Throng

Maori Television’s new cooking presenter Manawa Wright may not be trying to emulate famous television chef Jamie Oliver but he definitely comes close in new culinary series TAO premiering on Friday May 7 at 6.00 PM.

A 100 per cent Maori language cooking show, TAO takes viewers on a journey to find cost effective, nutritious, healthy meals that are targeted at rangatahi cooks aged between 14 and 25 years. “I don’t pretend to be an accomplished chef,” admits Manawa (Ngati Rangitihi). “In fact, just like the viewers, I’m going on a culinary journey particularly in terms of my proficiency in the kitchen. It’s been a real trip for me to take lessons in dicing and chopping in order to look better on camera as the show progresses!”

TAO – which has many meanings including ‘cooked’ – comprises 32 half-hour episodes that take viewers to a different home every week, giving advice to suit varied lifestyles and budgets. Each episode is unique depending on logistics such as size of the individual kitchen, with the ultimate aim of benefitting the family’s health and pockets. In addition to the cooking element, the show includes tips on choice of produce and food bargains. The focus of the show also depends on individual guests’ backgrounds such as whether they are single, flatmates, tertiary students, stay at home parents or working households.

Manawa admits he’s finding the expert guidance of qualified clinical nutritionist Noella Taiapa (Ngati Porou, Rongowhakaata) also helpful on a personal basis. “TAO has taught me how to cook yummy nutritious meals in just 30 minutes. And learning about the nutritional value of different produce has been amazing.” Ultimately TAO aims to be a fun way to teach people how to cook healthy kai. Manawa adds: “I’m not a professional chef and may not be cutting perfectly but the meals still come out great. The idea is to enable everyone to make fantastic meals fast.”

The show’s producer, Pirihira Hollings (Te Arawa, Rangitane o Wairarapa, Te Atihaunui a Paparangi, Raukawa) says she was one of six in her family and had to cook from the age of 14. “It would have been nice to have had alternative yummy ideas to help vary the meals I prepared. And even though my dad was a talented cook, I ended up cooking the same meals when he had to work late only because I didn’t know better.”

Join Manawa on his journey to healthy, cost effective eating with TAO – screening on Maori Television every Friday at 6.00 PM from May 7.

Just how well did Masterchef New Zealand do?

A news weatherman in the United States gets a little carried away with his graphics.

3 News maintains its stronghold over the 18-49 demographic beating One News yet again with a 32.2% share compared to their 28%.

And owning the Auckland market, 3 News has surged ahead in the 18-49 Auckland Urban demographic, with a 15.2% rise in ratings to 33.6% compared to One News‘ 20.1% – down a staggering 26.0% compared to this time last year.

In the 18-39 Auckland Urban demographic 3 News saw the highest increase, ending the month of April on a 32.5% share, up 17.3% compared to the same time in 2009. One News also took its biggest knock in this demographic, down to a 15.4% share, 33.4% lower year-on-year.

3 News is also well head of One News in the demographic of 25-54 Auckland Urban. Up 4.6% to 32.2%, 3 News takes hold leaving One News trailing at 23.6%, down significantly by 22.5%.

Mark Jennings, Director of News and Current Affairs says the growth in Auckland is encouraging.

He comments: “While we don’t over focus on Auckland, the city has become a powerhouse for us.  I think Aucklanders like their news to be straight to the point and not dressed up with unnecessary packaging.  I think we have hit on a winning formula with our emphasis on breaking news and the direct style in which it is presented.”

Most watched

1. One News: 694,820 (TV ONE, 6:00pm – 7:00pm)
2. Coastwatch: 658,390 (TV ONE, 7:30pm – 8:00pm)
3. Medical Emergency: 619,450 (TV ONE, 8:00pm – 8:30pm)
4. Shortland Street: 537,010 (TV2, 7:00pm – 7:30pm)
5. Close Up: 501,000 (TV ONE, 7:00pm – 7:30pm)

Most watched evening (7.30pm – 11pm)

1. Coastwatch: 658,390 (TV ONE, 7:30pm – 8:00pm)
2. Medical Emergency: 619,450 (TV ONE, 8:00pm – 8:30pm)
3. The Pacific: 438,150 (TV ONE, 8:30pm – 9:35pm)
4. Desperate Housewives: 419,020 (TV2, 8:30pm – 9:30pm)
5. Destroyed in Seconds: 362,020 (TV3, 7:30pm – 8:00pm)

Most watched daytime (9am – 5pm)

