Dundee slices up AFL
15 August 2006 Herald-Sun
Damien Barrett
MICK Dundee or Matthew Richardson?
Melbourne TV viewers made a resoundingly clear choice on Saturday night when Paul Hogan's 20-year-old flick Crocodile Dundee outrated the Richmond-Brisbane Lions clash at Telstra Dome.
Even Mary Poppins, a timeless family feel-good movie, gave the AFL a run for its money.
The AFL ratings for the first half of the season were similar to records set last year. But Saturday night's clash underlined the need for in-form teams to be scheduled in prime-time slots.
AFL boss Andrew Demetriou said ratings for the Tigers-Lions game were understandable.
"Saturday night's game, particularly with where the teams were positioned on the ladder at this time of year, probably did not carry as great an interest as it would have earlier in the year," Demetriou said.
Richmond belted the Lions by 82 points in a match that had no bearing on the final eight.
Crocodile Dundee, on Channel 9, was at least the 12th free-to-air broadcast of the movie, made famous by Dundee saying to a New York mugger: "That's not a knife, mate. Now, that's a knife."
It sure put the knife into the AFL, averaging 320,000 viewers against footy's 287,000.
Even the sequel, Crocodile Dundee 2, topped the AFL between 9.30-10.30.
Mary Poppins, on Channel 7, rated solidly throughout the evening (234,000 average) while The Bill, on ABC TV, topped the footy in the 8.30-9.30 slot.
It was worse for the AFL in Brisbane where an average of 70,000 sets tuned in, just 10,000 more than SBS.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,20129402%255E19742,00.html
