The second episode of the local version of the BBC’s Top Gear, Top Gear Australia, has fallen in the ratings, losing more than a quarter of a million viewers than its premiere.

It finished last, with 674,000 viewers, in its timeslot, being beaten by Border Security, The 7:30 Report and Australian Idol. In the ratings for the day, it was placed 26th.

Its best audience was located in Melbourne, followed by Sydney. However, SBS is still confident a second series will be commissioned.

Again, City Homicide was the most popular program on the night, followed by The Force and Border Security - all from the Seven Network. Australian Idol (Ten) managed to draw below 1 million viewers, getting 946,000. Due to Daylight Savings, Australian Idol is now live in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.

J.J. Abrams’ new drama Fringe has managed to pick up a full-season order, becoming the second to receive one after 90210. It has been given an additional 9 episodes to take the first season to 22. Ratings for the drama have improved since their so-so premiere, averaging 10.7 million viewers.

This could be because of the help of another FOX show, House – which is its competition in Australia.

Meanwhile, Ten has pulled 90120 from its schedule after airing five episodes. Its plans to move it to Friday nights have also been axed, but TEN has said that it will return later in the year – most likely during the Summer Non-Ratings Period, where the channels usually put shows that they don’t want to lose their share during the official ratings period.

Ten has replaced it, according to TV Tonight, with The Bourne Supremacy for next Friday (October 10), and United 93 on October 17th.

Meanwhile, the ABC’s latest popular show, The Gruen Transfer, has been licensed to Dutch production giant Endemol to create a Dutch version. The Gruen Transfer is a show about advertising, and is to be showcase at MIPCOM by ABC Commercial.

Today Tonight will have a new face next year as host Anna Coren has decided to leave the show and the network, Channel Seven, to become a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. cable news channel CNN. She is due to begin in December.

Following on-going difficulties and problems, including the court case involving Mercedes Corby, she took a screen test in the US last July. Now, we get to see who will replace her, after she replaced Naomi Robson after her credibility was eroded after the Wawa-gate incident in 2006.

Samantha Armytage is rumoured to take over Coren, but after gossip that Seven was seeking Nine’s Karl Stefanovic, there is suggestion that the network could be assessing other hosts for the position. According to the Sunday Telegraph, howver, Armytage is believed to be the frontrunner after signing a two-year contract before her contract expired in three months.

The deal also saw her salary bumped up by 60 percent. Armytage is currently the summer host for TT, the same position as Coren had held before being bumped up to a permanent role.

Crikey is reporting that the ABC’s new mobile phone site will include advertising, with some ABC insiders fearing the plan could threaten the national broadcaster’s editorial policies. Known internally as the "Hybrid Mobile Project", the site features ads for non-ABC related commercial businesses, along with its factual content.

The ads are said to include the ABC Commercial’s coloured worm logo; however, some are saying this is blurring the lines between commercials and editorial material - especially when the ABC doesn’t put in ads in radio, television or the internet other than its own content.

Crikey also has mock-ups of the new site. You can view them here.

Channel Nine has been given the all clear by the Supreme Court to air Underbelly in Victoria, thus giving WIN and Imparja - the Nine affiliates in Victoria - the same rights to air in Rural Victoria.

Nine will air Episodes 1 and 2 this Sunday, with episodes 3 through to 5 will screen on the following Tuesday and Sunday nights. However, those five episodes have been edited so they can air in Victoria.

However, Episodes 6 to 13 cannot be aired until the courts have finished a major criminal trial.

Underbelly premiered in February on Nine, except in Victoria due to a suppression order.

The colourful opening ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympics saw NBC averaging 34.2 million viewers, making it the largest television event since the Super Bow - and it is also the biggest audience for an Olympic opening ceremony that was not held in the US; even eclipsing this year’s Academy Awards and the finale of American Idol.

Athens saw 25.4 million viewers on its opening ceremony; where Sydney had 27.3 million viewers in 2000.

While people could watch portions of the ceremony online - as NBC delayed it by 12 hours after it had happen so it could place it in a Primetime slot; word of mouth could have help spread news about the ceremony.

Source: AP (Via MSNBC)

Mike Munro, one of the veterans in Nine’s news and current affairs, has resigned from the network after 22 years.

The former reporter on 60 Minutes and A Current Affair had told David Gyngell, the CEO, that he had resigned from the network, and told The Daily Telegraph that he was taking an early retirement after five tumultuous years at the network.

He also made it clear that his decision was made well before the network axed Sunday and Nightline last Friday. Gyngell accepted Munro’s decision, but asked him to return as a freelance contributor in the future.

He does not leave until October 31, with Munro continuing to host Missing Persons Unit, the weekend news and the new series of This Is Your Life - airing later this year.

Nightline and Sunday, both major staples in Nine’s news programming, have been axed after they were victims of "concentrating and maximising" their news resources.

While Nightline ended on Friday, Sunday will wrap up Sunday week - and will be replaced with a one-hour news bulletin. Sunday struggled to find viewers after moving this year to 7:30am, competing with Weekend Sunrise on competing network Seven.

This follows major cost cutting on PBL Media’s part, after being recently come under the control of CVC Asia Pacific. ACP Magazines, the magazine arm of PBL Media, axed The Bulletin in January after being published for more than 120 years.

Remember Joost? Created by the founders of Skype, Joost has now started building a joint venture in China; teaming up with the Hong Kong-based TOM group, it will show mainly content from production companies around China.

Joost will also become a subdomain in China, at joost.tom.com, and will contain 16,000 of content from many companies including CCTV, China Record Corp, BTV Media and Huayi Brothers Media Group.

TOM Group will handle all advertising on the service, while Joost will provide the underlying technology. The group is majority controlled by Li Ka-shing, a billionaire made from businesses in shipping and in telecommunications.

As well, through different companies and trusts, Li also has a stake in Joost and Facebook.

Source: Variety Asia

The hugely popular, and not aired in Victoria yet, show Underbelly has been given another series - after overwhelming demand urged them to create another one. The show, about the Melbourne Gangland War, re-established the network as a serious ratings contender after losing last year to Seven.

The new series will be a prequel to the war, and will detail the rise of power of many of the characters in the original series - but will mainly focus on Alphonse Gangitano, who was portrayed by Vince Colosimo.

CEO David Gyngell was confident that the series will be a smash hit like its predecessor. The series will begin recording in September for 13 episodes. It is also unknown if the series will not be shown in Australia - like its predecessor.