Together with another boat arrival on April 22nd, the drama has inflamed a political conflict on a subject many Australians thought they had put to rest: their tolerance for refugees escaping strife in countries to the north.

ECONOMIST: An old argument starts again

For three consecutive nights this week, however, the Australian network SBS has applied the methods of the reality show genre to the thorniest of political issues - the arrival of immigrants by boat - offering viewers a fly-on-the-wall insight into both the homes of Congolese and Iraqi families, and also their troubled homelands.

BBC: Reality TV tackles immigration

Upon the friend's arrival, the two men carried Holloway's body to the boat, and the friend told van der Sloot to go home, he said.

CNN: Van der Sloot on video: No sleep lost over Holloway's dumped body

Without major initiatives from veterans or the arrival of a new upstart, it isn't clear just what would rock the boat.

ENGADGET: Netflix keeps its lead in streaming video use at home, YouTube rules the road