On Monday night, more than 2.1 million people tuned into My Kitchen Rules – a television show where teams of two hold a three-course dinner party in turn, in which those attending are encouraged to be as intensely ill-mannered about it as possible.
According to my exceptionally unscientific point of view, this is not a good thing.
While it may be captivating (and again, that it is being watched by more than 2 million people attests to this) it further erodes the social pact that tells us that when we’re invited into someone’s home, we don’t immediately berate the beef burgundy and bitch at length about the hosts.
The show’s solid ratings (to be more specific, 2,118,243 people watched it on Monday night) further encourages the program to continue to glorify the rude and obnoxious (and in a way that has forced the network to deny allegations of racism) and for other networks to replicate the model in its programming.
“The f*** is this shit…?”
I understand that complaining about the decline of civility predates television itself, but it if you look at the world today, that’s what you see. You see a binary world of popular opinion, a decline in political debate (that has in turn lead to a decline in political participation) and how the high degree of anonymity afforded people on the Internet has made the online world a breeding ground for the mean-spirited and hateful (and yes, I’m aware my numerous tweets about the titanium ego of Hamish McLachlan could be viewed by some as lacking in civility – although I do find him more guilty of assentation than of being abhorrent. That said, I stand by my claim that for evil to triumph, all that is necessary is for good men to watch AFL Game Day just once1).
The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none
Charles Dickens
Today, civility stares at its shoes as incivility rates its arse off and shows such as My Kitchen Rules2 quickly become part of the pop-culture landscape.
My concern is that the Seven Network will try and replicate elements of the show’s success across other programs on its roster – including its coverage of the AFL. Considered commentary will be crossed from the program notes in favour of simpleminded sledging.
Given how much television dollars call the shots at the AFL, I have a real fear that the AFL will continue to allow itself to become infected with empty-handed notions of trendiness, fashion and zeitgeist – so much so it’ll soon be reduced to the absurdity of the Big Bash (ref: Warne v. Samuels 2013).
Worse still, the complexities that make the game great will be ignored in favour of a more dualistic interpretation of good and evil (not unlike that on The Footy Almanac following a Geelong loss to Fremantle). This is, after all, what makes good television – and to reiterate, a $1.253 billion television rights deal seemingly trumps football operations in terms of the pecking order at Jolimont (ref: McLachlan v Anderson 2012).
A TV show becomes a successful franchise because it offers the public one-dimensional characters that are easy to imitate. This flattening of characters into one-dimensional personalities (ref: McLachlan, Hamish) is what makes shows successful. It is why Arrested Development was cancelled3 while Two and a Half Men continues its abysmal run.
It is why every football fan should be at least a little fearful as the Seven Network looks to extract everything it can for its money.
The success of My Kitchen Rules already has me worried that my next dinner party guests will slag off my veal saltimbocca – I’d prefer not to worry that my good-natured email ribbing of Essendon supporters will be one day viewed as quaint when compared to the shouty heads on Seven Sport.
In the world of professional sport and big business, a billion dollar pay check trumps good manners.
1. In fairness I submitted more than one match report last year that was lacking in civility towards Brett Ratten and any number of Carlton players. I have also referred to more than one person as a ‘cockdonkey’.
2. And any number of programs on the Southern Cross Media network (if incivility doesn’t rate, explain the employment of Kyle Sandilands (for reference, also a ‘cockdonkey’).
3. Netflix has agreed to license new episodes and distribute them exclusively on its streaming video service in the US. Fourteen episodes will be released on the same day in May.
About Craig Little
My heroes are all dead white males, mostly because that seems really attainable for me.
Two words. Brian Taylor.
I am grateful for small mercies.For one,however abysmal the 7 coverage is,I shudder to think of the vapidity we would be called on to endure if 9 had won (bought) the rights.
And,secondly, free-to-air remains so
And ,thirdly, if our sporting codes had teams owned by the very wealthy who also owned stadiums of 75 000 capacity, filled with paid-up members,could you hear complaints about the distortion in our sport brought about by the richer clubs
I am an old fart…well not that old but old enough to remember a time before whatever this time is. I can remember distinctly being able to differentiate events from March 1982 and Sept 1982 as if they were light years apart yet couldn’t tell 2003 apart from 2009.
I don’t know if I should blame Gen Y, Gen X for influencing what Gen Y do or the Mayans predicting the end of evolution and the start of devolution – I am assuming that the Mayans knew that everyone would need calendars to 2012 but after that they wouldn’t be required as there was an app that would be used in it’s place.
Before technology started to rule peoples lives there were things in the universe which required intellect to navigate. The 3 R’s – reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic (sure, even if my gen couldn’t spell that when only one actually started with an R, we did have to learn it a bit). These days people don’t have to think, they have gadgets doing that for them.
