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Design: Tina Tiller
Design: Tina Tiller

Pop CultureAugust 28, 2022

The secrets behind Country Calendar’s remarkable longevity

Design: Tina Tiller
Design: Tina Tiller

New Zealanders just can’t get enough of a 56-year-old TV show about farming. Tara Ward asked longtime Country Calendar producer Julian O’Brien why.

In July, peaceful documentary series Hyundai Country Calendar featured an episode that shocked viewers around the country. It followed Geoff and Justine Ross, owners of Lake Hāwea Station in Central Otago, and initially seemed like any other gentle Country Calendar journey into rural New Zealand. Like other farmers the show has profiled over the years, the Rosses were passionate about living on the land and wanted to do things differently. This included regenerative planting and some unconventional ways of improving animal welfare, like playing classical music in the shearing shed and providing soft mattresses for freshly-shorn sheep to land on.

Those little sheep mattresses were the last straw. Viewers flocked to Country Calendar’s Facebook page to express their outrage, voicing their objections to the “wokeness” of the episode and accusing the show of abandoning “real farming” for stories about wealthy urban entrepreneurs. Some announced they’d turned their televisions off in disgust, while others declared it the worst episode of Country Calendar they had ever seen.

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All of a sudden people were talking about humble old Country Calendar with a furious fervour usually reserved for All Blacks losses. Series producer Julian O’Brien knew viewers would be surprised by the Lake Hāwea story, but he was taken aback by the “vociferousness” of the online response. Country Calendar had previously featured stories on regenerative farming without experiencing any backlash, but this was different. This was something he had never seen before.

After 56 quiet years on our screens, Country Calendar was suddenly the most controversial show on New Zealand television.

A musterer at work (Photo: TVNZ/ Roz Mason)

Since 1966, Country Calendar has been a soft mattress for New Zealand television viewers to land on. What began as a 14-minute rural news bulletin for farmers has grown into appointment viewing, a placid yet inspiring show that celebrates the diversity of New Zealand’s farming industry. O’Brien thinks it’s extraordinary that Country Calendar is our longest running and arguably most beloved programme. “If somebody was to put a proposal to NZ On Air or TVNZ to make the show now, it would be ‘that doesn’t sound very exciting’. We wouldn’t ever get it across the line.”

Figures supplied by TVNZ confirms we love watching farmers talk about their lives almost as much as we love the Country Calendar theme song. The show consistently ranks in the country’s top five highest rating programmes across all viewers ages 5+, and during the past five years, each episode has reached over three quarters of a million viewers. Most surprisingly, Country Calendar bucks the yearly trend of falling television audiences, pulling a larger audience now than it did in the pre-Covid environment of 2019.

But it’s not only traditional television audiences who are hooked on rural life. Last year, online viewers watched a record 1.1 million streams on TVNZ+, a massive 43% year-on-year growth from 2020. Nearly 900,000 streams have already been generated this year, and two of every five of those are episodes from previous seasons, proving that Country Calendar remains popular with viewers long after the episodes screen on broadcast television. Even dogs get excited about it. We’re a nation of thirsty beasts with our heads in the Country Calendar trough, and it seems like we’ll never be full.

Country Calendar producer Julian O’Brien (Photo: TVNZ / Ivars Berzins)

Julian O’Brien first joined Country Calendar as a reporter-director in 1985, and began producing the show in 2006, watching the show grow from 12 episodes a year to the current 40. It’s our nation’s television love affair that shows no signs of slowing down, and O’Brien reckons that’s all down to our relationship with the land. With the majority of New Zealanders living in towns and cities, O’Brien says Country Calendar connects us to a world many of us can’t easily access. “I think it helps to provide a little window into rural life that people want, but don’t have an easy way to achieve.”

Those high ratings prove Country Calendar isn’t just a show for the rural community  “To be honest, if only farmers watched the show, it probably wouldn’t exist,” O’Brien says. With just under 50,000 farms in New Zealand, O’Brien says the reality is more people are watching Country Calendar in Parnell or Te Atatū than in rural Paeroa, something his team is always conscious of. “We try to pitch the show in a way that farmers won’t feel like we’re teaching them to suck eggs, but at the same time, city people don’t go ‘I don’t understand this’,” he says. “That’s always a bit of a delicate balance, but I think the numbers show we get it pretty right.”

The key to the show’s success, O’Brien reckons, is that it lets rural people tell their own stories. There’s nothing flashy about Country Calendar and usually nothing showy about the people they profile. While the rest of the world has changed around it, Country Calendar is made today in much the same way it’s always been, and O’Brien is proud of the show’s traditional craft. It uses simple, observational storytelling anchored in some of New Zealand’s most spectacular landscapes, and rather than making a lifestyle series, O’Brien says it’s crucial they present the realities of rural life. That way, the audience knows the show is authentic, and that they’re choosing to spend time with “good people who won’t have the piss taken out of them”.

