After the excruciating limbo of hung parliaments and drawn AFL grand finals and Australia’s Next wrongly announced Top Model, it’s refreshing that we’ve reached one consensus decision this year. The 2010 ARIAs were shit. Not a subjective opinion but a fact. Ronan Keating suggests we “rename them the Hilaria’s“. Which is true but also sad and an excellent pun, Mr. Keating.
But it wasn’t just former Boyzone members who were critical. Viewers voted with their eyeballs/remote controls/low tolerance for awkwardness and in a shocking ratings whitewash, the ARIAs failed to crack Sunday night’s top 15 programs. In an even more shocking result (which neatly puts the terribleness of The ARIAs into perspective) the telecast, which ensnared just 624,000 viewers, was out-rated by direct competitor Bones which drew in 1.406m.
Yes, a middling procedural drama headlined by Angel from Buffy more than doubled the viewership of Australian music’s “night of nights”. Wow, Australia. We must really love David Boreanaz, maybe he should present an award next year? Just kidding. David Boreanaz should definitely not present an award next year. Sarah Michelle Geller on the other hand, now that’s a celebrity you can build an event around.
Channel Ten, who are well aware of how terrible, shambolic and awkward the telecast was, issued this brief statement yesterday: “The ARIA’s are a very important event in the Australian music landscape and last nights performances were fantastic.“. An obvious euphemism for “A thousand apologies guys, we fucked up. Though a few of last night’s performances were fantastic.”
Organizers also responded to criticism via the official ARIAs Facebook account: “Thanks again for your comments throughout the day. These comments will form part of our review with our producers and partners so that we can deliver the best ARIAs in 2011.“
There you have it. At least they’re listening.
