By James Manning

It celebrates its 350th episode this coming Sunday night.

As to the secret of that success, Hawthorn great Dunstall told Mediaweek: “We are very fortunate that at the end of a football weekend there are a lot of people who like to wind down. We get a few older people and also a lot of young kids who have no idea we once played footy, but they just laugh at us having fun.”

Joining Dunstall on that very first program was another AFL legend, St Kilda great Danny “Spud” Frawley who has accompanied Dunstall over the TV journey.

Part of the comedy on The Bounce is Dunstall and Spud punishing each other on special segments that are usually pre-recorded. As to who has worn it better, Dunstall said it was line ball.

“One of the things about the show is if you can laugh at yourself you can laugh at other people. Spud and I have always been prepared to be the butt of jokes.”

Spud as a Roman gladiator

A recent episode started with a replay of Dunstall smacking Frawley across the backside. Frawley then read out a statement claiming he was no longer going to take the workplace punishment and would seek legal redress if there wasn’t an immediate apology. Maybe they won’t make it to 350 together after all!

The Bounce always goes live after the final match of each round on a Sunday. “It’s been a lot more difficult this year,” admitted Dunstall due to games finishing at various times on Sundays.

“We were settled into the 7.30pm Sunday slot for the past few years, but this year there’s been a very different schedule of games from late afternoon through until 9.30pm. That makes it hard to build a regular audience when we’re not on at the same time every week. The closer we are around the 7.30pm mark the better it is for the program.”

Dunstall credited the program longstanding producer Bill Cannon as central to the program’s success. He’s been working on the program since episode one. Cannon joined Fox Footy in 2002 after many years at Seven in Melbourne.

“He’s a complete ripper and he gets a lot of fun out of watching us embarrass ourselves,” said Dunstall about the producer.

Jason as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Not only is Cannon and his team on the lookout for recordings of anything funny, stupid or controversial that might have happened over the weekend, Dunstall said everyone at Fox Footy also has that brief.

Joining Dunstall and Frawley on the show for the past three years has been former Geelong great Cameron Mooney. “He has a couple of segments he does and he’s a very good looking younger man. That’s very important for our female audience because they are not tuning in to look at Spud or I,” laughed Dunstall.

“The fourth spot of the show has been rotated between three people this year – Sharni Layton, the former netball superstar who now plays AFLW for Collingwood, Andrew Gaze, who has been with us for a number of years on and off depending on his other commitments. He is one of my favourites and we get on so well. He is the nicest bloke you could ever meet – nobody ever had a bad word about him. And we have introduced Bernie Vince this year, a recently retired Melbourne player who is outstanding and he has a great sense of humour and he’s been a breathe of fresh air.”

Dunstall has cut back some of his other media commitments in the past couple of years. He is no longer on the Monday night On The Couch program, instead he has a regular spot on Thursdays on AFL 360. He also works with the team hosting the Friday night games from the Fox Footy studios and handles special comments during Saturday games.

Dunstall gets some weekdays off if he doesn’t need to pre-record for The Bounce. “Our pre-recorded set-ups are rarely done in less than a couple of hours,” said Dunstall. “As we do them we tend to explore things that work and drop things that don’t. If anyone comes up with an idea we run with it.”

The Bounce doesn’t always air the best bits either. “One of the rules is that sometimes the worse it is the better it is to watch.”

Dunstall has also worked as a sports administrator in the past at his former club Hawthorn and more recently at the BBL team Melbourne Renegades where he was chairman and on the board for four years, culminating in the team winning the 2018 championship.

“Both the Stars and the Renegades have handed the BBL franchises back to Cricket Victoria,” said Dunstall. “It’s their right to take it back because they own the franchises and they are trying to rationalise the business in a tougher economy.”

Another Fox Footy colleague of Dunstall’s, Eddie McGuire, as been chairman of the other Melbourne BBL team the Stars since day one.

“It has been fun to be involved,” said Dunstall of his time with the Renegades.

—

Top Photo: The Bounce: Cameron Mooney, Jason Dunstall and Danny Frawley

Squillace joins Carat from Spark Foundry where she has held several leadership roles – most recently as CEO since 2017. Carat’s last CEO was Paul Brooks who stepped down in September last year.

She will report to Henry Tajer, CEO Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) ANZ, and represent Carat on the DAN ANZ Board. Squillace will commence in September 2019.

In a statement announcing the appointment, Dentsu Aegis said with over 20 years’ experience and deep expertise in media and marketing, Squillace has earned a reputation for applying a people-led philosophy to deliver effective and sustainable growth.

Henry Tajer, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network ANZ, said: “Sue is a fantastic person. I can’t wait to see her make her impact at Carat and DAN. I am really excited to be working with her again. This is an important appointment for not only Carat but the wider Network. Sue’s credibility and commitment to putting people at the centre of everything, makes her the ideal person to propel Carat into the future.”

Sue Squillace, incoming CEO, Carat ANZ, said: “I am excited to lead the team at Carat and join Dentsu Aegis Network at such a critical and exciting time. I look forward to getting to know and working together with the team, clients and partners on the next stage of the Carat journey.

“I would also like to thank Publicis Groupe for the many opportunities over the last 10 years, in particular the opportunity to launch and build a new agency. I wish all my friends at Spark Foundry continued success.”

The fast-paced expansion has already commenced with the recent unveiling of large 22-inch screens on bowsers at BP Randwick, one of Sydney’s busiest petro and convenience locations in the eastern suburbs.

The installation marks the beginning of an extensive national roll out starting in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and lower North Shore. The expansion will see the addition of the newly built BP Clovelly, along with a slate of enhancements planned for Surry Hills, Bondi and Manly locations.

