That leaves Stan Walker, Hayley Warner and James Johnston still in the race.

Brake, who had performed lavish ballads across the series, fought back the emotion as he thanked his family, friends, co-performers, fans and the Idol family.

Fallout Boy’s Pete Wentz stepped in as guest judge for tonight’s show which saw an excessive three songs from each singer.

Even more excessive was the number of times Andrew Gunsberg used the word “Australia” and “Australian” – 19 times tonight, including several back to back. That’s not including the number of times we heard it from contestants in video packages.

Goodnight, Australia…

The Seven Network convincingly won with 30.8% over Nine’s 26.1% and TEN’s 20.1%. The ABC had 17.5% and SBS 5.5%.

GO! took 2.7% ahead of 7TWO on 1.7%, ABC2 1.4%, ONE 1.1% and SBS TWO on 0.4%.

Seven won 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54. It also led on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Nine took Monday and Thursday.

The Melbourne Cup figure actually only tallies OzTAM households, overlooking the fact plenty more would have been watching in workplaces, pubs and parties. Whilst it didn’t tally into evening shares it did drive the network through to a strong Tuesday, capped off by the Packed to the Rafters wedding on 2.07m viewers. Also strong this week were RSPCA Animal Rescue, Last Chance Surgery, The Force, Border Security, Bones, Seven News, Today Tonight, Highway Patrol, Medical Emergency, Better Homes and Gardens and Beauty and the Geek Australia. With a big lead-in, the return of Private Practice was strong at 1.15m, but with Cup Eve in Melbourne, Destroyed in Seconds and FlashForward dropped. Ghost Whisperer isn’t doing anywhere near as well as its follower, Beauty & The Geek Australia. Better news with City Homicide winning its slot on Wednesday. Two weeks ago this site tipped Border Security repeats might replace Coastwatch -this week it topped Wednesday nights. 7TWO’s best for its inaugural week was Ugly Betty on 105,000.

Monday night’s Two and a Half Men was yet again best for Nine on 1.36m viewers. Against the Cup it was a tough week for Nine. The Big Bang Theory, 20 to 1, Getaway were the only other shows to pass the 1.2m mark -although The Mentalist was line ball. CSI, A Current Affair, and Nine News followed -the latter had 2 weeknights under the 1m mark. Also below the magic million were 60 Minutes, The Apprentice Australia, Money for Jam, RPA Where Are They Now?, Australia’s Funniest Home Videos and The Secret Millionaire. Nine’s Sunday night movie The Conspiracy tanked at 648,000 while Aussie Ladette to Lady slumped to 688,000. On GO! The Big Bang Theory reached 269,000 and Wipeout hit 259,000.

A repeat of NCIS was TEN’s top show on 1.26m and the network also fared well on Wednesday with Celebrity Masterchef’s 1.22m and A Model Daughter: The Killing of Caroline Byrne on 1.05m. Under 1m were Glee, Rush, Good News Week, Australian Idol, Lie to Me, new Simpsons, Burn Notice and Rove. Disappointments came from Jamie’s American Road Trip at 625,000 and Electric Dreams on 592,000. The 7PM Project rose to 766,000 on Cup day but was 569,000 on Friday -a night whenTEN couldn’t improve past TEN News at Five. Saturday’s share was worse. FIA Formula One Pre-Race took 106,000 on ONE.

A knockout 1.42m ensured ABC’s Friday night Midsomer Murders beat anything on Nine and TEN all week. That left Spicks and Specks, Australian Story, ABC News, The Bill, Taggart and Collectors to do the rest of the heavy lifting. Hungry Beast, John Safran’s Race Relations and Four Corners all dipped this week. The last Q & A for 2009 rose to 585,000. Junkyard Wars took 149 on ABC2 as the channel’s best. ABC beat TEN on Friday and Saturday.

Top Gear settled for 674,000 on SBS followed by 426,000 for Man Vs Wild. Who Do You Think You Are? took 382,000, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 307,000, Iron Chef 265,000, Mythbusters 264,000, Trawlermen 256,000, Shintaro! 241,000, RocKwiz 240,000, Insight 222,000, Hardcore Profits 175,000 and East West 101 171,000.

