It's A Rare Trifecta For The Flab(less) Five
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday April 22, 2000
As Australia's universities and India's airlines know, there is nothing like a touch of overbooking to set off genuine mayhem.
The masters of the Popstars-Bardot universe plotted accordingly when they booked the Flab(less) Five for a performance on Wednesday at Karrinyup shopping centre in Western Australia.
The mall could hold a maximum 2,000 spectators, and of course five times that number turned up. ``I didn't know it'd be like this," said Mr Bardot, aka band manager Michael Napthali. ``I didn't bring my crystal ball."
But if he had taken his ball, Mr Napthali couldn't have got it better: more than 60 first-aid cases, faintings, unholy rucks on the escalators, mass disorientation, head spins, loss of bowel control on a Karrinyup-wide scale. Madness!
Every time commentators resolve to ignore the Popstars, they bounce up with something new. This week they achieved the rare trifecta of surging back to the peak of the TV ratings, releasing a CD single that topped the charts, and causing a serious health crisis at a live event.
In the words of Sally, Sophie, Katie, Belinda and the one in the cowboy hat: ``If you make me sad, something something bad, don't you know that I can be poison. Poi-son!"
By far the most notable and demographically telling news from Karrinyup was the image of the young boy crying: ``I couldn't breathe ... I couldn't breathe ... It was scary ..."
The immediate reaction was that he should stop sucking on Dairy Whip canisters but no, he'd been trapped in the Poison crush. This is significant because the TV ratings reveal that the program is the top-rater with males of all ages, compared with number two for women (behind Friends). And all along we dismissed it as a starry-eyed prepubescent girl fantasy thing. Instead, it's a starry-eyed all-ages boy-man fantasy thing. Grown men love watching Popstars. We shall take this particular line of inquiry no further.
Don't be fooled that it's a youth phenomenon, either. Nearly 500,000 under-12s watched the show last Sunday, and 465,000 in the 13-24 age group, but its biggest fans, numerically, are the 25-39s, of whom 776,000 watched, and, wait for it, the over-40s, of whom 700,000 tuned in. Seven hundred thousand who are old enough to know better, and no doubt all of them will say they were only watching it with their children and grandchildren.
No sooner do you resolve to stop talking about the Popstars, ban them from all media, than they bounce back with a number-one CD single and TV slot.
The markets they have failed to penetrate so far, are cinema and video. The interesting note about this week's most-watched videos is that they confirm the breakdown of the old divide between ``big-screen" movies and ``video" movies.
The orthodoxy was that films relying on special effects and sound and large-scale suspense only really worked on the big screen, whereas the best small-screen films were dramas and comedies that relied on scripts and acting. Most of this week's most-watched videos are in fact ``big screen" films. The Sixth Sense, Star Wars Episode 1, Wild Wild West, The Blair Witch Project and Deep Blue Sea, five of the top six, are what was thought to be essential cinema experiences.
HOW AUSTRALIA ENTERTAINS ITSELF
What we watched on TV
All viewers, FIVE CITIES, april 9 to 15
Audience
1 Popstars (7) 2.43m
2 Friends (9) 2.43
3 Blue Heelers (7) 2.16
4 Spin City (9) 2.14
5 Backyard Blitz (9) 2.07
6 The Mole (7) 1.98
7 Better Homes & Gardens (7) 1.88
8 Burke's Backyard (9) 1.88
9 Nine News - Sunday (9) 1.87
10 Great Outdoors (7) 1.84
11 E.R. (9) 1.83
12 Harry's Practice (7) 1.81
13 Sixty Minutes (9) 1.78
14 Seven News - Sun (7) 1.67
15 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (9) 1.65
Source: A.C. Nielsen
What we watched on video
most rented videos last week
1 Sixth Sense - 2 Star Wars Episode One 2
3 Wild Wild West 1
4 Blair Witch Project 3 5 Teaching Mrs
Tingle -
6 Deep Blue Sea 4 7 Pokemon 9
8 Big Daddy 5
9 The Runaway Bride 7
10 American Pie 6
Source: video trader magazine survey
Our favourite movies
Last weekend's box office $million Total
1 1 Stuart Little 3.00 7.82
2 4 Erin Brockovich 2.71 3.45
3 3 Galaxy Quest 0.74 2.10
4 2 Mission to Mars 0.67 2.26
5 - Final Destination 0.62 0.62
6 9 The Tigger Movie 0.55 1.17
7 5 The Whole Nine Yards 0.45 3.25
8 8 American Beauty 0.35 17.51
9 6 Scream3 0.34 5.73
10 7 The Hurricane 0.31 6.10
* Previous weekend
Motion Picture Distributors Association Of Australia
Our favourite CDs
Top 10 albums Last week
1 Reflector Killing Heidi 2
2 The Power Vanessa Amorosi 1
3 No Strings Attached 'N Sync -
4 Play Moby 3
5 Enema of the State Blink 182 7
6 Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers 5
7 On How Life Is Macy Gray 4
8 Supernatural Santana 6
9 Writing's On The Wall Destiny's Child -
10 Affirmation Savage Garden 9
TOP 3 SINGLES Last week
1 Poison Bardot -
2 Bye Bye Bye 'N Sync 1
3 Say My Name Destiny's Child -
Australian record industry association
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