1. Emmerdale: 139,410 (TV ONE, 12:30pm – 1:30pm)
2. ONE News Midday: 127,580 (TV ONE, 12:00pm – 12:30pm)
3. The Erin Simpson Show: 109,710 (TV2, 4:35pm – 5:00pm)
4. Hannah Montana: 95,050 (TV3, 3:55pm – 4:05pm)
5. Good Morning: 94,070 (TV ONE, 9:00am – 12:00pm)

Most watched on TV ONE

1. One News: 694,820 (6:00pm – 7:00pm)
2. Coastwatch: 658,390 (7:30pm – 8:00pm)
3. Medical Emergency: 619,450 (8:00pm – 8:30pm)
4. Close Up: 501,000 (7:00pm – 7:30pm)
5. The Pacific: 438,150 (8:30pm – 9:35pm)

Most watched on TV2

1. Shortland Street: 537,010 (7:00pm – 7:30pm)
2. Desperate Housewives: 419,020 (8:30pm – 9:30pm)
3. Brothers & Sisters: 320,870 (9:30pm – 10:30pm)
4. Supernanny: 281,680 (7:30pm – 8:30pm)
5. My Wife and Kids: 163,570 (6:30pm – 7:00pm)

Most watched on TV3

1. 3 News: 474,670 (6:00pm – 7:00pm)
2. Destroyed in Seconds: 362,020 (7:30pm – 8:00pm)
3. C.S.I: 328,010 (8:30pm – 9:30pm)
4. The Real Hustle New Zealand: 327,320 (8:00pm – 8:30pm)
5. Campbell Live: 326,330 (7:00pm – 7:30pm)

Most watched on C4

1. Family Guy: 98,900 (7:00pm – 7:30pm)
2. King of the Hill: 88,390 (6:30pm – 7:00pm)
3. Malcolm in the Middle: 53,440 (6:00pm – 6:30pm)
4. My Name is Earl: 50,550 (8:00pm – 8:30pm)
5. Heroes: 50,470 (8:30pm – 9:30pm)

Most watched on PRIME

1. Prime News: 188,060 (5:30pm – 6:00pm)
2. Deal Or No Deal: 145,440 (5:00pm – 5:30pm)
3. Sea Patrol: 117,500 (9:30pm – 10:30pm)
4. Deal or No Deal: 117,490 (6:30pm – 7:00pm)
5. Million Pound Place in the Sun: 107,080 (7:30pm – 8:35pm)

Most watched on the BOX

1. The Simpsons: 24,920 (7:00pm – 7:30pm)
2. Law & Order: 24,400 (7:30pm – 8:30pm)

Most watched on SKY Sport 1

1. ANZ Netball: 51,730 (7:15pm – 8:45pm)
2. ANZ Netball Post Game: 46,780 (8:45pm – 8:55pm)
3. ANZ Netball: 24,450 (9:00pm – 10:25pm)

Biggest increases

1. Medical Emergency: TV ONE 619450 – up from 559750 (8:00pm – 8:30pm)
2. King of the Hill: C4 88390 – up from 38870 (6:30pm – 7:00pm)
3. Sea Patrol: PRIME 117500 – up from 78950 (9:30pm – 10:30pm)
4. Close Up: TV ONE 501000 – up from 462520 (7:00pm – 7:30pm)
5. 3 News: TV3 474670 – up from 438950 (6:00pm – 7:00pm)

Biggest decreases

1. The Real Hustle New Zealand: TV3 327320 – down from 399390 (8:00pm – 8:30pm)
2. C.S.I: TV3 328010 – down from 378890 (8:30pm – 9:30pm)
3. Destroyed in Seconds: TV3 362020 – down from 403960 (7:30pm – 8:00pm)
4. The Pacific: TV ONE 438150 – down from 476790 (8:30pm – 9:35pm)
5. My Wife and Kids: TV2 163570 – down from 200530 (6:30pm – 7:00pm)

New

1. Million Pound Place in the Sun: PRIME (7:30pm – 8:35pm)
2. Tonight: TV ONE (10:35pm – 11:05pm)

Channel Share

• TV ONE: 28.6%
• SKY Network: 24%
• TV2: 17.4%
• TV3: 16.9%
• PRIME: 6.4%
• Other TV Channels: 3.2%
• C4: 2.7%
• Maori TV: 0.4%

Source: AGB Nielsen, 5+

Lost creator J.J. Abrams is working on a new series called Undercovers.

The feds investigating the Times Square bomb scare in New York have not ruled out the possibility the failed attack was in retaliation to the controversial episode of South Park.

Charlie Sheen looks set to don the bowling shirts again with reports suggesting the sitcom star is close to sealing a new deal for more Two and a Half Men.

A new Disney Channel telemovie called Avalon High has begun production in New Zealand.

American actress Helen Wagner has died aged 91.

