True. I didn’t think about that.
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Never understood why the Brits have such a fascination with Aussie life.
There’s a daily daytime series on BBC One in the UK called Wanted Down Under where they film families deciding whether to live here or not. Pure escapism.
The storyline usually goes:
presenter: “Mr Twat and Mrs Twat and their two children from Rhyl in North Wales want to live a better life. Mr Twat has always wanted to live down under, but his wife is less enthusiastic about the idea. We’ve taken them to see what the difference in wages and living costs are down under…”
Some random medical centre director they found: “Mr Twat, you can earn $150,000 a year as a GP here in Australia”
Mr Twat: “My god” starts crying “My salary is only six pounds a year as an NHS GP”
presenter: “We’re now taking them around to see typical houses in Perth [it’s always bloody Perth they’re filming in], so they can see what they can afford”
Mrs twat: “$650,000 for this place? Oooh that’s a bit pricey. HOW MUCH are the groceries each week? My god. Maybe we might want to think this over, but we still come out on top in terms of the finances…”
presenter: “Now we’ve sat the family down in front of a TV set which is showing their families’ desperate pleas for them to stay in North Wales”
family member on TV (blubbering): “I’m getting old and I don’t know who is going to take care of me when I’m too old to take care of myself! And the grand children!!! sob sob sob”
presenter: “Now we see how the family are voting on whether to live in Australia or to stay in North Wales…”
kids say wales | parents say Australia
Mr Twat: “Y’know we’ll have to look at it very carefully because we have all these things to consider…”
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Probably just envy at how life has worked out for the descendants of their convicts.
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Brits are still fascinated by the livelihood of folk in the colonies. It’s even evident in the way Australian correspondents for the likes of the BBC write.
Then they decide to move back because they think our TV is crap (among other things).
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is that show still going?!? I was watching it when I was in the UK maybe around 2008 or 2009
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Yup, eleven seasons since 2007.
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I wonder how well that will go down with Murdoch.
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Everyone is talking about CBS - the network and their streaming service - as if its this massive game-changer, and that TEN is going to be the next Nine. Worth remembering that CBS is just one broadcast network with a few shows a night that may or may not set the world on fire. It’s not this magic wand for Ten that some are suggesting.
Btw, CBS has long been my favourite net.
You must be an old codger. 
Heh, news.com.au ran an exclusive yesterday about Ten photoshopping a gay marriage ad or something onto a bus. The knives at Murdoch’s tabloids are out.
As for Foxtel sorry foxtel, it’s interesting how they’ve said this. The AFR article a few days ago stated that News Corp bought Sky News explicitly so the eventual Ten purchase would ensure it an influential slot on FTA. This jeopardises the dual sports rights bidding strategy, and deeper pockets from CBS means increased costs for Fox Sports to buy major sports.
This is all negative for Foxtel sorry foxtel.
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Local content is the only thing which rates reliably nowadays. US dramas and comedies can still perform well but have been much much less likely to become hits since around 2009. I don’t know what changed about Australians’ viewing tastes in that time (streaming, torrenting, a lot more competition from other mediums are all factors), but it’s pretty clear that audiences want Aussie content first and foremost.
The days of programs like CSI, NCIS and Friends becoming reliable hits are over. Once upon a time it was these programs which were the real moneymakers, and Aussie content was just there in the background as cheap filler or to satisfy content quotas. Now it’s the opposite: US content is a filler while Australian content gets the eyeballs.
CBS would hopefully be smart enough to recognise this. I really hope they are. Investing in solid local programming for the primetime hours and using CBS’ back catalogue of new American programming to grow audiences on the less popular nights and late evenings could help Ten add some depth to schedules.
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Is this the same “anonymous source” who told you off-the-record that Graham Richardson wrote Bill Shorten’s budget speech and not Paul Keating? If so, this guy must be really well connected…
Not Australians that changed - the American content changed - it became niche, twee, and ultra liberal. “Around 2009” also fits in with major political changes in America at that time…
What a load of rubbish! Since when has he been anti- American? He actually took a huge interest in the election process and even went there for The Project, during the election itself.
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When the main channels topped being available in HD from 2009-10 many sought their US content in HD elsewhere.
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Thanks Trump but your analysis of the situation is completely rubbish. Friends was very liberal and was one of the highest rated shows of the late 90s and early 2000s. The US version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy rated 1.5 million viewers per episode in 2005 on Ten.
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Nah, I don’t really buy that. The regular viewer is none to bothered about SD vs HD in my opinion.
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Puhlease, I watched Friends each week and it was not “very liberal”. All 6 were in various heterosexual relationships. Joey was a corny schmoozer of women. Chandler a bumbling idiot. Monica a previous fatso.
Now compare that with shows “around 2009”…Glee, which went from a show about music to one about gay relationships every two seconds, Ugly Betty, Modern Family. All programmes which purposely chose contexts such that “very liberal” themes could be explored…
The one that reinforced decades old stereotypes of gay people as ultra-camp “designers”? That one?
Thanks for your nonsense analysis, Hillary.
Exactly. The American mainstream media hates the “America” the right-wing represents more than Waleed ever could…