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Donald scores landslide victory in Christmas 'duck' battle

Paul O'Mahony
Paul O'Mahony - [email protected]
Donald scores landslide victory in Christmas 'duck' battle
Photo: dawnzy58/TV3

It was billed as the Christmas Eve battle of the ducks, as perennial TV ratings champion 'Kalle Anka och vänner' ('Donald Duck and Friends) was pitted against new duck in town Anna Anka. But the outspoken wife of crooner Paul Anka proved to be way out of her league.

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The annual Donal Duck-led potpourri of Disney classics that has Swedes streaming to their television sets year after year retained its undisputed top billing in 2009 as 3.3 million viewers took a seat and tuned in, media news site Resume reports.

The figures marked an increase of 100,000 on last year for Donald and his animated companions, and left little room for Swedish Hollywood wife Anna Anka, who has split the country in two since hitting TV screens this autumn.

Anka provoked outrage with comments labelling equality-conscious Swedish dads as "tragic", while expounding on the duty of women to satisfy their men sexually.

Though her remarks divided opinion, they did no harm at all to the ratings of TV3 vehicle Swedish Hollywood Wives, a development that led the channel to place Anka in direct competition with her much-loved cartoon namesake.

But the human Anka never stood a chance, pulling in a total of 167,000 viewers over the course of her show, a fraction of the Donald Duck tally for public broadcaster SVT.

TV3 head of programming Anders Knave was anything but disheartened however, claiming the channel had never expected to get within spitting distance of the cartoon duck.

"In 2008 we had 22,000 viewers at 3pm on Christmas Eve, this year we had five times that figure. We're very happy with the investment. When we repeated the programme in the evening we registered around 200,000 viewers," he told Resume.

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