The Worm Turns Master Chef Master Stroke

I wanted to write about worms and their importance in the evolutionary process but Master Chef came along - equally evolutionary, but this time for Channel Ten and our specie of TV viewers.

Yesterday we saw the publication of the half year market share of revenue. Seven continues to lead with 38.5%; Nine 32.5% and Ten with 27.4%. But don’t worry about Ten. They set the TV world on fire this week with the incredible ratings of MasterChef Australia. The nail biting final contest between Poh Ling Yeow and Julie Goodwin was the third highest rating program since the current system began in 2001. Only the 2005 Hewitt Australian Open Final and the 2003 Rugby Word Cup Final between Australia and England did better.

The story for Ten is good if you are counting bickies not calories. A sixty second ad in MasterChef cost $60,000. Multiply this by the 5 hours of programs across the weekly series and there’s not much change out of $40 million. And when they start to taking bookings for the next series from the sweaty palmed media buyers wanting to join in the success it will be $80,000 a minute and going up. The halo effect will probably add another $25 million.

So what is going on? Why are cooking shows so popular?

Charlie tells me that confidence is returning and people are feeling better but they are looking for simpler things and a more authentic lifestyle. No more conspicuous consumption.

We should all listen to Charlie. As regular readers will recall, Charlie told us in the first week of April that the downturn wasn’t so bad and our economy was on the way back. Our advertising bookings were telling us the same thing. Charlie is now beside himself with glee because on Tuesday this week Access Economics and the Reserve Bank both said the same thing - two months after Charlie.

We could have seen this trend for a simpler life coming by noticing people planting vegetables in the back yard, even in the front yard. Trendy people in flats are putting planter boxes on the balcony with what the American TV Chefs call ‘erbs. The “H” of course is silent but I will hit the next person who says ‘ ullo ‘arold like that cockney spiv who fleeced me for two tickets to Wimbledon.

But you can see how the worms are making a comeback with all of this gardening and consequential cooking going on. Clever things worms, with their front end looking just like their rear. Very efficient little factories all in the one unit.

Many have tried to copy the worm. There’s old Volkswagon which looked the same coming and going and the original W Class tram which could be driven from either end - modest but effective inventions that changed the lives of ordinary people just like Master Chef which has turned the every day ritual of cooking a meal into our highest ranking spectator sport of the year and made a homely IT consultant a celebrity chef with plans to open a cosy simple family restaurant on the New South Wales coast.

And my advice to Julie?

Restaurants can be a risky business. Don’t give up the day job but by all means plant a vegetable garden and start a worm farm.

And my advice for the networks?

Home grown product is the way to go.