Nine finish the night ahead of Seven. Mondays aren't worth talking about until Nine test drives its new line-up tomorrow.
TEN managed to win Wednesday without having Thank God You're Here on air -quite a feat. Why? Because the ABC hijacked everyone else away from poor offerings on Nine and Seven. House was its top show. Next up was Australian Idol, The Simpsons, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, NCIS and So You Think You Can Dance. Life beat alternatives on Seven and Nine, will it go up when Chris Lilley ends on the ABC? Despite these the network is going backwards.
This week the ABC was all about The Chaser's "Eulogy" song, again its most popular show. Spicks and Specks, New Tricks, Summer Heights High, Rebus, ABC News and Four Corners were all strong. Compass: The Abbey attracted its biggest ever audience of 829,000. And Saturday's audience proved the commercials are all but off the dial when it comes to programming properly.
SBS will be pleased the second audience for Newstopia went up on a tough night.
Ratings Week 42
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I don’t know why I am so surprised to hear Mark Holden talking like he has a few screws loose today. After all that’s his act on Idol.
Today he reckons that Idol has been hurt by Dicko. Holden told the Sunday Telegraph that Idol isn’t working so well this year because there are 4 judges instead of three.
"I am not loving the four judges,'' Holden said. "I am all for formats being bent but, in this particular case, I think three judges are right.''
Yeah, that’s right Mark. Stoke that fire, fuel that flame. And hey, do it on a Sunday too, the very day you want people to turn to your show. No stunt there, eh?
Idol’s figures this year aren't that bad given the competition from Kath and Kim and a Rugby League Grand Final.
To think that people would not tune in to the show because there are four judges instead of 3 is to insult the audience. You could put 2 judges on the show, or 5 and you’d still get pretty much the same result.
So for absolutely no consultancy fee, let’s go through the reasons that Idol is where it is today (which, frankly isn’t doing too badly at all).
1. Fatigue. Your toy was new four years ago. Now I have new things to play with.
2. Kath and Kim. Like it or not hornbags still rule.
3. Judges stunts. You can argue, you can brawl, you can thump the table but we know it’s all for publicity and we’re tired of it.
4. SMS voting. Why don’t we just write you a cheque now and we can all go home? Or better yet why don’t you just make the damn thing free? And hey, where DOES that money go?
5. Sacrificial teenagers. Even the Christians had a better chance before the lions than the ridiculous path you make these kids tread. Not exactly nourishing is it?
6. That results show. 60 minutes to tell me one thing. Yeah that’ll have longevity.
7. All 4 judges. One is loopy, one trashed the show only to return when his other gigs flopped, one never gives any criticism and the other is obnoxious.
8. The failure of your stars. We liked Guy, Shannon, Anthony, Ricki-Lee and one or two Young Diva songs. What happened to the rest?
9. Hillsong. Mud sticks.
10. Just the whole, darn idea that our next pop idol can be manufactured by a reality television show over the tried and true method of writing songs, paying their dues, singing in pubs, building their character and learning the ropes the old-fashioned way.
Australian Idol Watch
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It may be a scandal breaking in the UK, but the culture of TV phone-ins is not exclusive to Britain. Investigators have discovered wide-ranging and serious deception in television voting programmes. What they revealed shows habitual and fraudulent behaviour.
Viewers had paid more than £7.8 million ($17.8m) on phone calls which they thought was influencing reality programmes.
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway neglected to tell viewers that one of its competitions was only interested in contestants within 1hr travel of the contest's "travelling pig." Producers shortlisted the most exciting contestants rather than pick them at random.
Soapstar Superstar threw out two singing contestants despite them not receiving the lowest amount of votes. Scotland Year is indicating it may investigate the matter.
In Queensland last week the state's Attorney-General Kerry Shine called on reality voting shows to have free voting systems. "While these programs target the key 18 to 35 years demographic because of their high disposable income, I am concerned that many of those viewers who are voting are teenagers who may not be able to afford the associated costs," Mr Shine said.
Big Brother has previously booted the wrong contestant when it accidentally evicted Bree Amer then reinstated her into the BB House after realising a counting error. This year during the show's finale, numbers were unable to be correctly calculated in the allocated time frame.
Sources: The West, The Age
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There are far too many terms associated with Adelaide that are darkly ominous: Beaumont, Truro, Snowtown and of course ‘The Family.’
For someone who has never lived in the city these tales of abducted young boys during the 70’s and 80’s blur. But as “The Butchered Boys” episode of the Crime Investigation Australia details, they were not only too real, they make CSI pale into insignificance.
In 1979 17yo Alan Barnes never made it home from hitchiking in the Adelaide suburbs. Found dead under a bridge, Barnes had been kept captive, sexually abused and a bottle had penetrated his rectum resulting in massive blood loss. Two months later 25yo Neil Muir was also found dead, mutilated into two garbage bags, his severed head re-attached to his torso. He too had been raped and tortured with a bottle. Both had been heavily drugged.
By 1982 two more boys, 18 and 14, suffered the same cyclical fate: abducted, subjected to days of sexual torture, murdered and dumped.
But when Richard Kelvin, the son of Channel 9 Newsreader Rob Kelvin disappeared, it gripped the city like never before. Adelaide watched nightly as Kelvin’s female co-presenter would detail the case as he sat beside her. Richard was found seven weeks later wearing a Channel 9 top and a pet’s dog-collar he had jokingly worn when he disappeared.
At the time, notably with former Premier Don Dunstan still influential in the city of churches, tabloid media had a frenzy pointing the finger at the homosexual community. Were they easy targets or protecting a criminal? Rumours about politicians, high-profile businessmen, clergy and even judges entertaining young boys were whispered with disdain.
By 1984 Forensics identified accountant Bevan Spencer von Einem. He was sentenced to 36 years imprisonment, but only for the Kelvin case. A key witness indicated he did not act alone. There were other accomplices, including at least one woman, who assisted his horrific acts. They remain at large.
Under the clinical narration of Steve Liebmann, Foxtel’s CIA series has a formidable reputation for highlighting unsolved cases, and sometimes eliciting new evidence. In this edition it re-enacts key moments, and speaks to the parents of all but one victim plus the case’s retired Detective Superintendent. Years on, one father is at a loss to find a word to describe the killers of his son. “They’re not men. They’re not people. They’re not even animals. What word do I use?” he asks.
Crime Investigation Australia: The Butchered Boys premieres 7:30pm Thursday on the Crime & Investigation Channel.
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