Throng

9:30pm Thursday, July 1 on TV2

There can be few events more terrifying than a plane crash, and tonight's 20/20: Special Edition looks at what happens to those who survive in the aftermath.

Introduced by Miriama Kamo, the special documentary meets survivors of some of the worst commercial crashes in aviation history - individuals who have cheated death by the slimmest of margins and crawled out of the wreckage to tell their tales. Alongside dramatic archive footage of the actual crashes, survivors tell their heart-stopping stories of survival, and heart-warming tales of recovery and personal redemption in the years that follow the crashes.

Mercedes Ramirez Johnson was on a plane that slammed into the side of a Columbian mountain in 1995. It was described a non-survivable event, but she lived to tell the tale.

Usually 20/20 stories are quite 'freak of the week' and the teaser for this week's story on breastfeeding older children definitely had that feel. But I was pleasantly suprised. The story was well balanced and covered the experience of two mothers and even the memories of two women who could remember being breastfed as older children. They avoided the typical hysterical criticisms of extended breastfeeding such as it being disgusting or feminising boys, but they did ask the 5 year old some interesting questions about when he would stop feeding. It was great to hear from the horse's mouth, as it were, about what being breastfed as an older child is actually like. One of the disturbing elements of this is how the children knew that what they were doing would be frowned upon. Should children feel social pressure at such a young age to be acceptable? Especially when doing something so natural and that communicates love between a mother and child.

Tomorrow night 20/20 will be doing a story on breastfeeding older children. I know a couple of the families and am committed to breastfeeding my own daughter so I am really hoping for a balanced and positive story. I am so sick of sensational rather than factual coverage of breastfeeding children, despite all the research to support it and the fact that it is a normal way of living in so much of the world. Only in the overly sexualised west do we seem to have a problem with it.

TVNZ staff working on the current affairs programme 20/20 have decided to auction off a rugby league jersey given to them by Warriors legend, Manu Vatuvei to raise money for the children of Haiti.

The Warriors jersey was worn and signed by Vatuvei during the 20/20 story on the league winger, “Beauty & the Beast” last year.

Reporter Beth Roche says, “This is your chance to get in quick and buy a piece of Manu before the Ozzies try and claim him!”

“I called and checked with Manu that he’d be happy for us to do this and he was right into it”.

It was listed on Trade Me with a $1 reserve last week and bidding is already over $200.

The auction closes at 7:30pm this Thursday

The latest news numbers show Sunrise lost a quarter of its audience in November while NZI Business and Breakfast continued to edge ahead.

AGB NMR data shows Sunrise had just under 30,000 viewers watching on average each morning in October compared to just over 22,000 viewers on average each morning in November – a drop of 25%.

Tonight and Nightline audiences have remained fairly static but Campbell Live’s audience has dropped again (by almost 20,000 from October) and was beaten on more than a third of the days in November by a late night news programme.

See November viewer numbers for all News and Current Affairs programmes on TV One and TV3 below.

(Source: AGB NMR (Measurement: All people 5 years and over - average daily audience nationwide)

TELEVISION NEWS VIEWERSHIP FOR NOVEMBER 2009

Singing superstar, Rihanna talks for the first time about her violent relationship with fellow singer, Chris Brown this Thursday night.  In a revealing interview, Rihanna talks about what really happened that night and how she feels now Brown has been sentenced to community labour, five years of probation and a year of domestic-violence counselling.

20/20 also looks at the ongoing fallout from the shootout on the West Auckland motorway at Auckland Anniversary Weekend. The police chase ended in gridlock, an innocent bystander being shot dead and many more being scarred for life. The ripple effect from 56 seconds of madness is on 20/20 at 9:30pm, Thursday 12th of November on TV2.

On the 24th of September 20/20 aired an episode about the excessive drinking that pervades New Zealand culture.  Part of that episode included the story of 20 year old Anne Marie Patelesio who, after driving to Arrowtown with some friends from Christchurch for a party, managed to park a 4WD in a swimming pool after crashing it over a traffic island and through a fence and stone BBQ.

Yesterday, Judge Kevin Phillips questioned whether Patelesio should have benefited financially from selling her story for up to $10,000 during sentencing.  TVNZ have said that they paid $2000 for the footage from the party.

Patelesio is adamant she did the story to discourage others from drinking.

9:30pm Thursday, September 24 on TV2

TV2's award-winning show 20/20 continues its gripping season tonight, with the best of New Zealand and international Current Affairs.

With two nominations at this year's Qantas Film and Television Awards, for Best Current Affairs Reporting for a weekly programme or one-off current affairs special, and Best Current Affairs Camera, 20/20 continues to blaze a trail with stories which inform, spark debate, and entertain, combining hard-hitting investigative reports, newsmaker interviews, and compelling human interest and feature stories.

Tune in and stay up to date with the 20/20 team, including presenter and seasoned journalist Miriama Kamo, award-winning journalists Pete Cronshaw and Sonya Wilson, and newcomer Beth Roche.