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Being Lara Bingle was pretty bloody good television

Alison Stephenson

by Alison Stephenson

13 Jun 12:45pm

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Filed under: Channel 10, Entertainment, Lara Bingle, Ratings, Reality Tv, Television

78 comments

Lara Bingle. Controversial? Definitely. Polarising? Certainly. Gossip fodder? Absolutely. Savvy? You betcha. Not as vacuous as most people think? You’d better believe it.

Wake up… brush ample teeth… pose for camera… Pic: Sam Ruttyn.

The 24-year-old’s first foray into television debuted on screens across the country last night and while most were too proud to admit it, almost a million people tuned in to watch her show.

We set aside half an hour to sit down with our cups of tea and bucket loads of commentary and we watched it. All 925,000 of us.

It’s a figure that will strike fear into the naysayers and the haters, who will now have to concede that in fact, Aussies do give two hoots about what it’s like to Be Lara Bingle.

Yes, the “bimbo du jour” has appeal and intrigue and far more reach than any intelligible program the ABC can put on in an 8pm timeslot.

On Sunday night, Aunty ABC debuted Mabo, the indigenous telemovie which received overwhelmingly positive social media reception, intense marketing and walk-in-the-park competition in its timeslot, but it could only manage half the viewers the Shire girl raked in.

While Twitter and Facebook raved about the cracking storyline and the powerful performances of Mabo, the results were lacklustre at best.

But put a socialite in a swimsuit (or take her out of one), and bung her in a posh Bondi pad and you’ve got people tuning in quicker than you can say “Where the Bloody Hell are You?”.

“Network Ten will be stoked Being Lara Bingle rated 925K” wrote Emma Ashton of leading reality TV blog, Reality Ravings. “The publicity campaign worked well. Congratulations.”

You see, Ten knows its audience, and it was fully aware that this show wasn’t going appease the masses.

The network and Bingle Inc. didn’t make this show for the high-brow, nor did they make it for those who prefer Four Corners to Footballers’ Wives. They made it for the impressionable young women who are prepared to set aside half an hour of their Tuesday night to sticky-beak into the life of a Shire girl made famous.

So it’s no surprise to read that episode one was received well in the 18-39 demographic. Because twenty-somethings are predictable creatures.

Having been brought up on a staple TV diet of docudramas and reality shows, such as The Hills, The Only Way Is Essex, The Kardashians, Real Housewives and Jersey Shore, BLB was nothing new.

We’re used to having the lives of the rich and famous dished up to us in copious quantities. And we like it. So why not have one of our own?

Last night, Lara Bingle became the first and only Aussie celebrity to sell her soul to the cameras, offering her drama, her mishaps and her vulnerability up on a golden reality platter.

Audiences tuned in to see all the superficial things we so openly criticise her for - her wardrobe, her blonde moments, her mishaps and her insecurities.

They knew it was manufactured. They knew it wasn’t “reality” – but it didn’t matter. It was a snapshot into a privileged life beyond our realm.

Even the harshest of TV critics couldn’t avoid calling her show “strangely enjoyable”.

And that in itself, is proof that Being Lara Bingle indeed has a place on the small screen.

Most commented

78 comments

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    • Audra Blue says:

      12:52pm | 13/06/12

      I don’t understand the reference to “the Shire girl”.  What does that mean?

      I didn’t tune into to watch Mabo or Lara.  I completely forgot about both of them, but if I’d remembered, I would have watched Mabo.

      Those are some good ratings for her, but it will be interesting to see if she can keep it up.  Somehow I doubt it.

      Reply

    • Wayne Kerr says:

      01:24pm | 13/06/12

      They may be considered good ratings but the show ended up be the 13th most watch show of the night.  Not very good in my opinion. Personally I don’t think it will last.

      I still can’t understand this cult of celebrity that the 18 -39 demographic thinks is so wonderful.

    • M says:

      01:25pm | 13/06/12

      On the shire girl thing, She’s a hobbit.