Longtime Country Calendar fans have fond memories of vintage episodes like the 1974 Fred Dagg special or the iconic spoofs, but O’Brien reckons the old shows might not be as gripping as people remember. Perhaps they’re part of our collective nostalgia for a simpler time when farming was farming and fences serenaded the nation, but these days, Country Calendar is more likely to feature stories about sustainability and climate change. The show continues to innovate and evolve where it can, and the current season features a Northland pineapple orchard, a pāua farmer on Rakiura Stewart Island, and the iwi owners of an East Coast beef and sheep farm.

Spearfishers Andrew Bassett, Tim-Barnett, Sam Wild and Milan Ritschny, from a 2022 episode of Country Calendar (Photo: TVNZ / Celia Jaspers)

Every Sunday night, the show takes us to corners of Aotearoa we might never have seen before, and the Country Calendar team wants each episode to appear artless. “We want it to look as though we were just driving past a farm and went, ‘I wonder what goes on there’ and they turned out to be quite friendly and said, ‘come and have a look’,” O’Brien says. Of course, the reality is different, and it’s a challenge to turn around 40 episodes every year while making each one feel gentle and unhurried. “Making something that looks artless requires a lot of care.”

Of course, the response to the Lake Hāwea Station episode was anything but gentle. “I think it tapped into the feeling among a lot of rural people that nobody cares about them anymore,” O’Brien theorises, adding that although the Rosses didn’t set out to lecture people, they did say they were determined to do things differently. “I think a lot of people interpreted that as being lectured by city people, even though the Rosses aren’t city people. It is a growing feeling at the moment in the rural community that everyone’s slightly against them.”

Hossack Downs, featured in a 2022 episode of Country Calendar (Photo: TVNZ / Richard Langston)

O’Brien is optimistic about the controversy, in the same way that Country Calendar is always upbeat about farming. He feels that any response – even negative – is a sign that New Zealanders feel ownership of the show. It also means he doesn’t see Country Calendar going anywhere soon. “There will always be a demand for good storytelling about New Zealanders from other New Zealanders,” he says. “As long as we can be true to the origins of the show and meet that demand, then I think it’s very likely to be around in 20 years time, maybe more.”

Our enduring love affair with the sedate farming show looks set to continue, sheep mattresses and all. “People are fundamentally interested in other people,” O’Brien says, adding that most of Country Calendar’s stories are about New Zealanders getting on with things in “their own quiet way”. It’s ordinary people doing interesting things, and that’s what makes the show special.  “It’s just very nice after half an hour of watching Country Calendar to go ‘what great people, what a great thing they’re doing,’” O’Brien says. “Country Calendar isn’t rural current affairs, it’s personality profiles, and I think people do like watching it.”

Hyundai Country Calendar screens on Sunday nights at 7pm on TVNZ1 and streams on TVNZ+.

Keep going!
There are many queens, but there’s only one Kween. (Photo: TVNZ)
There are many queens, but there’s only one Kween. (Photo: TVNZ)

Pop CultureAugust 27, 2022

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under power rankings: Girl group glory

There are many queens, but there’s only one Kween. (Photo: TVNZ)
There are many queens, but there’s only one Kween. (Photo: TVNZ)

A frontrunner emerges thanks to another classic Drag Race challenge.

Just past the halfway mark in the season, we’re treated to an episode with at least a couple standout moments.

Firstly Minnie Cooper ends her run on the show with an instantly legendary lipstick message: “Thank you, Spankie, Kween and Yuri for being so kind.” Yes, effectively singling out the three other girls left for being anything but. Any drag queen can shit stir within the workroom; it takes a queen with a PhD in drama to do it after she’s left.

Secondly, we get to the reading mini-challenge which really puts the emphasis on “challenge”. These queens, with the exception of Kween and Hannah, don’t know how to read. An insult without a punchline is not a read, and a proposition is also not a read. We live and we learn, alas.

The main challenge is the classic girl group challenge. It’s a classic for a reasons: it tests the contestant’s ability to write a verse, choreograph a dance routine, remember that choreography, and most crucially, work with others in a team. Regardless of the end result, the girl group challenge is always a highlight of a season. Drag Race is a show where the ability to learn choreography is roughly as important as the line of succession in House of the Dragon, and that’s why we love it.

Molly Poppinz, Beverly Kills and Yuri Guaii in the girl group challenge. (Photo: TVNZ)

The teams are decided almost immediately – Beverly, Molly and Yuri on one, Hannah, Kween and Spankie on the other – and, well, the winners are pretty much decided there and then. Beverly outdances her group but underperforms her verse, Yuri completely fades into the background, Molly nails the verse but not the choreography. Hannah, Kween and Spankie nail everything, sorry to say.

