477,000 Kiwis tuned into Gloriavale documentary

NZ Herald

10 Aug, 2015 02:23 AM2 mins to read

Residents of Gloriavale make food for the community. Photo / TVNZ

Last night's Gloriavale documentary on TV2 was a ratings winner, with 477,000 Kiwis tuning in for a look into the lives of members of the secretive Christian community.

The show was the second of a three part series, which has scored $459,033 from the taxpayer through NZ On Air.

Last night's episode used $170,000 of the total. The first part of the series, Gloriavale: A World Apart, aired in July 2014 and cost taxpayers $119,033.

Just over 11 per cent of New Zealanders aged over five watched last night's show, according to Nielsen data, compared to just 224,700 (5 per cent) who tuned into TV One's Indian Summers and 254,900 (6%) who watched The Heat on TV3.

On the TVNZ website the documentary producer and director, Amanda Evans said production company Pacific Screen had cultivated a relationship with the secretive community over many years.

"Viewers may well find aspects of life here hard to understand or accept. However there's no denying the extraordinary things the community is able to achieve as they work together bound by their strong faith and a really strict set of rules. In 21st century New Zealand there's nothing quite like it."

But in an opinion piece in today's Herald, Paul Casserly (who directed satire current affairs show Eating Media Lunch) called the documentary makers' choice to put aside awkward questions about leader Neville Cooper's (now Hopeful Christian) criminal convictions "a delicate dance that easily sashays into propaganda."