news articles 27 november

[Inside Australian Idol]

Everyone wins on event TV
Amanda Meade
November 27, 2003

THE network's news and current affairs department did several stories on Australian Idol. There were separate profiles of Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll in the lead-up to the final, including interviews with their families in Adelaide and Condobolin. Then there was the morning-after story last Thursday, which looked at Guy's big win the night before and his parents' reaction to a dream come true. The winning moment, when the glitter rained down on Guy's head as he sang his victory song in the Concert Hall of the Opera House, was broadcast again, and again. But hang on, this wasn't Ten news milking its own hit show. This was the rival Nine Network devoting valuable prime-time coverage to a program on Ten. Extraordinary, given its rival had knocked the stuffing out of its – usually solid – ratings last week.

Welcome to event television, a medium so powerful it breaks down the traditional boundaries between networks, smashes the barriers between entertainment and news and tramples all over the distinction between publicity and reportage. Shows such as Big Brother, Australian Idol and The Block are seducing viewers with their attractive mix of freshness, strong characters, real dramas, mounting tension and, importantly, audience interaction. These shows not only pull in millions of viewers, they engage on a number of levels. They exist outside the confines of a TV guide.

After Nine's hit show The Block and Ten's success with its stable of "event" shows, Seven is scrambling to jump on the bandwagon for next year, releasing a list of "buzz shows" it hopes will capture the audience's imagination – and a share of the ratings in 2004.

Last week, with advertisers currently negotiating rates for next year, Seven announced its programming line-up would include several "new Australian event television reality series": My Restaurant Rules, What Not To Wear, How To Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less, How Long Will You Live? and Popstars. Speaking at Ten's program launch on Wednesday at the Opera House, programmer David Mott knocked Seven for trying to get so many shows up in a year, commenting that they must be anticipating a "high failure rate".

Mott: "TV has evolved. You have to be coming up with new ideas or the audience moves on." Mott's opposite at Nine, programmer Michael Healy, agrees: "Primarily the audience wants something new and different. Look at The Block. The characters were all new, they're all different and they've all got big, rich characters and strong storylines."

Successful shows create what the Americans call "the water-cooler" effect, namely, programs so pervasive most people can talk about them around the office water cooler the next day. And if they can't, they feel left out. It's not just "events" such as Idol that generate excitement. Some recent series have been runaway successes as TV audiences hunger for something new. Seven's 24, a US drama with a unique storytelling technique, the ABC comedy Kath & Kim, which has already enriched the local language with words such as "noice" and "look at moi", and Ten's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which took a warm-hearted approach to exploiting stereotypes, are all water-cooler shows. Ten is hoping to cash in on the fascination with Queer Eye with a local version next year.

Network executives are spending a lot of time talking about how to make more of these types of shows – what are the magic ingredients? – and analysing why the audience seems to be tiring of the more traditional forms of entertainment, like drama.

While the death of Dr Mitch Stevens in All Saints and the loss of the central character Claire in McLeod's Daughters this year did see the ratings spike, they both failed to really excite.

One of the experts who interprets the audience for TV executives is Audience Development Australia's David Castran. Castran, an independent analyst, says TV producers today are facing the problem that viewers no longer want to commit to a show 40 weeks a year.

"We're commitment-phobes," Castran says. "What we're seeing in Australia is not a phenomenal swing to event television but a gradual realisation that viewers get fatigued, they get bored."

Shows such as Big Brother, which run for 12 weeks a year, or Idol, which take viewers on a specific journey once a year, are very attractive to a new generation of consumers. Castran: "It's very appealing to come to a program and commit for 12 weeks and say 'see you later' at the end. It's manageable, it's do-able, it has a beginning, a middle and end."

[Inside Australian Idol]

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Mott, who has steered the network through the success of Big Brother, Queer Eye and Idol, believes you have to keep challenging an under-40s audience. "They can lose interest very quickly. When we look at the schedule we have to find product that is there week-in and week-out, but also try to create a schedule that has those moments, that gets you more than just a write-up in a TV guide, something that's more than just 'what's on tonight' but that taps into popular culture or everyday lifestyle, that gets people talking at school or in the office."

And Idol certainly did that. What other TV show has been covered so comprehensively by the other networks, by radio, by magazines and by newspapers?

