Content Survey Live: Yesterday's Hero: Round 2: Night 2: Max Burford's Day Off.

 What, do you mean we couldn't afford Ferris Bueller?

Welcome to the second night of the second round of survey for Content Survey Live 2025.

The Perth Easter Monday survey, was a eyeopener into the world of newsroom pressure. They were justly rewarded for the move at less than a hours notice to push a pre-prepared obituary, 

And now, the ground rules for the 2025 season.

Our focus, in Content Survey Live will be monitoring Ten’s five capital city news services (a benefit of technological change, now allowing us to watch interstate bulletins on delay), using the same criteria we used in the “Great Local News Study” from Kuttsy's Pitch XI in August, 2019.

-Locally sourced stories: that is stories reported by local journos. Really big local market stories with national impacts, also fit here. Voiced over local stories are counted separately.

-Live crosses: stuff that is used to embellish a story.

-(NEW in 2025) Local overnight news: Handled via a system we call collectively, the “Ray Robinson Number”: 1pt for V/O’d overnight news, 2pts for a full story, the total is reported at each survey’s end. A special prize will be given for the regular season’s Ray Robinson Number leader. 

-Weather is not counted.

-Sport is not counted if it’s done by obviously freelance journos, or voiced over pieces: you gotta have dedicated reporters there, with their mug on air reporting a sports story for it to count

-(NEW in 2025) The “Hometown Rule” now applies to both Monday and Thursday night in the regular season as well as in the three Four Quarter Blitz finals (where the highest ranked participant goes first) outside of the Grand Final.

- (NEW in 2025) No 2nd survey (i.e. Tuesday/Friday) can be posted until 12hrs have elapsed after the live survey (Monday/Thursday) in the main season and the three Four Quarter Blitz finals outside the Grand Final. It can be worked on however, and scheduled.

-(NEW in 2025) Ties on the table, at the end of the season, have their seeding for finals decided by countback of fixture scores excluding byes (out of 40)

TALE OF THE TAPE: ADELAIDE.
Last year's champions, are ready to roar back into survey, although with a much harder job defending the title than Perth did in 2023. Very little has changed amongst the Adelaide formula: although the Brisbane victory last round has likely sent many heads for a spin... especially as the newly standalone Sydney and Brisbane bulletins are Adelaide's next opponents in this game.

We open Adelaide's news tonight, about half a hour or so before the news of Pope Francis's death broke (after 5:30pm ACST, 6pm AEST). The lead story was concerning the washup of a incident at the Power/Swans game at the SCG, that saw a fan banned for two years, followed by reporting on current drought conditions in South Australia...

While, another story: one that "Team Adsett" in Brisbane got onto very quickly (significant event on the Sunshine Coast concerning several car crashes and a carjacking), made the Adelaide bulletin, but not Perth because of the Francis story breaking.

We also get full stories on recent lotto winners in SA, and upcoming new animal experiences in Adelaide, while we get voiced over pieces concerning a crash in Elizabeth, and a overnight rescue in Hawthorndene (1pt Ray Robinson Number).

We also get for the first time in a long time: traffic updates for Adelaide along with a live cross for weather, which turned out... to be the only ones in the bulletin.

Just before sport (5:40 ACST, 6:10 AEST), we get the first inkling of a very significant news story that has broken: not long after the Easter Vatican piece, voiced over by John Paul Gonzo aired.

And, then the news broke concerning the death of Pope Francis.

Sport, gave us a balanced round up of AFL coverage both at home, and in Melbourne in addition to the Adelaide United V Roar game.

However: the final weather cross was ditched, in favour of the Hugh Riminton-produced Pope Francis obituary, that literally closed the bulletin in Adelaide.

Tonight, Adelaide's news was sound, and surprisingly proves how much of a underutilized asset Alan Murrell is for 10 in Adelaide: especially on a night where significant news broke toward the end of the bulletin with very little time to prepare.

Let's look at the scores.
Four local stories
A well rounded sports product, that breathes without Burford.
Two voiced over pieces.
One live cross for weather: the second was abandoned.
A Ray Robinson Number of 1.

Last year, Adelaide scored it's highest score in Round 4: 7.75/10.
Tonight: Adelaide scored: 6.8/10.

The scores for this fixture are a nailbiter.
Adelaide: 6.8/10.
Perth: 7/10.

On a very tight and significant night: Perth take home the points for this fixture, by just .2 of a point, and have earned their first points for the 2025 Content Survey Live season.

The 6:00 Sunday Night Sound.

This Tuesday, we look back almost fifty years to a big breakout hit for Marty Rhone, none other than pop ballad: Denim and Lace.

Denim and Lace, outright launched a musical career for Rhone (who’d been a relatively successful actor: at that time starring on school-based soapie Class of ‘75) that is still indeed going strong, and has seen him diversify his interests in later life, at one point even managing a trio of boxers.

Not bad for someone whose second hit was… a “Mean Pair of Jeans”

Thursday and Friday… we give you a double shot of Redgum… with a side on Anzac Day Friday of how Cold Chisel’s Khe Sanh walked… so Redgum could run… and ultimately saw our Vietnam veterans finally welcomed home.

We are now at the halfway point of the second round. Thursday and Friday, see the newly split Sydney and Brisbane news services go head to head.

See you then.

A reminder of our socials:
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