    • Steveo says:

      01:29pm | 13/06/12

      I don’t know who this woman is, apart from the fact that her mother is disappointed in her for some reason (they ran that ad enough didn’t they? I had to keep changing the channel). As a nerdy sort I think that a reference to ‘The Shire Girl’ must mean she is short, likes to eat and has hairy feet.

    • Swingdog says:

      02:34pm | 13/06/12

      Sutherland Shire - short hand for Bogan Central.

    • Adam R says:

      02:47pm | 13/06/12

      I’m guessing not heaps of people here are from Sydney. But I’m going to go out on a limb here.

      ‘The Shire’ refers to the Sutherland Shire and is a part of Sydney that is known for being a white middle/upper class society (although that’s changing pretty quickly). Surfer culture and known for being introverted. Constant jokes in Sydney when one is let loose or ‘goes over the bridge’. People from the Shire have great pride, an example is being in a cinema full of fellow Shire… people… and watching Lord of the Rings where in the first movie they leave ‘The Shire’ the crowd ‘Awwwed’ at that moment in the film Shirings have a feeling empathy and sympathy with their own daily rat race to the CBD where they leave The Shire and occupy their middle class office job, or trade.

      Geology spans from Menai, Lucas Heights to Cronulla.

      I don’t know exactly what she means by being a, or “THE Shire girl”. Maybe she’s supposed to be innocent or just the girl next door seeing as “The Shire” is your stereotypical suburban area.

      Honestly though there’s a lot of TV work going on down here… Puberty Blues is being shot down here, ‘The Shire’ reality show (although I don’t know what is happening with that, kind of happy if it just doesn’t go ahead as it just kind of balloons the bogan/party culture here when most of us are just typical well educated people) and some parts of the Lara Bingle reality show. It’s kind of crazy… and the new X-Men, come to think of it, at the Kurnell Sand Dunes.

    • Tchom says:

      09:27am | 14/06/12

      @Wayne Kerr -
      As a 18-39 year old, I resent that comment

    • M says:

      12:53pm | 13/06/12

      When are they going to make one about Matt Newton or Kyle Sandilands?

      Reply

    • n_dude says:

      01:57pm | 13/06/12

      Now that might pull in a few viewers (not)!

    • lex says:

      01:15pm | 13/06/12

      Bloody good television?  It is mental fairy floss, and just because there are a few idiots in australia who were willing to watch it, does not make it “good television”.

      Reply

    • M says:

      01:33pm | 13/06/12

      You missed the part where it said it was targeted at women didn’t you? They lap that sort of bollocks up.

    • lex says:

      02:37pm | 13/06/12

      @M no I didn’t - I am a woman and I most certainly don’t lap that sort of drivel up.  Just because stupid women want to watch stupid TV, doesn’t make that TV “good”.

    • amy says:

      02:54pm | 13/06/12

      @M thankyou for insulting my gender

      men like their fair share of crap too

      the lowest common demoninator has little to do with gender

    • M says:

      03:22pm | 13/06/12

      Come on girls, be reasonable,  I doubt there’d be many straight men tuning in to watch Bingle.

    • maybe says:

      04:20pm | 13/06/12

      M - men watch sport on television.  They lap that sort of bollocks up.

    • Dan says:

      04:52pm | 13/06/12

      As a man, can I just say that just about everyone has stupid entertainment tendancies….its OK to watch crap. Really is there anything more meaningful in a ballet or an opera (or a grand final) than there is on TV? You might be wearing more expensive clothes but its still silly crap that helps you escape life…and there is nothing wrong with that.

      Lets not allow M to turn this into a man vs woman thing.

    • Audra Blue says:

      11:31pm | 13/06/12

      M, bite your tongue.  I don’t watch any type of reality TV.  I don’t understand what this woman hasdone that’s so interesting that they gave her her own show.

      TV has really gone to the dogs these days.

