News Brands
How I scored Covid scoop with Donald Trump
It was 6.30am on an April Saturday, hunched over my computer and on a call to Rudy Giuliani’s mistress when I realised how far down the rabbit hole I had gone to secure an interview with former US President Donald Trump, writes News Corp’s Sharri Markson.
Determined to speak to the former President in order to find out what intelligence convinced him Covid originated in a Wuhan laboratory, I was trying every possible avenue to get in contact. It wasn’t easy.
First I would need to secure an interview and then I would need to convince him to open up about classified intelligence.
Photographers slam Victoria Police for their treatment at the weekend’s anti-lockdown protests
Media at Melbourne’s weekend lockdown protests have labelled their treatment by Victoria Police as “appalling” and “unnecessary” and said the force needs to “change their attitude”, reports News Corp’s Sophie Elsworth.
The event drew an estimated 700 anti-lockdown protesters and resulted in a photographer from The Age, Luis Ascui, being pepper sprayed by officers – the incident is now under investigation.
Herald Sun photographer Jason Edwards, who was also covering the protest, said the behaviour by police towards the media was “pretty scary” and they used unnecessary force on people at the event, including the media.
Publishing
Guardian joins News UK and Telegraph in making declining print circulation secret
Newspapers in Australia stopped reporting their circulation figures four years ago. It’s a trend that appeared in the UK last year and is gaining traction, as Charlotte Tobitt reports for Press Gazette.
The Guardian has decided to make its print circulation figures private and put more focus on metrics that reflect its “diversity of journalism, readership and business strategy”.
The Guardian and Observer newspapers will continue to be audited by industry data organisation ABC but the figures will be kept private, accessible only to ad agencies.
The publisher insisted it still has a “long-standing commitment to print”.
The decision follows in the footsteps of the Telegraph and News UK’s Sun and Times opting out of making their ABC data public last year.
Vogue records livestream viewing records for 2021 Met Gala
The 2021 Met Gala may not have taken place on the traditional first Monday in May, but the glamorous fundraiser was certainly one to remember, with Vogue touting record breaking digital engagement around the event, reports Variety.
Vogue was simultaneously the engine behind and the primary benefactor of a massive amount of audience attention for this year’s event — which, after being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was postponed until Sept. 13.
The magazine reports that nearly 15 million viewers watched the exclusive red carpet live stream hosted by guests Keke Palmer and Ilana Glazer for Vogue.com and the magazine’s Twitter account. That figure — which combines all global views of the video, both live on and VOD, and across Twitter and O&O — totalled approximately 54 million minutes of content watched. Vogue’s Met content pulled in more than 200 million views across all social platforms.
“It’s perhaps strange to say that the Met Ball felt well timed this year,” Anna Wintour, Vogue’s Global Editorial Director and U.S. Editor-in-Chief and Condé Nast’s Chief Content Officer, told Variety in a statement. “But after all the careful planning and precautions the teams went through, I do think that there was a special sense of celebration. And our livestream captured it for audiences all around the world.”
Television
Critics slam ABC documentary The School That Tried to End Racism
The ABC has been accused of the “equivalent of child abuse” for airing a documentary its producers claim is about fighting racism but which critics say does just the opposite, reports News Corp’s James Morrow.
On Monday night the national broadcaster aired the first episode of The School That Tried to End Racism [Mediaweek note: The show airs Tuesday night], a three part documentary which saw filmmakers and academics team up to stamp out racism in the classroom by forcing a group of nine to 11 year old students to focus on questions of race and “privilege”.
In one scene, Anglo-Australian children are seen shifting uncomfortably as they are made to answer the question: “what does it mean to you to be white?”
In another, a young girl says that it makes her “uncomfortable” that in some books people with white skin are more respected.
And students are made to step backwards or forwards from the starting line of a race based on questions like: “do you have blue or green eyes?”
To gauge racist attitudes, the program used a “Cultural Issues Scale” developed by the University of Sydney’s Fiona White.
SAS Australia: Pete Murray talks suffering a dislocated elbow on reality TV
Three and a half months down the track, singer Pete Murray is still suffering from his SAS Australia injury, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
The 51-year-old was tonight medically discharged from the reality competition after dislocating his elbow in a confronting one-on-one combat challenge with tennis great Mark Phillippoussis.