Just 3 more weeks of survey remain.

Week 45

Seven’s most senior Sydney newsreader will hand over the reins to Chris Bath in just three weeks time.

His final bulletin will be on Friday, November 27th.

Ross’ retirement follows expectations this year that he would retire after being coaxed to stay on for 2009. In July it was reported that David Leckie agreed to let him go when his contract expired in December.

“I had thought about quitting last year but [he and Seven] came to a mutual agreement that I would do another year,” Ross said.

Former Nine News presenter Mark Ferguson will become Seven’s weekend presenter while Bath currently co-presents Sunday Night.

But the shift could open some opportunities for Nine if viewers decide not to stick with the new Seven team. While Nine News with Peter Overton still trails terribly, it has shown some improvement in recent months. Nine’s year was ruined by the fumbled changing of the guard from Ferguson to Overton, but with a new set and a new year can it manage to put the past behind it?

Meanwhile another report today suggests Seven CEO David Leckie could also retire within two years. That would leave names such as James Warburton, Tim Worner, Melbourne’s Peter Lewis and Brisbane’s Max Walker as possible candidates for the role. But a Seven spokesman talked down any exit, tipping he had “another 5 years” in him.

Source: Sunday Telegraph

The women at Tarrangower Prison desperately need a name for their new venture with choirmaster Jonathan Welch, and there are lots of ideas being tossed around in the early scenes of this ABC documentary.

“The Choir of “We’re So Sorry.” “The Choir of Better Luck Next Time.” “The Choir of Get Me Out of Here.”

Yes, these women have more spirit than skill, and presumably, more than self-esteem and confidence which is the point of this new television project by Welch.

Welch’s previous success with The Choir of Hard Knocks is well documented. The FremantleMedia series went on to become a national favourite winning Logie and Aria Awards. This time, under Renegade Films, he will take a group of women from inside a prison and ask them to sing in unison, and preferably harmony.

Originally titled Prison Sings, this four part series is not dissimilar to the Norwegian series The Prison Choir in its premise.

Set in the low-risk Tarrangower Prison farm in northern Victoria, the women here are considered likely candidates for rehabilitation. None are made to join Welch’s project but there are plenty who turn up.

Accompanied by pianist Stephen Blackburn (of Fast Forward,  Tim & Debbie fame), the women attempt their first musical notes together via simple singalong songs. They’re not very good, but they sure have a good time not being very good together -which is half the point of a class with Welch. Then he tells them their first public performance is just days away, singing Christmas Carols to a local senior citizens club (hmm, this sure was filmed some time ago). Gulp.

The most fascinating part of this factual series is actually the insight into prison life for the women. They share units together, cooking and cleaning for themselves, working either inside or outside prison grounds with minimal supervision. More than a few are pixellated, some at their request, others by order of Corrections Victoria. The women are strong characters, many middle-aged without make-up. They don’t hold back with their opinions and it enriches the storytelling all the more.

One Vietnamese woman is asked to sing in her own language. It’s a poignant moment.

Bringing music, prison and television together is certainly a savvy idea -did Glenn Wheatley miss an opportunity?

It’s also hard to believe we would we be so engaged by the tale if these women were hardened crims. There is a sympathetic line reminding us these are mothers separated from families. Their crimes include culpable driving, fraud, obtaining property by deception and similar. We’re along way from Bea Smith and the Prisoner laundry press here.

But it’s an engaging tale of a worthy cause. Welch’s dream is for every prison in the country to have its own choir. Jail Birds is a diverting piece of entertainment that probably won’t top The Choir of Hard Knocks, but works perfectly well on day release.

Jail Birds premieres 8pm Tuesday November 17th on ABC1

The two actors, both of whom appeared in Underbelly, will “top and tail” the night, with musicians, including guest Robbie Williams, to serve as presenters.

Williams will perform on the night, alongside local acts and nominees Jessica Mauboy, Empire Of The Sun, Sarah Blasko, Lisa Mitchell and Kate Miller-Heidke.

No longer being produced by Roving Enterprises, the alignment between the ARIAs and Nine was sorted mid year with the GO! channel in mind.