VMO has also secured new locations in Victoria, Queensland and WA that are scheduled for mid-July completion.

Anthony Deeble, Hoyts group chief commercial officer commented: “I’m proud to announce these exciting, new enhancements to our On-the-go network. The significant growth and changing face of the convenience and impulse retail sector in Australia presents a great opportunity for owner operators and advertisers alike which is why we’re investing in high-quality, new-generation screen tech to engage audiences and leave a lasting impression.”

Paul Butler, managing director of VMO added: “Recent studies have validated the OTG network’s ability to deliver 43% unduplicated reach when bought in conjunction with FTA TV and brands are leveraging this as a quick, easy and cost-effective way to build campaign reach. We know that the average Aussie spends four minutes filling up their vehicle, so this is a great way to cut through and deliver your message in a distraction-free environment.”

By Trent Thomas

Despite the new look, the film still delivered at the box office opening in the top spot this weekend.

It was the only new entry this week, in a pretty static weekend in theatres with the Australian box office declining 20% from last weekend making a total of $12.76m.

The only film to drop out of the top five this week is Godzilla: King of Monsters, which dropped to sixth spot after making $526,575, bringing its overall total to $5.68m.

Outside of the top five some big budget films added to their hefty totals, with Avengers: Endgame now up to $83.22m, and Pokemon: Detective Pikachu on $14.17m. 

#1 Men in Black: International $3.88m

The same suites with a new twist, the fourth film in the blockbuster franchise that began in 1997 now features its first female lead in Tessa Thompson and Australian Chris Hemsworth who received a friendly reception from local audiences with an average of $7,714 on 505 screens.

#2 Aladdin $2.97m

After four weeks in theatres, Disney’s latest remake of an animated classic still ranks in the top two of the Australian box office with an average of $7,241 on 411 screens. The film has continued its streak of small week on week declines going down 37% this past weekend, bringing its overall total to $26.94m.

#3 Rocketman $2.22m

While it looks like the Elton John biopic will never get to be number one on the Australian box office, after missing out in its first three weeks of release, that hasn’t stopped it from producing a very healthy total. After a 35% decline on last weekend’s total, the music-heavy romp has made a total of $14.18m, producing an average of $4,269 on 521 screens making it the most widely shown film in Australia.

#4 X-Men: Dark Pheonix $845,325

After debuting in third spot last week a 69% decline has seen it slide down to fourth after two weeks. The last X-Men film under the Fox banner now has a total of $4.51m after making an average of $2,422 on 349 screens.

#5 John Wick: Chapter Three $710,473

The marathon man of the Australian box office, the action film starring Keanu Reeves continues to defy expectations remaining in the top five for the fifth consecutive week, being the least shown film every week in the top five, this week being shown on 226 screens for an average of $3,144.

Monday Week 25 2019

 By James Manning

• Seven News 1,177,000/1,098,000
• Nine News 975,000/959,000
• A Current Affair 848,000
• ABC News 709,000,000
• 7.30 620,000
• The Project 302,000/526,000
• 10 News First 431,000
• The Drum 198,000
• SBS World News 121,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 298,000
• Today 201,000

Seven

Starting its week on 713,000 was Home And Away. The soapie’s weekly average audiences for the past two weeks were 665,000 and 673,000.

House Rules did 626,000 after 723,000 on Sunday night. The Monday audience last week was 761,000.

Seven then went with the 2013 movie The Heat with 271,000 watching.

Nine

A Current Affair began week 25 on 848,000. Its previous two weekly average audiences have been 754,000 and 756,000.

The Voice slipped just under 1m to 992,000 after 1.02m on Monday a week ago.

Lip Sync Battle then returned to the schedule with two episodes recording audiences of 322,000 and 207,000.

10

Hamish Macdonald was again reporting live from the streets of Hong Kong for The Project. Later in the show the Aussie star on Stranger Things, Dacre Montgomery, was a guest. The episode did 526,000 after 7pm.

MasterChef featured one of the hardest pressure tests ever for something that sounded relatively simple – a Black Forrest Lune croissant. It was too tough for Steph De Sousa who was elimination #13 after slipping up with just one element of the recipe. The episode did 648,000 after 675,000 a week earlier. It seems like Heston Blumenthal’s time on the series might be just one episode this year after his Sunday appearance?

Powering much of the 10 schedule last night were 2Day FM breakfast colleagues Ed Kavalee and Ash London. They hosted breakfast radio together earlier in the day then first appeared on 10 at 6pm in the episode of Celebrity Name Game, hosted by the other member of the 2Day breakfast team Grant Denyer. The episode did 258,000 after a week 24 average of 253,000.

Ed and Ash were then sitting beside each other on Have You Been Paying Attention? later in the evening. The episode did 718,000, up from 678,000 a week ago. Also on the episode was Melanie Bracewell from The Project NZ and Marty Sheargold, from Nova drive who dropped quite a few plugs for his return to stand-up tour.

Kinne Tonight then did 305,000 after 241,000 a week ago. Among the laughs was his new social media platform Failbook.

ABC

Backroads has moved into the 8pm slot for a new season and host Heather Ewart was in the Northern Territory with 631,000 watching.

Four Corners featured a PBS special on Trump’s Trade War that did 500,000.

Media Watch was on 486,000 as Peta Credlin and Seven’s Sunday Night were two topics on its radar.

Q&A was a science special with 403,000.

SBS

Part two of 63 Up did 234,000 after launching with 299,000.

Medicine Or Myth then did 207,000.