AFL beats NRL in grand final TV ratings. A hands-down ratings win to the AFL over the NRL at the weekend, thanks to a bigger metro audience, especially in the AFL heartland of Melbourne. While the AFL grand final’s national audience for the Collingwood-Geelong match was slightly better than last year, the NRL grand final’s average was the lowest for 11 years as Manly held off the New Zealand Warriors.

The AFL grand final, won by Geelong, had a national audience of 3.525 million based on preliminary figures. Using Ten’s adjusted metro figure of 2.630 million, the match had a national audience of 3.560 million, compared with an average for the first GF and rematch last year of 3.456 million. The NRL grand final had a national audience of 3.177 million viewers, down on the 3.324 million in 2010. Here’s the AFL audience breakdown:

  • Melbourne — 1.380 million
  • Perth — 368,000
  • Brisbane — 320,000
  • Adelaide — 301,000
  • Sydney — 262,000
  • Regional audience — 788,000

Here’s the NRL audience breakdown:

  • Sydney — 1.021 million
  • Brisbane — 524,000
  • Melbourne — 347,000
  • Perth — 87,000
  • Adelaide — 48,000
  • Regional audience — 1.150 million

— Glenn Dyer

‘Paedos in Speedos’ — it’s a thing. One-time John Howard voter turned Dick Wynne supporter turned Richard Di Natale backer, Julian Burnside was quick to apologise for a tweet last week (now deleted) containing three words — “paedos in speedos”. Nothing to do with Tony Abbott, the respected silk said, simply a reference to a recent episode of UK comedy series That Mitchell and Webb Look. Razor-sharp columnists such as Miranda Devine were reluctant to believe him and The Weekend Australian ran with the “gaffe” on its front page (while getting the name of the show completely wrong).

But it seems Burnside is on solid ground. In episode six of season four, the phrase is indeed splashed up on screen as part of a list of “sketches we weren’t allowed to do”. The others? Tourettes Pope, Hitler in Therapy, Taliban Ballet Ban, Behind the Scenes: Chinese Racism, The Black & White Menstrual Show and Rod Hull And Mossad. No sign of any of these pearlers on Burnside’s twitter feed … yet. — Andrew Crook

Front page of the day. The “Occupy Wall Street” movement took on New York’s Brooklyn Bridge yesterday, much to the enjoyment of the New York Post‘s subeditors:

The Department of Corrections. When a bikie is not a bikie … and then an apology in Friday’s Gold Coast Bulletin:

Harold Mitchell says ‘no’ to ABC top role

“Media-buying mogul Harold Mitchell will not run for the post of chairman of the ABC, despite being approached by a number of ABC staff to take on the role just 24 hours after the announcement that incumbent Maurice Newman will be stepping down.” — The Australian

Next to go: Ron Wilson, Deborah Knight

“News presenter Ron Wilson will leave the TEN Network at the end of the year according to a media report today.” — TV Tonight

Phone hacking: Neville Thurlbeck says ‘truth will out’

“The former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck has threatened to blow the lid on the phone-hacking scandal, promising that the “truth will out” and “those responsible will eventually be revealed”.” — The Guardian

Stars will read Amazon Unit’s new audio book series

“Audible, an audio book division of Amazon.com, said last week that it would introduce a line of audio books read by famous actors, including Naomi Watts, Dustin Hoffman, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson and Kim Basinger.” — The New York Times