    • Eloise says:

      02:55pm | 14/06/12

      My brother and his mates watched all of 5 minutes of it. They said it was perfect LCD - ‘Lowest Common Denominator’ television (in the vein of ACA & Today Tonight - the “white trash” of so called current affairs and news), the majority of morning radio (‘mourning’ radio as his best friend termed it), and News Limitted (“extremely limitted” to quote said brother) journalism. After returning home to Australia after four years away, he’s astounded at the dumbing down of television viewing, and the lack of quality discussion/analysis that’s being projected onto the mainstream via aforementioned medias.

      Their words & terminology, not mine. Brother & sister-in-law are returning to work (medical fields) in India then South America - “away from our dumbed down pop-culture and fame for non-achievement which is constantly broadcast as the norm’ (again their words) to where respect is earned via hard work and achievement”. Sad but I can understand why.

    • Susan says:

      01:15pm | 13/06/12

      Oh dear Alison.  You claim that 925,00 viewers shows people care.  You don’t describe how this sat in the ratings - 925,000 is NOT a good figure for ratings and certainly not for a first night - and how many tuned out?  If you look at the forum comments on the news piece today you will see out of 44 comments around 4 think she’s cool and most of the rest switched away to another channel.

      Sorry, but I have the feeling that you either aspire to being in the Bingle set or you know them already.  This article feels more like one mate trying to look after another mate than anything seriously journalistic and analytically thoughtful.

      I wonder what rationale you will conjure up if the show is pulled off the air soon.

      Reply

    • lex says:

      01:31pm | 13/06/12

      Something along the lines of “haters gonna hate”, I imagine.

    • Susan says:

      02:18pm | 13/06/12

      Lex, good pick on that I think.

    • Cobbler says:

      01:22pm | 13/06/12

      If this show had one million views it says one of 2 things:

      1) The intellect of the Australian audience has degraded significantly since the late 90’s, when all this reality bollocks started to catch on. or;

      2) Dispite the fact that there is what?,17 free to air channels now? there is still nothing to watch on television.

      I think it is mainly option 2.  The networks are baying about piracy killing it’s ratings but I find it interesting is that the shows that actually get torrented are those few and far between good dramas or sci-fi/fantasy shows that tend to never see the time of day in Aus, or at least not on free-to-air.

      When presented with ‘Being Lara whocares’ on free-to-air or to pay over $100 a month for pay TV with ads to watch say ‘Game of Thrones’ is it any wonder that Australians are making option 3, not watching the big networks and just downloading the few shows worth watching on pay-tv?  I’m not surprised.

      All that aside though why is it that people care about Lara Bingle’s life?  It totally escapes me.  It’s not like she secretly fights crime by night, or does amazing things like save lives, keeping our nation safe or helping the poor.  Sure, I like looking at her in swimwear, but I can do that on google images…at work for that matter.  Why would I want to see her preparing for said shoots?

      Television should be about escapism and the last place I’d like to get taken is into Lara Bingles life for 30 minutes, mowing the lawn would be more fullfilling.

      Reply

    • M says:

      01:58pm | 13/06/12

      “When presented with ‘Being Lara whocares’ on free-to-air or to pay over $100 a month for pay TV with ads to watch say ‘Game of Thrones’ is it any wonder that Australians are making option 3, not watching the big networks and just downloading the few shows worth watching on pay-tv?  I’m not surprised.”

      I download all my content. Screw foxtel and screw the repeats on free to air.

    • n_dude says:

      02:02pm | 13/06/12

      I prefer watching paint dry personally, but hey I guess I am not the target audience for this crap….

    • SM says:

      02:10pm | 13/06/12

      BLB is exactly TV escapism. There are people who indulge in the schadenfreude that is her ‘crazy, mixed up life (tee hee)’. There are people, as you pointed out, who watch in the hope there might be a bit more of Lara’s bits to see. More than what was in the email attachment doing the rounds 2 weeks ago anyway. There is also the delicious peculiarity of how Lara can have a TV show at all with an audience, a good many of whom, would give anything to swap lives with her and be famous for bugger all.

    • MarkS says:

      03:10pm | 13/06/12

      Ignorance can be bliss. I was unaware that this show even existed. Pity I cannot remove this knowledge. Hopfully if nobody reminds me I can forget about it.