Attention spans have gotten shorter, vocabulary is diminishing and we have the Me Generation who twitter, text and Facebook their way through life. This me generation is stimulated by bright colours, noise, antagonism, anti social behaviour and shouting their way above others to get their opinion out there (but not realising that no one is listening as the others are all shouting too). Everyone is talking but no one (besides Warne888) is being heard. This can best be seen in Test cricket which used to be a sedate gentlemanly affair, which dropped to 50 overs but can now only go 20 overs and needs music and fireworks to keep the audience attached for that long.
That is why MKR must be rating – it meets the needs of the devolved minds that now amass and regard this as entertainment. Let us hope the directors in charge of our broadcast football intake don’t use this as a template.
Football is an art form in itself, it requires no spices. The old Channel 7 broadcasts from Moorabbin and the Lakeside Oval (1979-86) showed 2 Reserves grade sides meet in games of little consequence but still managed to enthrall without any fire crackers going off (apart from John Bourke). Sandy, Don and Peter would would gently waffle on about the ancestral backgrounds of Michael Guerts and Rudi Mandemaker, whether Milan Faletic would establish himself as a senior player after he went missing in the second quarter, whether the seagull with only one leg had been born that way or met with foul play and to thank Beryl for the weekly scones provided. It was a game of football, it didn’t need the bells and whistles. It was more watchable than all the theatrics presented today.
If the Australian population is 21 million and 2 million watched MKR then I am proud that I am still in the silent majority.
Please Channel 7, the simple things in life are really the best. More is not better. I turn the footy on to watch the footy. That’s all, it’s that simple.
Litza ill give you two words that will explain the ratings for MKR.
Manu Feildel.
He’s French, has a heavy accent, can cook AND he’s cute. For female viewers the cooking and drama of the contestants b*tching about the food comes secondary to the French teddybear.
Not hard to imagine Brian Taylor enraged with mock indignation about the lamb being dry, but then having a change of heart screaming ‘Wowee!’ when the desert comes out.
Danielle, Manu Fieldel is really Matt Field from Carnegie – the accent in simply an affectation so it would appear he knows what he’s taking about.
Litza – masterful argument. I’m guilty of never actually watching MKR, but the other day when an ad for the show came on I spontaneously vomited. Bits of carrot flew across the family room and splattered the TV set – a journey of about 2.5 metres. Some effort, hey? The family gave me a round of applause.
Arrested development = genius … Two and half men = shit
The way these two shows have fared on T.V. explain more about viewing tastes then anything.
Meritorious rant.
This damned binary world. Arrested Development and for that matter Party Down, were shows that attempted to cater for the people who want a touch of quality on tv. Turns out, there is no such thing. Explaining the preference for cooking shows, or worse, cooking reality shows.
Wouldn’t it be better if all the commentating clowns were in one room and they had to shout over themselves to be heard?
I hate booing when players are lining up for a kick at goal, but have no such problem with booing umpires. Rats. I’m binary too…
Litza, MKR are borrowing plot lines from 80s wrestling. They bring in the ‘evil’ Asians to stir up white sensibilities.
I’m half expecting the two Asian girls to spew green mist or throw salt into the faces of the others. Now that would be entertainment.
MKR’s sad, stereotypical, banal divisions are more pathetic than anything I have seen since the last Almanac article on:
- Freo V Geelong
-Carlton V Collingwood
-etc, etc
Thanks! – Now I know what MKR stands for! I knew there was something wrong with all those headlines I keep seeing in The Age online. Glad I am in Singapore without TV. Who needs it? I can watch the last 5 minutes of Carlton v Richmond over and over again on Youtube.
Litza – I forgot to mention that last night my lovely and I decided to give a new series called “The Last Resort” a go. I think its on channel 7?
After 10 minutes I was wondering what the collective noun for a group of cockdonkeys is.
Collective noun for a group of cockdonkeys:
a mclachlan of cockdonkeys
It’s a cockdonkey apocalypse Dips. Never mind the Mayans.
Or a conga line of cockdonkeys.
Litza I for one do not think your treatment of Carlton and jug ears was anything less than civil. Pointed no doubt but civil. But a tem list without the name Thornton on it makes attractive reading
TR
Oddly enough, Tony, T-Bird was one player who I have been civil towards… http://www.footyalmanac.com.au/t-bird-thornbirds-and-kelly-lebrock/
What’s this term cockdonkey mean? I’ve used softcock for a couple of decades now and was very happy when I saw Prowsey drop it on Frontline – now there was a high quality piece of television.
Dips, I don’t buy into thos US drama’s anymore. I’ve worked out they never end and just string you along for years.
Can anyone tell me how “The People’s Elbow” is rating?
The more MKR stays on TV, the less I watch. Simple.
That also goes for The Block, which apparently tonight featured “the biggest bathroom reveal ever.” I don’t even know what this means.