Crikey

City Homicide hold its audience.  City Homicide , Seven’s new Melbourne-based police drama, is now the most successful new Australian drama of the year, if only because last night’s second episode managed to hold and build slightly on last week’s debut. It averaged 1.717 million people for the hour long ep from 8.30pm last night, 69,000 more than the first ep averaged over two hours last week. Last night’s ep was the reworked pilot for the series and when compared to Sea Patrol , which is also an ensemble drama, the weaknesses of Nine’s program emerge, especially in the poorly defined characters. It’s not that Sea Patrol is weak: its an above average Australian drama, but it could have been better and Seven’s work on City Homicide should tell Nine why. Good, solid characters. Already in City Homicide you can see some of the characters emerging. Noni Hazlehurst had a couple of looks last night that said more than any of the dialogue uttered on Sea Patrol . Shane Bourne remains the class act, along with Hazlehurst. He must be the most employed Australian actor around. He’s the central figure on City Homicide , hosts Thank God You’re Here and has also hosted the odd ABC program, like last year’s  How The Hell Did We Get Here . — Glenn Dyer

Near live AFL finals coverage for Sydney and Brisbane. Seven has advanced the start of its coverage of Friday’s first AFL final in Sydney and Brisbane from 9.30pm to 8.30pm. With the first bounce at 8.20pm east coast time, the telecast will only be 10 minutes or so behind the actual play, compared to Nine’s one hour delay (at the moment) for its coverage of the first NRL final from Auckland between the Warriors and Parramatta, which is currently scheduled to start at 7.30pm. The AFL final between Port Adelaide and West Coast won’t attract a big audience in Sydney or Brisbane, but it will be big in Adelaide and Perth, and of course Melbourne.  — Glenn Dyer

The Parrot wants a little bacon on his burger. In April this year, the ACMA announced that Sydney broadcaster 2GB had “breached the code by broadcasting material on Breakfast with Alan Jones that was likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity” during the Cronulla riots of December 2005. But on some counts Jones got off — including for any perceived endorsement of caller’s comments, like this:

J: If the police can’t do the job, the next tier is us.

AJ: Yeah, good on you J.

J: Now, my grandfather was an old digger and he used to say to me when we were growing up, “Listen, shoot one, the rest will run”.

AJ: [laughing]

J: Right?

AJ: yes… [laughing]

ACMA ruled, “On listening to the broadcast, ACMA considers that, on balance, the presenter’s comments, ‘yeah, good on you’ and laughter do not have a tone indicating approval of the comments, but rather would be heard by the ordinary reasonable listener as signalling closure of the conversation and that the closing comments were not to be taken seriously or as an endorsement of such action…” So based on that judgement, Jones’ comments this morning are A Okay:

Breakfast - 04/09/2007 - 06:28 AM
Alan Jones

Caller Geoff says we’re talking about ‘these Muslims’, but asks how long we’ve had the Jews in Australia. Geoff asks if the Eastern Suburbs stop KFC selling bacon and chicken burgers. Jones says ‘they don’t’, because we practice integration and assimilation. Geoff asks what our Super Max jails are full of, and then answers it’s ‘Muslims’. Geoff notes that if he goes to Saudi Arabia he can’t take the Bible with him. Jones says we’ve gone ‘stupid’ here. Jones says Elaine Nile is running on a ten year moratorium on Muslim immigration in the Senate. Geoff says she’ll get in on a landslide. Geoff says Muslims are the problem in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, as they will not integrate and want to take over parts of the country for themselves. Jones says that’s a ‘good call’.  — Sophie Black

A philanderer, and a great Dad. AFL player Brendan Fevola has had an inconsistent year, both on and off the field. His club, Carlton, finished second bottom, with Fevola at his erratic best for most of the season. His marriage also broke down following reports of a brief relationship with bikini model Lara Bingle, who decided last weekend was the time to clear the air. The Sunday Herald Sun reported that Bingle was “stunned by the ill-feeling some member of the public felt towards her,” and that it was time for her to move on and focus on her career. The paper also claimed: “A furious Mrs Fevola later blamed Bingle for the breakdown of her marriage, releasing a voicemail recording to the media that she claimed showed Bingle was ‘obsessed’.” Meanwhile, to help celebrate Father’s Day, Mr Fevola appeared on page 86 in a feature on doting dads who double as footballers. “Has having children changed the way you feel about your partner?” he was asked. “The respect you have for them is second to none,” began his reply. — Thomas Hunter

Stokes moves to embrace wireless broadband. Kerry Stokes’ Seven Network continues to build an interest in telecommunications, using its 33% owned offshoot, Engin (that’s the one promoted recently on Today Tonight). Engin today confirmed media reports that it had acquired approximately 10.38% of the wireless pioneer, Unwired Group Limited, through a number of transactions at around 40 cents a share. Engin says the stake is an “investment” that will help it to participate in the growth of wireless broadband in Australia:

Engin has been closely following the global development of WiMAX, and believes the technology is well placed at a point of maturity to deliver both fixed and ultimately mobile broadband solutions to consumers. Unwired owns the vast majority of metropolitan spectrum for the licensed bands across which WiMAX will operate in Australia.