      Watched American Horror last night, reminds me a bit of American Gothic. Some sort of surreal feeling. Just the type of great show you will never see on free to air.

    • Mitchell says:

      01:24pm | 13/06/12

      I admit it I sort of watched it, between cleaning up the kitchen and checking blog sites like this one.

      Mind you I had the telly on chanel 10 from when I got home, so I could watch the Bikey show that was on after the Bingle show.

      Reply

    • fitter says:

      01:24pm | 13/06/12

      Although I didnt watch the show, I would rather have my teeth pulled out without an anaesthetic , I would be pretty confident that it wasnt pretty bloody good television. So the show is ” a snapshot into a privileged life beyond our realm” ? You are kidding right? She’s a bloody failed model who shagged a couple of famous guys, and now lives in a one bedroom apartment in bondi,  she’s hardly Kate Middleton.

      Reply

    • Carolyn says:

      03:06pm | 14/06/12

      @ fitter - I had to have a tooth pulled last week - and even with the anaesthetic it hurt a fair bit after. So I understand the pain level, and still totally agree with you!
      (I went to the movie after to watch Prothemeus…...and didn’t realise I was drooling down my chin - in fact I didn’t even know I had a chin because I couldn’t feel it post dental visit) - my shirt was completely soaked on the upper right side. It looked like a boob leakage…).

      Solidarity!!!!!

    • Scotchfinger says:

      04:36pm | 14/06/12

      @Carolyn, that was you? I thought you were a young mother and wondered where the hell your baby was! Nearly called DOCS…

    • Tim the Toolman says:

      01:26pm | 13/06/12

      “Being Lara Bingle was pretty bloody good television”

      Ok, so, TV hasn’t improved.  No need to dust off the remote this year! smile

      Reply

    • Michael says:

      01:29pm | 13/06/12

      On Sunday night, Aunty ABC debuted Mabo, the indigenous telemovie which received overwhelmingly positive social media reception, intense marketing and walk-in-the-park competition in its timeslot, but it could only manage half the viewers the Shire girl raked in.


      Says it all really. We as a nation might complain about the nature of the TV we get, but much like we vote for the politicians we get and then whine about, we watch the TV shows that we like to complain about.

      Reply

    • Michael says:

      01:29pm | 13/06/12

      On Sunday night, Aunty ABC debuted Mabo, the indigenous telemovie which received overwhelmingly positive social media reception, intense marketing and walk-in-the-park competition in its timeslot, but it could only manage half the viewers the Shire girl raked in.


      Says it all really. We as a nation might complain about the nature of the TV we get, but much like we vote for the politicians we get and then whine about, we watch the TV shows that we like to complain about.

      Reply

    • hermano says:

      01:35pm | 13/06/12

      I’m still trying to work out who she is/what she’s done, apart from break up with Michael Clarke.
      Someone help me out.

      Reply

    • Kika says:

      01:43pm | 13/06/12

      I didn’t even know Mabo was on! I thought it was a real movie - not a telemovie. Damn. Will have to tune in again next week.

      Who cares if 925,000 tuned in to Lara Bingle? That means 21,075,000 people didn’t. Or in other words, only 4% of the entire country was watching that show.

      Reply

    • Keith Hammersmith says:

      01:44pm | 13/06/12

      so did people tune in to watch Lara or was it simply like I accidently did, because Master chef ran late, so in turn I sat through 15 minutes of lara waiting for bikie wars to start.

      Reply

    • John F says:

      02:55pm | 13/06/12

      Thats me to a T Keith, it was on so I could go to the toilet, make coffee, turn on the electric blanket and wait for Bikie Wars.
      So does 15min count as being watched ???

    • the real Julia says:

      01:53pm | 13/06/12

      “Last night, Lara Bingle became the first and only Aussie celebrity to sell her soul to the cameras, offering her drama, her mishaps and her vulnerability
      up on a golden reality platter.”

      I have to correct you on that , what about “at home with Julia” now that was some bloody good reality TV.