Ultimately, the challenge quite clearly shows who is likely to stay in the competition and who isn’t. The song, ‘Bosom Buddies’ as per Drag Race, sounds like a homosexual fax machine, albeit a higher end one.

The runway theme is belts, buckles and chains and honestly, it’s another fantastic one – this may be one of the most consistently great runway seasons ever [citation needed, I don’t watch every franchise, OK?]. If there’s anything to criticise it over, it’s that everybody performs just as expected. Kween is regal and high-fashion, Spankie is rough but full of character, Hannah is expensive and editorial, Molly is less expensive and less editorial, Beverly is a little off in both concept and execution, and Yuri is delightfully out-of-the-box.

Kween, Spankie and Hannah all deservedly win the challenge, Beverly’s fiery performance saves her from the bottom, and we’re left with Molly and Yuri in the bottom two. They lip-sync to ‘Chains (S&M Remix)’ by Tina Arena. I pretty much assume that every Australian queen has lip-synced to ‘Chains’ no fewer than 200 times, so it’s no surprise that Molly has a step up on Yuri, who seems to vibe with the music but not the actual lyrics of the song.

And so…

Yuri Guaii and Molly Poppinz lip-sync to the death. (Photo: TVNZ)

ELIMINATED: Yuri Guaii

Yuri Guaii, Yuri gone.

Sometimes an elimination is sad, but not necessarily surprising. Would I have personally sent Yuri home? Nope, I would’ve chosen Beverly Kills – I really think we’ve seen everything she has to offer, as we’ll see below, and she’s falling behind what feels like a pretty locked-in top four. But if you bomb the reading challenge, mess up the main challenge, get outshone on the runway, and don’t nail the lip-sync, you get sent home. Yuri should be proud of her showing though. She’s come far enough, the internet loves her, and I hope her booking fee goes up a healthy amount!

Beverly Kills

5. Beverly Kills

Oh, Beverly. This is why 21 year olds shouldn’t do television. The editors do her dirty this episode by letting her list off every line that has come to define an also-ran – “it’s every bitch for herself”, “I’m ready to show who I am”, “I don’t have a win yet”, “I’m a lip-sync assassin”, “I’m a brilliant dancer”. There’s no question that Beverly is a talented queen, but it takes more than talent to win Drag Race – it takes an attitude that she doesn’t have yet. Which is fair, she’s 21. When I was 21, I couldn’t string a damn sentence together, let alone learn choreography.

On the flipside: This is why 21 year olds should do television. An audience loves to see hubris brought down to size, and Beverly builds herself up as precariously as a house made of sand, only to be brought down swiftly by Kong, and then again by a bottom two placement. The workroom next week is going to be… interesting.

(Also, I hated this quadruple denim runway, but that doesn’t really play into it all that much for me.)

Molly Poppinz

4. Molly Poppinz

Molly is actually quite clearly the star of her group – she so conspicuously nails the rap in one take that Michelle has to explain that they only need to record line-by-line if the timing/attitude is off, verbally pointing to both Beverly and Yuri while she does so. But she’s the second worst out of three, which puts her in the bottom two, where she pretty easily notches a win. Unless something wild happens, I can’t imagine her not making the top four, but this is Drag Race, and a whole lot of things could happen. Hell, they might bring Art Simone back again!

Hannah Conda

3. Hannah Conda

This episode made me like Hannah! Her understanding that this was Kween Kong’s moment to shine, and stepping aside, was really nice. She did well in the challenge, great on the runway, and well, is almost definitely in the top three unless she messes it up.

Spankie Jackzon

2. Spankie Jackzon

There’s not a lot to say about Spankie that I haven’t said in previous weeks. She slays both challenge and runway (she’d be a contender for the win if not for, well, the headline of this piece), and despite the fact that her look is ill-fitting, everybody loves her for it. It speaks to her greatness that the judges don’t criticise her roughness, but now understand it as part of the package. Still a contender, still here to win, if not for…

Kween Kong.

WINNER: Kween Kong

I’m calling it now: Kween has gotta win this season. And if she doesn’t? Well, then we’ve got a great future All Stars winner.

Kween not only had the best read of the challenge – “Hannah Conda thank you so much for sharing your concerns about the past. Yes, you are an asshole, but since then you’ve really moved forward. You’re a…” – you can finish the rest, I’m sure. She also defused conflict with Beverly in, gasp, a mature way, by straightforwardly stating she didn’t appreciate being talked to in a certain way, didn’t like being projected onto, and frankly, didn’t appreciate her character being questioned. “I just was not here for you yesterday” is, honestly, some of the best reality show conflict resolution I’ve ever seen.

The thing that Kween has which I think puts above the rest of the competition? Kongfidence (sorry). She absolutely glows throughout the main challenge, looks as good as an All Star contestant on her Mean Girls-inspired runway, and asserts herself beautifully in the workroom. That screams winner, and even better, it screams fan favourite.