rn Eddie Everything on the art of micro-management. We just rnloved the Eddie McGuire profile in the Weekend Australian’s magazine on rnSaturday: it’s not online but Nine spinners will be rnpleased. It was rnall about Eddie, so no coverage of Nine’s problems, lack of talent and the tough rndecisions Eddie has to make – such as what to do about the Today show and A rnCurrent Affair. Also rnavoided was any discussion of Melbourne’s blokey, rnAFL power network and how Eddie has made it his rnpath to fame and fortune. The feature also failed to make the quite telling point that Eddie is the only TV rnexecutive since Bruce Gyngell to have significant rnfront of camera TV experience (and producing experience). With rnthat sort of experience it would have been a very interesting part of the story rnto have him expand on – how he will apply rnit as a manager. But it rnwas clear from the profile that Eddie is a micro-manager and leaves nothing to rnchance, a task that will prove beyond him eventually in TV. We saw rnthat last week when he rushed to Beaconsfield to try and offset the Seven rninfluence, arranged the charity concert edition of the Footy Shows, did some rnhosting and tried to get rnthe miners’ signatures. That he rncould not trust anyone at Nine to organise it for him says a lot: either Nine’s very short on talent or Eddie rndoesn’t trust other people and insists on managing everything himself. Either way, it’s rna very short path to failure. –– Glenn Dyer

O’Dowd takes the fall at The Sunday Tele. The rnannouncement was brutally honest, at least on the News Ltd website yesterday: “The rneditor of Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph Jeni O’Dowd is being replaced [yes, replaced was the word rnused] in that role by Neil Breen, the editor of News Limited’s Alpha magazine. News rnLimited chairman and chief executive officer, Mr John rnHartigan today announced the appointment.” But in The Sunday Tele,rnthere was the gush about how Ms O’Dowd (she of the Porsche Boxsterrnpresent from Lachlan Murdoch) was moving to a new role as a marketingrnchief of the paper. The story was headlined “Editor Steps into newrnsenior role” and the first par started: “News Ltd chairman and chiefrnexecutive officer, John Hartigan yesterday announced the appointment ofrnJeni O’Dowd to a new senior management role as editorial marketingrnmanager”. The spin brings to mind the similarities with the move atrnFairfax last year when Sydney Morning Herald editor Robert Whitehead promoted himself to a senior rnmarketing role (and appears to have had some success against News Ltd). rnThat rneventually saw Alan Oakley from Melbourne named as SMH editor whereupon he has rnproceeded to make Granny more tabloid and populist. The rnSunday Tele lost sales in the last audit period against the rival Sun rnHerald – those situations are not tolerated for long at rnNews. – Glenn Dyer

Another weekly ratings win for Nine. A win to Nine last weekrnthanks to the combination of The Logies on Sunday night and thernBeaconsfield miners’ story and the sad death of Richard Carleton onrnSunday afternoon (plus the Footy Shows on Thursday). Nine rnrecorded a 45.6% share last Sunday night with Seven on rn21.6% and Ten on 19.3%. By the rnclose of play on Saturday, Nine’s share had fallen to 30.9%, Seven’s had rnrisen to 29.0% and Ten’s had edged up to 22.0%. The ABC finished with a share of rn13.6% and SBS had 4.5%. Seven rncame close thanks to the final of Dancing With The rnStars on Tuesday night, but it wasn’t rnenough. Despite rnthe football (both AFL and NRL) on Friday night, Nine only had a rnnarrow win – 29.5% to 29.2% for Seven. Saturday night was a much bigger win to Nine with 26.7% from Ten with 25.9% and Seven on rn23.8%. – Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV rnratings
The Winners: rnA win for Nine, but Ten was again competitive, without the Logies and the madness of Beaconsfield a week ago, as was Seven. CSI rnwas the most watched program with 1.714 million, 60 Minutes was second with rn1.696 million, then Nine News in third with 1.578 million, then Seven News with rn1.504 million. Seven’s 6.30pm program Where Are They Now with 1.406 million won rnthat timeslot easily. Love Actually, Ten’s movie with 1.382 million, was the rnbest movie of the year so far. The Big Brother Live Eviction from 7.30pm rnaveraged 1.343 million, CSI Miami, 1.267 million, Nine’s Sunday AFL and NRL rngames, 1.182 million, Big Brother (6.30 pm), 1.143 million was tenth. Then came rnSeven’s Ghost Whisperer with 1.116 million and Backyard Blitz with 1.106 million rn(it didn’t air in Adelaide).