      Reply

    • Wayne Kerr says:

      02:19pm | 13/06/12

      and let’s not forget Sylvania Waters, the original Reality Televison show.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      02:00pm | 13/06/12

      Theres two types of TV watchers.
      A) Those that record FTA TV to watch later, time skip, or buy DVD sets to watch at their leisure, or
      B) Suckers.

      I dont understand why theres so much hate for this show. No ones forcing anyone to watch it.

      Reply

    • Tim the Toolman says:

      02:42pm | 13/06/12

      “I dont understand why theres so much hate for this show. No ones forcing anyone to watch it.”

      No, but it would be nice if such a ubiquitous medium was used for more than this…

    • Wetback says:

      03:37pm | 13/06/12

      yeah but Timmy, who would watch anything better than this? They aren’t watching quality stuff like MABO plus I’m already depressed enough from checking news updates on my phone every 20 mins and being reminded about all the ways we’re going to hell in a handbasket, so I find myself inexorably drawn towards this absolute TV tripe so i can stop the heavy overload from everywhere else. Besides, she’s got great cans.

    • craig2 says:

      05:59pm | 13/06/12

      yep, go the cans!

    • SM says:

      02:14pm | 13/06/12

      She needs to ditch that manager

      Reply

    • Switch says:

      02:34pm | 13/06/12

      As a twenty-something “predictable creature”, I can honestly say that I have never heard of the The Hills, The Only Way is Essex, or Real Housewives. I have actually heard of The Kardashians and Jersey Shore, but only because they are lampooned at great length in online communties. I have never seen an episode of any of the TV shows that you make mention of. Are these shows actually popular amongst the demographic that you mention? I have never seen them make any of the “most downloaded” lists of TV shows.

      Being the “predictable creature” that I am, I download most of the content that is not otherwise readily available in Australia. Game of Thrones is currently the biggest TV show in the world, yet it is not available on free-to-air television at all. However, it is available with only a few clicks of the mouse button.

      Oh, and I also watch Four Corners.

      Reply

    • ZSRenn says:

      02:59pm | 13/06/12

      I am not going to read this story. I don’t have to! This mindless dribble is the drug which the media uses to tell the masses that all is right with the world. You’re ok because LB is ok or some other such shit!

      Wake up Australia you’re drowning in a sea of sewerage!

      Reply

    • Fred says:

      03:03pm | 13/06/12

      She’s not famous for nothing. She’s a model. She’s hot, it takes effort to not look like a slob. I’d take someone like her over another embittered, self entitled feminazi Sydney woman any day.

      I feel sorry for Aborigines, but I really don’t give a shit.

      The last Four Corners was about the Euro, interesting, but usually Four Corners has some lefty bleeding heart rubbish on and it is boring. Anyway, the chardonnay socialist agenda isn’t terribly different from the mainstream at the end of the day.

      Reply

    • Kika says:

      03:33pm | 13/06/12

      How do you know she isn’t a Feminazi? Have you ever been out with her? Ask Michael Clarke maybe for advice on that one. She lives in Bondi right? So she’s a Sydney chick. She looks ok until she opens her mouth - it’s literally shaped like a toad’s mouth. Have you ever seen a toad open it’s mouth?

    • Dr SydneyGirl says:

      03:46pm | 13/06/12

      Kika you never cease to amaze me - now the generalisations about Sydney and “chicks” (we are not hatched by hens thank you).

      By any measure Lara Bingle is a very good looking girl, no point in running her down by likening her mouth to a toad.

    • Scotchfinger says:

      03:54pm | 13/06/12

      @Kika, I take it you are not a fan of Lara B? I agree, she has not aged well. Let her make hay while the sun shines, her looks will have gone by 30 but by then she will have married well or at least own lots of property. If her dear old dad stopped her, she would have her dignity but perhaps not be so wealthy. Go figure.

    • Wayne Kerr says:

      03:55pm | 13/06/12

      @DrSydneyGirl

      I’m a red blooded male and I personally think Lara Bingle is very over-rated in the looks department.  Nice bod but I have to agree with Kika, she has an ugly mouth and a very droopy face.