“I still can’t straighten my arm at the moment,” the father of four said. “It is getting better. It is quite a painful injury to have, the physio says it is pretty much the worst joint you can dislocate but it is getting there.”
Filming complete on next season of I’m a Celebrity for 10
10 sources confirm filming has already completed filming on the next season of I’m A Celebrity Get Me out of Here?, due to screen in January, reports TV Tonight.
Production again took place at a site on Dungay Creek Road near Murwillumbah, northern NSW.
With ITV Studios Australia having wrapped, it can now turn attention to Love Island, shooting not far away at Federal, near Byron Bay.
Emmy Awards
TV Ratings: Emmys Rise, Stopping Streak of All-Time Lows
Sunday’s telecast on CBS averaged about 7.4 million viewers, according to time zone-adjusted fast affiliate ratings from Nielsen. That’s a 16 percent improvement on the 6.36 million viewers for last year’s Emmys and the highest for the awards since 10.2 million watched on NBC in 2018, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Rick Porter.
The Nielsen figures will likely tick up a little with the inclusion of out of home viewing in the final ratings, which will be available early Tuesday.
Foxtel shows pick up over 70 wins at the Emmy Awards
Mare Of Easttown, Pose, Lovecraft Country and I May Destroy You all take home multiple wins at this year’s 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Hosted by Cedrick the Entertainer and broadcast live on Fox Arena, the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards returned to a live, in-person event at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles with a limited audience of nominees and their guests.
Amounting to over 70 wins available all in one place on Foxtel and via the integrated Netflix app, viewers can tune into all the best Emmy-winning series on demand now and for those who missed the ceremony, tune into the encore broadcast from 7.30pm AEST tonight, Monday September 20, on Fox Arena or watch On Demand.
4 wins for Mare Of Easttown
Outstanding Lead Actress in A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie (Kate Winslet), Outstanding Supporting Actress for A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie (Julianne Nicholson), Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie (Evan Peters), and Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour or More).
3 wins for Pose
Outstanding Contemporary Costumes; Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling; Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic)
2 wins for Lovecraft Country
Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Courtney B. Vance) and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour)
2 wins for I May Destroy You
Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie (Michaela Coel) and Outstanding Music Supervision
Other Foxtel series to win awards include Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (including Outstanding Variety Talk Series which it won for the sixth year in a row); Saturday Night Live and The Flight Attendant.
Stan series Hacks and RuPaul’s Drag Race honoured at 2021 Emmy Awards
The Stan exclusive series Hacks was honoured at the 2021 Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, with star Jean Smart taking home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series for her role as Deborah Vance, the legendary Las Vegas comedian, in the acclaimed series. Every episode of Hacks is now streaming, only on Stan.
Hacks creators and showrunners Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky also won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series, with Lucia Aniello winning the Emmy for Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series. Hacks has already been renewed for a second season.
The Stan exclusive series RuPaul’s Drag Race was also celebrated at this year’s ceremony, winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Competition Program – marking RuPaul‘s 11th honour and the most for any person of colour in Emmy history, following Ru’s win for Outstanding Host For A Reality or Competition Program at last week’s Creative Arts Emmys. RuPaul has confirmed he will return to host the second season of the Stan Original Series RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, with further updates to come.
Sports Media
How to watch and stream the Dees v Dogs AFL Grand Final
Footy fans were left scrambling on Sunday night after finding out the Brownlow Medal was not being shown on the host broadcaster’s streaming app, reports ABC’s Kyle Pollard.
In a deal that has implications for the AFL Grand Final on Saturday, Channel Seven explained that due to broadcast rights, they were unable to show the Brownlow on streaming service 7plus.
If you watch free-to-air on your TV through an antenna, you’re fine. Channel Seven will broadcast the game as per usual.
However, if you’re looking to live stream the AFL Grand Final through 7plus, you will only be able to do so if you have one of the following: a Telstra TV, Fetch TV, Apple TV, a PlayStation 4/5, an Android TV, or Samsung Tizen model from 2016 and later.