The Losers: None really, it was a competitive Sunday night. rnthe ABC’s Peking to Paris averaged 873,000 people. It was “colourful” and rnconfused and flat. And awful lot of voice over and not many long bits of natural rnsound. It was re-cut a number of times, expanded from three to four episodes and rnunfortunately started out under Sandra Levy as head of ABC TV only to lose her rnduring the re-editing, hence the confusion. Let’s hope things improve this Sunday rnin ep 2. Everybody involved should have been forced to watch the three parts rnof The Alan Clark Diaries to learn how to make good TV. It finished last night rnon the ABC at 8.30pm, with an average audience on the night of 436.000. Not rnhuge numbers but it was excellent television. The use of voiceover was rnclever, John Hurt was gave a superior performance. A prime example of how to rntake the written word and turn it into entertaining TV. That insiders view of rnClark made Commander In Chief and West Wing look like what they are: just TV rnfiction and nothing more.

News & CA: rnNine News won Sunday night, Seven was more competitive rnthan the previous Sunday when Nine was boosted by the combination of the death rnof Richard Carleton, the Logies turn-on and a Collingwood playing the lead-up rngame in Melbourne. ABC News averaged 917,000, Ten news at Five averaged 698,000. rnIt was a much different Sunday than a week earlier. That extended to the morning rnchat and sports shows. Seven won the 8am to 11am battle. Weekend Sunrise rnaveraged 353,000, Sunday on Nine, 298,000, Sportsworld on Seven from 9.30am , rn319,000. Nine’s Business Sunday had its best stand alone morning this year with rn195,000 viewers. The Insiders on the ABC at 9am averaged 158,000, Inside rnBusiness, ABC at 10am, 99,000, Offsiders (Barrie Cassidy without a jacket), rn91,000, Meet The Press on Ten, 55,000 at 8am. Business Success, Nine, 7.30am rnaveraged 85,000 for the infomercial style program. The David Koch My Business at rn11am averaged 202,000. Landline on the ABC at noon, averaged rn228,000.

The Stats: rnNine won with a share of 30.5% (45.6% a week earlier for rnThe Logies), Ten was second with 28.7% (19.3%), Seven was third with 25.0% rn(21.6%) the ABC with 11.7% (10.2%) and SBS with 4.2% (3.3%). Nine won Sydney, rnMelbourne and Brisbane. Ten won Adelaide and Seven won Perth rnnarrowly.

rnGlenn Dyer’s comments: rnAt last a Sunday night movie that people wanted to rnwatch, even though it was a big hit at the cinemas, on Pay TV and on DVD. Love rnActually on Ten did the business. Perhaps its the fact that so many movies these rndays are just plain boring and don’t entertain (as do the Harry Potters and The rnLords of the Rings). Having a collection of stars led by Hugh Grant helps, and rnEmma Thompson. Apart from that a very different night to a week earlier and CSI rnagain dominated. 60 Minutes did well, especially with its Richard Carleton rnretrospective: nicely done. Tonight its an even battle, Desperate Housewives, 20 rnto 1, Big Brother, Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope (a promo interview with David rnWenham from the new ABC mini series on East Timor next Sunday night), Cold Case, rnCommander in Chief. A fair amount of choice. One program that won’t be on rneveryone’s list is Hotel Babylon, the Pom hotel soap. The last episode tonight rnlooks a sudsing special. Commander in Chief’s decline is steady and it is rnbecoming uninspiring.