    • Scotchfinger says:

      03:58pm | 13/06/12

      Dr SydneyGirl, I wish you and Kika got along…

    • Dr SydneyGirl says:

      04:13pm | 13/06/12

      We do get along, I am merely startled by her umm left of field views.

      To be honest I am no expert on the beauty business but it seems rather obvious that the girls in the business - Bingle. Hawko, Megan Gale etal - would be considered pretty girls by most people to be hired in the first place. I still hold that Bingle is a pretty girl.  I haven’t seen the show so I can’t say anything about it.

    • Fred says:

      04:48pm | 13/06/12

      I think Megan Gale is overrated myself. Too tall, too long in the face, too big a mouth. Reminds me of Jughead from Archie comics. Good thing we don’t all go for the same girls, at least to a certain extent anyway.

      @Kika, I don’t know if she’s not a feminazi, but I’m just going along with what is sold to me.

    • PW says:

      01:58am | 14/06/12

      Fred:

      You’re comparing a shortish blonde aged 24 with a nice body and a face only her mother could love, who has an extremely limited modelling repertoire (swimsuits would be about it) with a 40ish, 6 foot brunette with an angular but perfectly serviceable face and a tall, slinky body who has nothing whatsoever to prove in the modelling game.

      I think Gale wins handsomely, even without allowances for the 16-odd year age penalty. But I just prefer tall brunettes, I guess.

    • PJ says:

      02:44am | 14/06/12

      At least Bingle’s hair conforms to the stereotypical Aussie girl - blond, dead, feels and looks like straw. But hey it’s blond!

    • M says:

      07:01am | 14/06/12

      Good looking girls tend not to be feminists.

    • Kika says:

      02:28pm | 14/06/12

      Megan Gale is very beautiful and has had a HUGE career and doesn’t need reality shows to boost her profile.

      Hawko = Beautiful whilst substantially cosmetically enhanced from her Newcastle Knights cheerleader days

      Shanina Shaik = Drop dead beautiful! Stellar career and again, doesn’t need a reality show.

      Bingle = I’m sorry. She’s pretty if she doesn’t smile. She got the Where the Bloody Hell are you ad because she IS just that = a typical Australian girl.

      @PJ - Totes! Blonde doesn’t only have to be a qualification for being beautiful! I remember when I started dying my hair brown (blonde hair was fading into a dull dirty blonde colour) = Dad thought I was absolutely insane because, and I quote “No man will marry you with brown hair. All men love blondes” Pfft. Not the men I like! Plus it costs $$$$ to keep your hair looking nice blonde and I don’t have that sort of cash. I told Dad that if he wanted my hair blonde he can pay for it. No further argument.

    • Dig a little deeper says:

      03:45pm | 13/06/12

      You realise she lost a lot of those 925,000 viewers within 15 minutes, yeah?

      Reply

    • Arnold Layne says:

      03:58pm | 13/06/12

      The World Cup qualifier between Australia and Japan was pretty bloody good television.  For those with Foxtel, there are no excuses for watching anything else…

      Reply

    • CM says:

      12:58pm | 14/06/12

      Agreed Arnold. Was a cracking game.

      Shame there was no free to air coverage as it was exactly the sort of match that could convert the non-believers. 90 minutes, 90 emotions - love it!

    • Mickey T says:

      04:11pm | 13/06/12

      Only a loser would be dumped by Michael Clarke.

      Reply

    • cheap white trash says:

      04:45pm | 13/06/12

      We set aside half an hour to sit down with our cups of tea and bucket loads of commentary and we watched it. All 925,000 of us.

      And it also says alot about the odd 925,000 ppl watching it ,Get A F IN Life…

      Reply

    • mark says:

      04:54pm | 13/06/12

      i bet Ten trotted out those figures, to head off these sorts of truthful assessments of this high cost rubbish.
      i would like to see the switching trends, and would also like to see their raw data to see if they actually counted 925k or just extrapolated the figures from a smaller segment that would be more inclined to watch this crap.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      05:17pm | 13/06/12

      Yeah the show was OK, but on The Project last week she looked like a rainsoaked marionette.
      And her bottom jaw, when she talked, didn’t match the sound.