The ARIA Music Show has appeared on both Nine and GO! and while the network had previously floated the possibility of Red Carpet events on GO! it isn’t doing so on ARIA night. Nine has already screened the ARIA Hall of Fame too.

The 23rd ARIA Awards take place at Acer Arena in Sydney on Thursday November 26.

Source: Sunday Herald Sun

That leaves Paul Mercurio out of a judging gig, along with the Australian dancers who frequently partnered the NZ celebrities.

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said, “It’s our biggest, most expensive, costly entertainment show by quite a long way.

“It’s been hard for people to understand that enormous popularity doesn’t necessarily translate into a profitable venture for us.”

She said despite signs of the recession ending, programmes were commissioned a long way in advance.

Celebrities on the NZ version have included many cast, both past and present, from Shortland Street, sports stars, singer John Rowles, a meteorologist, mayor and the former C.E.O. of Work and Income NZ.

“We will have a look at it again for the following year and see whether the market has returned to a state where we can contemplate doing it again.”

In Australia, Seven fared well with the series this year, likely leading to a renewal for 2010.

Source: NZ Herald

Set to screen after the Celebrity MasterChef finale, it is obviously being given a leg-up as one of the network’s summer offerings.

Matt Bomer stars as Neal Caffrey a con-man who escapes from prison but caught by his nemesis, FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay). But after Caffrey gives Burke evidence in another case the two decide to work together. Rather than returning to jail, Caffrey offers to provide his criminal expertise to assist Burke in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom.

Despite its 48 Hours-style plot, reviews have been positive for this one.

From the USA Network, the same network as Burn Notice, the series has only just kicked off in the US.

It airs after the 2 hrs MasterChef finale at 9:30pm Wednesday November 25 on TEN.

Possible Spoilers:

As the illicit drug war with Avon Barksdale’s (Wood Harris) crew rages on, the action moves from the battered streets and squalid projects of West Baltimore, to the city’s troubled waterfront.

With an unflinching look at Baltimore’s port workers and unions, the second series chronicles the steady decline of the working class.

As was the case in the first series the storyline is told from the points of view of both the police and their targets, capturing a universe of subterfuge and surveillance.

As episodes unfold, police find their workloads expanded to include not only familiar drug dealers, but also a new group of longshoremen and wiseguys caught up in a major homicide investigation at the city’s shipping port.

Tonight, stigmatized and reassigned to the harbour patrol, Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) finds the body of a woman floating in the Baltimore Harbor.

With Barksdale in prison, savvy Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) manages the drug operation while studying for his college course. Bodie (JD Williams) drives to Philadelphia to make a connection for the Barksdale crew.

Meanwhile, over at the docks, the rank-and-file scrounge for work while union bosses take desperate measures to reinvigorate business. And a horrible discovery is about to turn the port inside out…

Series Two begins 9:30pm Tuesday November 17th.

• Andrew Olle Media Lecture
• Theatre of War
• Australian Idol
• Bones
• Weeds

In a brutal battle of nature, these amazing creatures cheat death to snatch sea lions from shallow waters.

Like the previous Australian documentary Wolves of the Sea, this is a fascinating look at the cycle of life and death.

Nat Geo Wild will offer intimate encounters with wildlife, filmed by scientists and documentary filmmakers.

This month it also has Frogs: The Thin Green Line, Mother Warthog and the epic Wild Russia.

Orca Killing School airs 8pm Tuesday November 24.

At last night’s Andrew Olle Media Lecture Morrow spoke about the controversial chapter in the comedy show’s final season.

The lecture, which airs tomorrow night on the ABC, served as a right of reply for The Chaser in a much calmer media environment.

Despite the apology issued by The Chaser following the sketch, Morrow appears to have now qualified their statements.

Last night he says it was directed only at those who had been personally affected by childhood cancer.

”If you are one of those people, I want to reiterate my sincerest apology to you,” he said. ”But the next category – people who were offended by the sketch – is in my view different.”

He argued that ”the inevitable corollary to freedom of speech is that there is no such thing as a general right to not be offended. So to be honest, perhaps too honest, if you were just offended by that sketch I’m not really sorry.”

He urged the ABC not to give in to the ‘’short-term hysteria of media outrage” because it risks damaging its independence and integrity.

