It’s a complicated formula, how much a TV network is prepared to pay for ratings.

60 Minutes has just sealed a rumoured $200,000 deal with British back packer Jamie Neale, to do an interview to air this Sunday night, up against the Masterchef final.
Someone at Willougby obviously thinks its worth paying that much for Jamie’s version of how he survived lost in the Blue Mountains for 12 days.
But up against the Poh -v- Julie showdown on Ten, you’ve got to wonder if 60 Minutes is suffering from the Monty Python knight syndrome.
Masterchef has proved itself to be a rolled, gold ratings phenomenon. There are even predictions its two-hour broadcast on Sunday night could peak at more than 3 million viewers.
60 Minutes, on the other hand, has been languishing just over the million mark for a few weeks now. According to the Daily Telegraph’s Erin McWhirter, 60 Minutes scraped over the line with 1.02 million viewers last Sunday night.
Last year when the show got out its cheque book for Adelaide incest couple John and Jenny Deaves, (it’s not known what the dollar figure was), they got 1.5 million viewers.
But it wasn’t up against the program that has made 10-year-old boys all over the country put slow cookers on their birthday wish list and the rest of us start plating up our spag bol with a bit more care.
Jamie Neale’s story of survival is a fascinating one, but I suspect most of us will learn about it from the internet and newspapers on Monday morning, while we are still recovering from Julie winning Masterchef (sorry, couldn’t help that little prediction). $200,000 is a lot to pay to come second by such a huge margin.
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