From last night’s episode of The Simpsons that aired in the US

Cadbury screened its brand new ad for the first time tonight during the first ad break of Desperate Housewives. The TV ad features cow tap dancing to Fred Astaire’s song Putting on the Ritz:

(More pictures and video after the jump)

Complete with weird close up shot of the cow’s udder:

The ad finishes with the cow pushing aside mirrors and pushing back a purple curtain to finish with an ensemble act:

Lyrics of Putting on the Ritz used in Cadbury’s TV ad:

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-Duper.

If you’re blue and you don’t where to go to
Why don’t you go where fashion sits?
Puttin’ on the ritz.

Watch the video below:

Lucy Lawless:

“I was amazed at how many people showed up [at the protest march] and the vehemence of their objection to this proposal.  I was there because I love New Zealand, I’m a member of the public, they’re asking for public submissions so I wanted to make my voice heard.

I spent last week down at Paparoa National Park in the West Coast and saw this magnificent land, that park is like the cream of the crop of New Zealand foresty.  There’s significant Kiwi populations down there, beautiful native beech forest, rimu, nikau you name it.

Schedule 4 was land that was set aside in trust for us, for all New Zealanders to enjoy, forever.  It was land that was designated never to be touched and now it seems to be saying “Just tricking! Let’s dig it up”.

The people who drafted Schedule 4 in 1997, the previous National Government, they were the ones who said “This is a no-go zone.”  A no-go zone.  They know it is the best of our flora and fauna and it has to be protected.  Otherwise, we’re going to be calling the San Diego zoo and saying “Can we have our kiwis back please?

Where is the wealth going to go?  Who is going to tap this?  The best numbers of return on profit that I’ve seen in the papers just lately is like 2%.  2%?  2% is going to come back into the New Zealand purse?  Where does the other 98% go please?  I’d love to know that and what price?

Our brand as clean, green New Zealand is so valuable – we sell our meat on that, our tourism, major industries – we all leverage that brand which the tax payer paid for by the way.

I talked to tourists down in the Paparoa National Park outside the visitors centre and they were from Wales and from Northern England and they said “Don’t do it! You should see what it’s done to our landscape, it’s a complete disaster.

You cannot rehab the land, Mr Brownlee.  You cannot rehab the land. You know that.”  They’re not showing those cyanide ponds that are up and down the Kaimai ranges.  Newmont doesn’t clean up after itself, I worked for them.

One Kiwi in the bush is worth ten bushels of coal in the hand.”

Gerry Brownlee:

“The discussion document is out there and I’m sure Lucy would agree that the comments made about the Paparoa are not right.

Paparoa National Park is a splendid piece of land, no question.  We’re talking about a piece that was added to the park in 2008, it’s a piece of land that sits quite separated from the park by a good distance and the conservation department in 2008 advised not to put it into Schedule 4 so I think we have to be careful about what we’re actually talking about.

People forget that the conservation department have been involved in actually deciding what pieces of land we would put into the discussion document.

When it comes to concern about the profits about whether they stay in New Zealand or not, if you take a company like Newmont it brought in revenues of about $191 million into the country last year; 91% of that stayed in New Zealand.

It might surprise you to know that the headline photograph on the Toursim New Zealand website is the blue lakes in Otago.  Those lakes are there as a result of mining in the 1800s.

Probably not enough people have read the discussion document.  We don’t have endless funds to promote that.  We’re talking about one-quarter of 1% of New Zealand’s land mass in this case – a very small case.

Any suggestion that this is going to wreak havoc is utter nonsense.

There’s a lot of kiwis in the bush today as a result of the contribution of mining companies to the recovery programme and you can go across the flora and fauna in this country and find that.

I have a great love for the conservation estate in this country. I don’t want to see it destroyed in any particular way but I do think it’s a legitimate question to ask: what are we prepared to do to put more income on that side of the ledger because we’re on the back foot.

Don’t diss mining completely, we wouldn’t be having this broadcast tonight – not only would we not having the broadcast facilities but we wouldn’t have the receivers in our homes.  You cannot get up in the morning and go through a whole day without benefitting from the products, services, or otherwise from mining.”

She says “NO”. He says “YES”. Lucy Lawless versus Energy Minister Gerry Brownless on mining. Both are live in the studio.

Also tonight, it’s supposed to be a treat, not a danger to our health. What’s going on in some of our nail salons? A special hidden camera investigation reveals some shocking practices that will make you think twice before you go for a manicure or pedicure.

Plus it’s that time of the year already. The annual retailers’ toy fair. Why the paper jamz guitar, the remote control car with water pistol and golliwogs could be the hottest tickets for Christmas.