The online component, powered by Yahoo! Australia & NZ, has been an important part of the experience, too, delivering sponsors a great deal of exposure and allowing fans to fuel their obsession by talking to other fans in the chat room. A total of 12,000 people consistently chatted online to other Idol fans, and the site became a place audiences could gossip and interact with the show in between programs by downloading ring tones and screensavers or reliving the episodes. The managing director of Yahoo! Australia & NZ, Clifford Rosenberg, told Media more than 3 million video streams have been downloaded and played, which translates to 40,000 hours of watching videos online.

When Ten launched the first Big Brother back in 2001, it brought News Limited on board as a media partner to ensure it got widespread press coverage. The deal included a liftout special on Big Brother in the group's Sunday papers, and an exclusive interview with evictees for the Monday papers. But after the first year, the deal died. Mott: "We found we didn't really need media partners because the coverage seems to take off anyway. Editors just can't ignore it."

During Idol's run Sydney's The Daily Telegraph ran a regular "Idol Moments" segment in its gossip section, complete with the show's logo. It looked as if it could have been a paid advertisement. It wasn't. But it wasn't just the tabloids that got into Idol. The broadsheets ran the results on page one last week and filled the features pages and columns with the show throughout its run. The last three Big Brothers and The Block have also generated massive interest, with the newspapers covering the auctions of the four flats and the thousands who turned up to watch them go under the hammer.

Michael Healy: "The other media pours fuel on the juggernaut. Once The Block started, the Sunday newspapers came on board, and then the magazines and the other newspapers and the opposition networks started doing stories on it and it fed the frenzy."

Like Big Brother before it, Idol regularly became news. When thousands turned out for the auditions in each state it made the papers, when Paulini was told to wear less revealing clothes or "lose a few pounds" it made news and filled the airwaves, when finalist Cosima de Vito pulled out at the 11th hour with throat nodules it made news. And it wasn't only Nine's A Current Affair that ran feature-length stories on Idol. Seven's Today Tonight did, too. Seven's director of programming and production, Tim Worner, says Popstars and The Weakest Link also became fodder for other networks' current affairs shows. Even the ABC's The 7.30 Report got into the act – albeit a look at the ethics of Ten charging fans 55c a call to vote for their favourite Australian Idol. "Networks feel that they can cannibalise a hit show, that they can piggyback on their success," he says. "It doesn't always work, it's not necessarily a guarantee of ratings. All forms of media have become so competitive that anything that looks even vaguely popular, everyone's going to jump on it." So engaged were people with Idol, they began to use it as a mirror on contemporary society. Like Sarah Marie from Big Brother and Gav and Waz from The Block, Guy and Shannon became the focus for endless debate about our identity. The letters pages of Sydney's The Daily Telegraph were alive with arguments about who was more "Australian" – Shannon or Guy. On Friday the paper ran an opinion piece about Guy's influence on the growth of Christianity in Australia. Healy: "It says something about the tribalism in society – because everywhere you went people were saying 'Is it Guy or is it Shannon?'. People love to barrack for one or the other." For a TV show to inspire such passion, its characters have to generate a connection with the audience, Healy says. "The audience establishes a relationship with them and they care about them enough to go on this journey with them. The Block had an ongoing storyline and it had a conclusion that we were working towards. Idol, Big Brother and The Block, they are all basically a count down towards a dramatic conclusion."

Castran says Ten has proved to be very good at working out what the audience wants. "We all knew talent shows worked but Ten took (British creator) Simon Fuller's Idol format and ran with it," he says. "It's a very clever format with all the right elements of drama and tension. They created a terrific opportunity for advertisers. Look at the prominence Garnier has gained in the marketplace."

But Ten, too, has made mistakes. In a stunt programming move, Mott put The Q Test – a spin-off to try to find a local Queer Eye team – up against Nine's second National IQ Test last week, and failed to make a dent. Not even the Fab Five could pull viewers away from The National IQ Test hosted by Eddie McGuire. Nine, too, has made a clumsy attempt to cash in on the success of The Block and steal viewers back from the final Idol last week. Reno Rumble pitted the couples from The Block against professional designers and had all the charm of a cold TV dinner. The danger of event TV is the more "events" you have the less impact they have. Worner: "You have to be extremely careful that once you find something tasty you don't start gorging yourself on it until you choke." Ten faces a real challenge building excitement for Big Brother 4 next year. After three years of the format audiences are sure to tire, especially as they compare it with Idol. Even The Block 2 is not guaranteed to be a hit, as audiences may not come back for another renovation journey. Casting is crucial here, too. Who can guarantee another Gav and Waz?

