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Monday, August 21, 2023

Content Survey Live 2023: The Call of The Tribes: Grand Final: Melbourne V Perth Night 1 (Melbourne)

 Welcome to the beginning of the final week...
The final week... of the call of the tribes.


Welcome to the first night of Grand Final week!
After barely beating Adelaide last week, Melbourne now lines up against the reigning, defending, undisputed champion of this format, Perth in a weeklong battle. We tossed a coin on Sunday off screen, and it was decided who goes first this week. That city was... Melbourne.

But first:

The rules of combat... I mean survey are as follows:

The Ground Rules:

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.

-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.

-And finally: Ten Brisbane will have it’s Gold Coast content tracked during it’s nights: something that has become a tradition in itself.

Melbourne's road to this week has been both rough and smooth. After literally annihilating Brisbane in the very first semi final (with a near-record two survey score of 17/20), Melbourne's week off dampened momentum, to the point that it only beat Adelaide in the preliminary final last week by the narrowest of margins (although, it could have been wider had they done a live cross to Fed Square last Thursday night concerning the live site's closure for the rest of the Womens World Cup, the lack thereof, resulted in only the second ever points deduction in this format's history).

Tonight will Melbourne, play like England's Lionesses did on Wednesday night against the Matildas, or will they end up like the England mens side in the years after winning the 1966 men's FIFA World Cup on home soil (having moments since that are either celebrated or criticised), that inspired the Lightning Seeds's "Three Lions"?

Will Melbourne bring Content Survey Live gold home, likely earned without Jennifer Keyte there for 2/3rds of the event?

Are you ready to survey some content?

We open tonight's bulletin with a live cross from Fitzroy Gardens after a fatal attack earlier in the day (this cross was repeated fresh after 6), followed by a Great Ocean Road camper trailer theft gone awkward (repeated after 6), then full stories concerning the Commonwealth Games cancellation costs fallout and a inquiry into Dio Kemp's care prior to her death in 2019, which was also repeated after 6. Voiced over pieces, included a not-guilty verdict on a 2021 attack in Ravenhall, while the attack on Jack Ziebell on the weekend has seen suspects turning themselves in (repeated after 6), a drive by in Newcomb, a St Albans fatality (drove straight into a truck) overnight and a piece post 6pm in sport concerning a Irish tour for the Melbourne Cup.

Sport tonight, has thankfully got Quarters back, for the home stretch, especially as the finals picture for the AFL begins to become much clearer: with the arrival of Damian Hardwick at the Gold Coast Suns, and the shock loss by the Western Bulldogs to West Coast (likely saving the Eagles, the ignominy of a wooden spoon in 2023, the big question: what's the angle in Perth?), and a short look at the AFLW season launch (perfectly timed to cash in on Womens World Cup fever).

But this has to take the cake, promoting the 100m dash final in Budapest.


(At this moment, we realised we couldn't make a joke about Noah Lyles, he'd out run us.)

In addition, the Tropical Storm Hilary coverage, included what looked like a snippet from the CBS Evening News.

Overall: Melbourne tonight hit one out of the park, especially with the improved chemistry between a fill-in for Jennifer Keyte and Quarters, and a strong story with relevancy leading the bulletin.
The scores:
Three full local stories, two rerun after six.
Five voiced-over pieces, one rerun, one fresh after six.
Six live crosses: three from Whiskey Week at Eureka Tower, with 1 fresh cross post-6pm, one cross retooled as a voiced over piece.
Sport feeling like it's found it's groove, although the Seinfeld Night segment probably got over better live, than recorded!
The last two outings, saw Melbourne score 17/20, and 11.4/20.
Tonight saw Melbourne score... 7/10.
A very impressive showing, while waiting for Perth's response at the big dance.


Mondays with Hank.
So, we’ve finalized a merger between the House of Mouse and one of America’s big three broadcast networks (with a disposal: Disney’s first broadcast television property: independent station KCAL in Los Angeles (known for it’s take on a news-intensive primetime format), ultimately ending up a part of CBS when the rules that forced the KCAL sale by Disney (which disallowed television duopolies in a single market) were axed by the FCC in 1999) and we end up headed toward a bright future.

The 1996 version of All My Rowdy Friends, is a shot over the bow, and can likely be seen as ABC’s “answer” to the basic cable wrestling war (at that stage seeing WWE Raw on USA Network and WCW Nitro pulling 5-6 shares combined on Monday nights during the NFL season, as well as WCW now airing a 2hr product every Monday night (which overtook WWE’s 1hr product in the ratings war in June), with a hot storyline to boot: a newly minted heel Hulk Hogan wreaking havoc alongside the New World Order stable).

Basically, it entails the idea of a similar concept to a military exercise, leading to the US responding… only for the president to be revealed… as Hank Williams Jr. We get some interesting shots, in this package (inc. the Washington Monument being turned into a American football goalpost, Spaceship Earth at Epcot (at Walt Disney World (subtle hint to ABC’s new corporate parent) being transformed into a football, the Statue of Liberty cheering, and even Mt Rushmore being turned from presidents heads, to the heads of MNF commentary team Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf and Al Michaels.


(Monday Night Football at war... 1996 style: From Edd Kalehoff on Youtube)

This promo, is the sports version of what Tom Scott, described the opener to “Alright on The Night’s Cockup Trip” as: quite simply as the greatest title sequence, I’ve ever seen. It represents television, and Monday Night Football at it’s peak… before mass change happens to ABC’s sports division, come 1998 onward…

Tomorrow night: The last of our series, that beats the drum.

So, we are done with the first quarter of the Grand Final for Content Survey Live in 2023. Tomorrow, Perth finally steps up to the plate, for what we call our infamous midnight runs (that is, doing Perth's survey late at night due to the 3hr time difference between the east and west coasts.) Will it all come down to the premiership quarter? You just have to find out tomorrow.

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