”Getting caught up in the short-term hysteria of media outrage has the potential to damage the independence and integrity of the ABC.”

The Make a Realistic Wish sketch caused a furore this year with widespread condemnation, argument, apologies, a suspension by the ABC and an executive losing some of their responsibilities.

Since then we’ve seen a flurry of other comedies with supposedly-offensive material. It’s  been one of the hot topics to emerge in 2009.

The annual Andrew Olle Media Lecture is considered one of the most prestigious forums of its kind, and can be seen at 10:15pm tomorrow night on ABC1.

Source: smh.com.au

The next instalment in the final stages of the Tenth Doctor….

TV Tonight is proud to reveal the time and date for the next Who special will be 7:30pm Sunday December 6th.

Mars, 2059. Bowie Base One. Last recorded message: Don’t drink the water. Don’ even touch it. Not one drop… all will be revealed in The Waters Of Mars.

The Doctor (David Tennant) is joined by Adelaide (Lindsay Duncan), his cleverest and strongest-minded companion yet, as they face terror on the Red Planet.

This special stars Australia’s Peter O’Brien (Underbelly, Neighbours, Flying Doctors) as Adelaide’s second-in-command at the base.

The episode is written by Phil Ford. It airs on the ABC just three weeks after its UK premiere.

As previously noted, this will air at 6:30pm on Sunday November 22nd, leading into the Australian Idol finale.

On the subject of Christmas, alas, once again there is no Panel: Xmas Wrap on Christmas night this year but TV Tonight hears the Working Dog team may be looking at another idea to raise some money for charity.

Not sure which network that would wind up on.

Over the last few years Working Dog has been on Seven, TEN and the ABC….

Generation will return in February with a full order of 22 episodes in 2010.

The unnamed company touts everything from a new-look NRL footy show to a Paul Hogan-style comedy variety to a movie with John ‘Strop’ Cornell. That should make it a pretty busy new company.

“If he can get a show to work then he might be able to make money, and not just get fees for being an on-air talent,” Nine CEO David Gyngell told the Daily Telegraph. “I’m happy for him.”

Seven is believed to be keen to bid for the next NRL rights and signing 2GB’s Ray Hadley, who could front a new show with Johns. So does that mean Matty Johns will wind up on Seven?

Gyngell said he would be surprised if Johns and Hadley developed a program and Nine was not given a chance to bid.

“I’ve got no concerns, footy shows are footy shows. We’ve got a good brand there,” he said.

Brand is the key word here. While the NRL Footy Show may have won a Logie this year, it is the AFL edition that delivers the numbers every week -and that’s just what Seven would be noticing: an opportunity to strike.

But forming an unnamed production company on paper is one thing.

Actually developing a product is another. On that score, it’s still very early days.

Source: news.com.au

Delta’s other half always seems to pop up on rather strange choices… hosting two series of Foxtel’s Football Superstar, a judging stint on Australian Idol, developing projects with his mate Kyle Sandilands….

Former pop star and page three girl Samantha Fox is a confirmation for the next batch of reality episodes, which will be filmed in Australia.

Confirmed alongside Fox is snooker player Jimmy White while also rumoured to join are cricketer Freddie Flintoff, actor Brian Blessed and Tito & LaToya Jackson (yikes).

So far the show has had the likes of Jason Donovan, Uri Geller, David Gest, Janice Dickinson, George Takei, and Peter Andre and Katie Price.

The series usually gets an airing in Australia later on Pay TV.

Source: The Sun, IOL

She will join Luke and Wyatt from Nickelodeon’s The GO Show on centre stage for a show in which kids aged five to 15 will demonstrate ‘wacky’ skills such as as playing a guitar behind their back, feats of double-jointedness and the ability to tie a knot in a jelly snake with your tongue. Bonus.

Registrations open from 3.15pm and the talent show starts at 4pm.

In addition to visiting Australia for the Kids’ Choice Awards, Cosgrove will also be conducting her very first press tour here, and launching iCarly fashion apparel & accessories at Target stores nationally.

She will next star in Universal’s animated film Despicable Me and is currently working on her solo album. World domination could follow…