Castran agrees with Healy's emphasis on the importance of character in event/reality TV. He says while traditional drama is still portraying stereotypes, reality TV is presenting real, but complex identities, like the Malaysian-born Guy, and a transvestite called Courtney Act who was so popular she performed at the Opera House final show. "It throws up a lot of things about themselves," Castran says. "So this show is working on a lot of levels."

Ultimately it's the human connection that the viewer wants. "Television has become too rehearsed, too pre-packaged, the audience wants emotion, they want the real-ness," Castran says. More than 40 programs are launched in Australia each year, he says, and only 20 per cent are successful. This year they were CSI: Miami, Without a Trace, The Block and Australian Idol. "Seven didn't have one. Ten have been very successful working with independent producers like Southern Star and Fremantle to work up concepts."

And for Seven's new (ex-Nine) management team of CEO David Leckie and programmer John Stephens the success of next year's event TV shows may just spell the success or failure of their attempts to turn Seven around. Worner is confident he has a hit show with My Restaurant Rules, due to screen next year. "We've had 18,000 applications, that's 36,000 people who want the chance to run their own restaurant," he says. "So we've obviously touched a nerve with Australia already. There's already a fair bit of buzz about that. If you get all the ingredients right, pardon the pun, and get the cast right, you have a chance of creating a significant amount of buzz."

[Inside Australian Idol]

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WINNERS

Australian Idol Final Verdict (Ten), 3.25 million viewers

The Block final episode (Nine), 3.1 million viwers

Test Australia National IQ Test (2002) (Nine), 2.79 million viewers

Big Brother (2001 final episode) (Ten), 2.6m

Australian Idol Final Prelude (Ten), 2.5 million viewers

Test Australia National IQ Test (2003) (Nine), 1.7 million viewers
WHAT MAKES A HIT


New and different concept (eg 24, The Block)

Audience interaction/participation (eg voting)

Emotional engagement with characters (eg Gav and Waz, Shannon)

Elimination process (eg Big Brother)

Dramatic climax (eg Australian Idol )
BUZZ TV FOR 2004
The Hothouse, Ten

Fourteen couples have to agree on a plan, then build and decorate a $2 million house on Bribie Island – only one couple gets to keep the dream home.

The Resort, Ten

Twelve young couples arrive on a Fiji island expecting to work on a beautiful resort but find it's a dump that they have to fix up before 120 18-to-35 year-olds arrive for their dream holiday. The winner gets to keep the first three months' takings. Ten's programmer David Mott called this reality show a "docu-soap".

My Restaurant Rules, Seven

Young couples are given a budget to design, renovate, staff, launch and oversee the day-to-day running of their own restaurant. The winner gets to keep the restaurant.

Jamie's Sydney Kitchen, Ten

Ten is in negotiations with British super chef Jamie Oliver for the rights to film the behind-the-scenes drama should he go ahead with plans to set up a Sydney restaurant staffed by underprivileged young people following the success of his recent series Jamie's Kitchen.

The Block 2, Nine

Hoping to replicate the success of last year's blockbuster, Nine is searching for another block of flats for four couples to renovate, possibly in Melbourne's trendy St Kilda district.

Big Brother 4, Ten

Pundits were ready to write the franchise off this year, but then Tasmania's fast-food queen Reggie Bird rocked the house and the nation's heart and ratings were as solid as ever.

Australian Idol 2, Ten

Will it be hit by fatigue factor? Ten will screen the international world Idol contest early next year before the second local version kicks in. In the US, ratings keep getting stronger for each Idol season.

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7973281%255E7582,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Advertisers take a punt on a hit
THE pressure might be on programmers to find the right formula for water-cooler TV, but advertisers, too, are asked to ponder the crystal ball when it comes to choosing the hit programs that will form part of office conversation.
Forced to think in advance, not just about the shows themselves, but about what the offerings might be on other networks, they know the challenge of choosing the right show is fraught with danger.

Graham Webster of advertising analysts Custom Media, says considering the depth of network PR support for a show can be as crucial as the show itself. "You have to consider the power of PR in the equation," Webster says. "Other things to take into account include the success of the show overseas if it is a bought-in format, or if there is a track record of success if it is a local format."