      Puppet pauses ?
      You bet.

      Reply

    • Evalee says:

      07:31pm | 13/06/12

      I love these satire pieces!

      Reply

    • Mark/Fox says:

      07:39pm | 13/06/12

      Lara who?

      Reply

    • PJ says:

      02:25am | 14/06/12

      Right on, cue collosal yawn Zzzz zzz

    • LizzyLoo says:

      08:09pm | 13/06/12

      I personally didn’t watch it.  You’d think after being bombarded with the trailers for weeks I’d remember.  Ive come to this forum to see what the true reponse is and from what Im reading it sounds like that 925k count is fudged.  Where do they get these figures from??  As another poster commented does that included leaving your tv on ten while you tend to other things that don’t included actually watching the show….

      Reply

    • DaveBaum says:

      09:52pm | 13/06/12

      The last time I checked, she’s prettier, more successful, and more INTERESTING than any of her high-brow critics. They wish they could be 1/3 as beautiful, rich and happy as her. That’s why they don’t like watching her; They are really just envious of her.

      Reply

    • Radpinsy says:

      07:42am | 25/06/12

      A typical response. I guess someone had to say something stereotypical *_*. I would like to hypothesis that reading your comment was more INTERESTING than any of Lara Bingles “high-brow” critics but; that’s not saying much though is it?

    • James In Footscray says:

      07:07am | 14/06/12

      Mark Scott, ABC Managing Director, was being interviewed on ABC radio yesterday - he said the fact Lara Bingle had twice as many viewers as Mabo shows ‘ratings aren’t everything’. He also suggested Mabo, unlike Bingle, will be watched in schools for many years.

      Says it all - you can make something boring and doctrinaire that no-one wants to watch, and then force it on school kids.

      Reply

    • jimbo says:

      09:44am | 14/06/12

      I watched Lara but who is Mabo?

      Reply

    • Tanya says:

      10:11am | 14/06/12

      925,000 viewers is a pretty damning statistic that speaks a volume about cultural demise in Australia. If that vacuous nobody is the subject of true public interest, it is a source of concern that the government and other media outlets need to address.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      08:58pm | 14/06/12

      Nah, she’s a quite interesting lady I think, but Brendon Fevola was her mistake.

      ps he’s everybody’s.

    • Beardo says:

      10:11am | 14/06/12

      I’m surprised people still watch public TV… or pay TV for that matter.

      $40 per month for unlimited broadband (not Labor’s one, but the network working well for over a decade now) and shelling out for a lappy/pc and you can watch ANY show/movie from around THE WORLD at any time, ad free (god bless AdBlockPro) and for free.

      I guess Ten know their audience - viewers who are techless boneheads. Internet wat dat?

      Reply

    • Luthien Nienna says:

      10:50am | 14/06/12

      I only tuned in to the last 15 minutes, when switching from Channel 7’s “Once Upon a Time” to Channel 10’s “Bikie Wars”... All I saw was the same crap that was in the ads that 10 had been repeating ad nauseum for the last few weeks.

      Will not be tuning in ever and will mute if it runs long next week. Herself smirking as her Nan’s voicemail played was enough to confirm she is not worthy of attention.

      Reply

    • Louisa says:

      09:47pm | 14/06/12

      I think the comparison in ratings figures between this week and next week will be interesting. Water cooler chat indicates that some people tuned in just for ‘a look’ but won’t be tuning in ever again. Ratings nose dive coming.

      Reply
 
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lucyjk 19 May 13 02:24PM

RT @HeatherSmithAU: Can living in another country change your life for the better? by @lucyjk on @newscomau f. moi http://t.co/E5Ma3kBut2

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penbo 19 May 13 01:02PM

@mooks83 sophisticated response. Think the kids parents saw it differently

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penbo 19 May 13 12:50PM

More class from 9's footy show, lampooning a baby that allegedly looks like Sterlo with a pic swiped from Facebook http://t.co/BGoYP6Pn68

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