Neil Gamble, Executive Chairman of Engin said, “We see a strong rationale for Engin and Unwired working co-operatively. A combination of Unwired’s wireless access services with Engin’s broadband telephony and TiVo offering would deliver a compelling consumer proposition.”

Ahh there’s a blast from the past. Neil Gamble, an old media and Pay TV mover and shaker from the early days of Pay TV (and regional TV, being interest in the TV business in Griffoth for a while). He was also in charge of the old tech company, Solution 6. Gamble was close at one stage to the bloke who started Unwired and was a strong believer, until he lost the faith and sold out (or took the money and ran). I refer to Steve Cosser, Broadcom, the Ten Network, Australis, the ABC and now living in Paris and London. There are suggestions Seven is talking to regional Pay TV operator, Austar, about a wireless deal. — Glenn Dyer

Ask Sam TV? Fairfax’s latest online goodie is here. Ask Sam TV. But two of the obvious questions are going unanswered. So, Sam, aren’t Cosmopolitans very 1999 – and just how do you make your dye jobs look so cheap and bad? — Christian Kerr

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners: It was a Seven Network benefit last night and its new drama, City Homicide, was icing on the cake. Border Security was No. 1 with 1.904 million viewers, The Force at 8pm was next with 1.815 million and City Homicide was third with 1.717 million. Seven News next with 1.542 million, followed by Home and Away  (1.508 million), Today Tonight  (1.465 million), Nine News (1.406 million),  A Current Affair  (1.386 million), Idol  (1.272 million) and Temptation (1.247 million). The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.108 million and Criminal Minds had 1.086 million for Seven at 9.30pm. Seven won from 6pm to 10.30pm (plus Deal or No Deal from 5.30pm with 935,000). Australian Story had 964,000 for the ABC at 8pm. Mythbusters , 541,000.

The Losers:  Nine at 7.30pm with The Secrets of the Crocodile , 817,000; 1 vs 100 at 8.30 pm, 977,000 (its second time under a million viewers) and  ER at 9.30pm, 600,000. Nine has no idea what to do about 7.30pm Monday nights and the rest of the night sags as a result. The Office on Ten at 10.10pm, 526,000 — down 400,000 from Californication . But they did beat ER !

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally but lost Melbourne and Brisbane. Likewise for Today Tonight . It won by 105,000 in Perth and 79,000 nationally. The 7.30 Report averaged 818,000; Lateline 298,000; Lateline Business , 136,000. Ten News, 895,000; the Late News/ Sports Tonight , 311,000 at around 10.40pm. Four Corners , 795,000; Media Watch , 774,000 (the fruitloop on Seven’s Morning Show was very entertaining). SBS News, 231,000 at 6.30pm; 132,000 at 9.30pm. 7am Sunrise 398,000; 7am Today , 260,000.

The Stats: Seven won with a share of 34.1% (34.3% a week ago), from Nine with 22.6% (23.0%), Ten with 20.5% (22.6%), the ABC with 16.7% (14.8%) and SBS with 6.2% (5.3%). Seven won all five markets and now leads the week 29.6% to 24.1%. In regional areas a win to Prime/7Qld with 34.6%, from Nine through WIN/NBN with 24.6%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 19.2%, The ABC with 14.3% and SBS with 7.2%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven was simply too good last night as Nine suffered from 7.30pm onwards. Eddie McGuire’s fabled persona is not enough to drag viewers to watch 1 vs 100 , which is a slow moving vehicle for Eddie’s benefit, rather than the contest or the contestants. ER is passed its use by date. Apart from the News and A Current Affair , Temptation was the best performer with 1.247 million, but Nine want to axe it and replace it with a strip of Eddie’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire . Going on last night’s effort for 1 vs 100 , that would be a brave move. Californication slipped a few thousand viewers last night and Seven’s Criminal Minds beat it (I don’t know why the Christians are upset. This program will slowly disappear under the weight of its own self importance). Criminal Minds looked a bit dark last night, while Andrew Denton monstered poor Kyle Sandilands: it was like a master hunter chasing a rabbit with a searchlight. Tonight its Seven again. The week is won already. Nine’s Things To Do Before You Die fades to black tonight at 7.30pm; Ten has three hours of repeats from 6pm and 9.30pm and Seven has All Saints , RSPCA Animal Rescue and Medical Emergency  from 7.30 m. Nine also has Crime Investigation Australia and then The Sopranos .

Source: OzTAM, TV Network reports