Media analyst Steve Allen of Fusion Media says advertisers are often struck with a case of "sticker shock" when they are first told the cost of supporting event TV programs. He says while some understand the reasons behind the costs of such shows, others decline, only to try and buy their way into final episodes when a show proves a hit.

"It happens a lot, even up front," Allen says. "They are normally a long long series and they have a fair price tag. Sometimes there are two, three or four hours a week of television and certainly when I have sat with advertisers hearing that, the sticker price is always the initial issue."

Sticker shock for advertisers that decided to jump on the Australian Idol stage was substantial, with key partners such as McDonald's and L'Oreal understood to have paid $1.5 million each for their participation, plus significantly more to support the investment.

At other times Allen says that clients "simply don't get" the shows they are being asked to support. He cites Network Ten and its decision to fly more than 200 advertisers and media buyers from around the country to the Australian Idol finale at the Sydney Opera House. "I think that is why Ten spent a lot of time and effort flying clients and journalists to the final," he says. "I think the network was saying to some of them, we understand that you don't get this. That you don't get what's happening, so we are going to put you in the middle of it." As a result Ten's guests were given first-hand experience of the Australian Idol phenomenon, with 5000 screaming teenagers on the steps of the Opera House, and the buzz when the winner was announced. Not to mention the celebrity-packed after party.

But for those who have missed the boat, Barry O'Brien of media buying agency Total Media says there are still chances for advertisers to come in at the last minute. "There is not a network that would not entertain a client coming in at the back end of one of their blockbusters if they have the inventory," O'Brien says. "I have yet to see the day they will not sit down and talk to you. With shows running 3½ hours, there is a lot of inventory and lots of opportunity to make your mark."

Simon Canning


www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7973281%255E7582,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Idol withdrawal symptoms
By Ross Warneke
November 27, 2003


Only one week has passed and I am already missing Australian Idol. Guy Sebastian was a shoo-in to win, although his vocal aerobics were not exactly my glass of medicine and he deserves to fare well in the World Idol contest in London over Christmas, when he competes against the winners of 10 or so other Idol contests held in places as far-flung as the US and Poland, Britain and Lebanon.

It will be like a worldwide Eurovision Song Contest. Let's just hope the global voting system is less tedious than at Eurovision. The word is that after a concert on Christmas Day (probably Boxing Day here on Channel Ten), in which all contestants will perform, viewers will have a week to vote for their favourite before the announcement of the winner on New Year's Day. But they will not be allowed to vote for their own nation's contestant. If they were, American Kelly Clarkson would surely be the winner, simply because the US population of 260 million dwarfs that of any other country in the show.

When the final of American Idol aired in the US this year, more than 30 million people watched. Last week's Australian Idol finale scored only a tenth of that, although in Australian terms that was no mean feat. It's only fair that a scoring system be used that takes account of the voting might of the US. The system rumoured to have been adopted by the producers probably ensures that Clarkson will not be the winner. But it also means that whoever impresses American viewers is likely to win the contest. And that probably means that World Idol will be a sing-off between lots of contestants adopting twangy American accents. Just imagine a Lebanese love song performed with a Texan drawl.

I have said it before but that was my biggest problem with Australian Idol: all those talented young people performing as if they were country and western singers straight off a Qantas jet from Nashville. Even Beatles songs were Americanised. Sacrilege! In the context of the debate over the proposed free-trade agreement with the US, in which Australia may have to sacrifice its right to set local content quotas on TV for such things as Australian drama, it really grated.

A section of the entertainment industry was proudly proclaiming its Australian-ness and its desire to keep the FTA at bay at last Friday's Australian Film Institute awards, and there, just two nights earlier, was Australian Idol sounding like American Bandstand.

Too often it is hard to know exactly what the Australian culture truly is, or whether it still exists. But we can take heart from the TV ratings. If there was any doubt that, deep down, we like to see ourselves on our screens, the weekly audience surveys seem to dispel it.

Last week, 18 of the 20 most-watched programs on Melbourne television were generated in Australia, the exceptions being Channel Ten's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. And they were well down the list at 18th and 19th.

As a real proclamation of our cultural independence, we especially love to watch our sporting teams playing in competitions that most Americans know nothing about. They can have their so-called World Series of baseball, which doesn't include any teams from outside the US. But even in Melbourne, where Aussie Rules reigns, we finally embraced the Rugby World Cup, a sport that previously never had much of a following here. More than a million of us tuned in to Saturday night's final to barrack for our team.

The list of the top 10 shows around Australia so far this year is fascinating. Not one American cop show or sitcom! Five of the top 10 are telecasts associated with the Rugby World Cup, including Saturday's final and the opening and closing ceremonies. There is the AFL grand final between Collingwood and Brisbane, and the final of the cricket World Cup between Australia and India. There is the final of Australian Idol. And, proudly carrying the flag for Australian inventiveness, there is the final episode of Nine's The Block, a concept developed by two creative geniuses at Nine's Sydney headquarters and exported around the world.

And look at the list of last year's top 20 weekly programs (not special events or sport) on Melbourne TV. Sixteen of them were Australian, the others being Friends, Malcolm in the Middle, E.R. and 24.

Or the top 20 shows, including sport and specials. This time, only two had no direct Australian connection - the final of the soccer World Cup and a once-in-a-millennium freak show, Michael Jackson's Face.

So, in the end it might be the viewers who decide to send the Americans packing. The fact is that we prefer to watch ourselves on TV and no TV executive in his right ratings mind will dare to ignore it.

www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/25/1069522597857.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Don't tamper with a winning formula

November 27, 2003

IF you're one of the critics of Australian Idol who regard the hit show as manufactured, highly commercial entertainment, you won't be surprised to hear just how closely broadcaster Ten adhered to the original English product. These pictures will give you some idea. The Idol format, created by Simon Fuller's music-based entertainment company, 19, is strictly controlled right down to the glitter that is released on the winner's head in their moment of glory. Fuller created Pop Idol for UK television in 2001 and the blueprint has sold to 25 countries already including the US, where American Idol was a great success. In Australia production company Grundy's produced Idol for Ten in strict accordance to the original Idol. This meant the show had to have two hosts, identical (blue) graphics, identical (blue) sets, identical theme music, websites and episodic structure. The finalists, including winner Guy Sebastian, will find themselves subject to the rules which govern the show, right up until their contracts expire. (At least Sebastian is a strong, unique talent in his own right.) But the show has done more than make a star out of Sebastian and runner-up Shannon Noll. Idol national publicist for Ten Steve Murphy has worked just as hard as the contestants the past few months, escorting them across the country and lining up countless interviews. Murphy has appeared in several of the behind-the-scenes shows and starred (unpaid) in the Maybelline ad which runs before each show. He's the bloke who says "10 minutes 'till you're on". Murphy told Diary he was so exhausted he's taking five weeks off from tomorrow.


www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7973336%255E22822,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Shannon's V8 show
From Sydney Confidential
November 27, 2003


NO, we haven't forgotten about the nation's second favourite Idol, Shannon Noll.


Shannon Noll's ready to get into top gear in Sydney.

After the hoo ha of the Idol final last Wednesday, it's been quiet on the Nollsy front as the new pop star took in a bit of fresh Condo air and chilled out at home with fiancee Rochelle and the two little fellas.

But it appears his other love, the sweet sound of a V8 supercar Championship Series, has been enough to bring him back to Sydney for the weekend.

He'll face his biggest crowd yet - about 39,000 - as he belts out the National Anthem for Round 3 of the series at Eastern Creek at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Noll's new bestie Guy Sebastian will send off the 2Day FM morning crew tomorrow with a live performance during their final broadcast from the Sydney Town Hall.

The Daily Telegraph

entertainment.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4459,7985869%255E10229%255E%255Enbv,00.html

[lizzie]

All i have to say is Guy i love him only coz he is so Spiritual!!! and im not just saying that coz he won Aussie Idol!! i just like him!! is there anyway i could get in contact with him directly?? i really wanna jut talk to him have a conversation with him!! i love his song the way he sings it almost brongs me to tears!! (not meaning to sound corny) But i love him he is by far the best singer i have heard in From Australia in a long time!! i would just love to have a conversation with him!! Like i was the onyl girl he could see i gues im just an idiot!! i dont know i just feel like i really want to talk to him!! Oh well if anyone knows how i would go about getting in contact with him give me a buzz!! on [e-mail]!! thanks all Bye
Love always lizzie : )