A vacuum cleaner for a friend: Dateline reopens its 2017 robot film on Japan
Hiroshi Ishiguro and his look-alike robot return from the SBS archive, alongside a short on what became of USAID's toilets in Liberia.
SBS DatelineStory of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
Are Robots A Cure for Japan's Loneliness Epidemic? | SBS Dateline Archives (2017)
On an ordinary day, SBS Dateline's back catalog brings in somewhere around 47,000 views, and this week ran just under that, adding a little over 320,000 in seven days while the subscriber count held at 791,000.
Two of the three new uploads went back to 2017. "Are Robots A Cure for Japan's Loneliness Epidemic?" is a full archive episode, and its chapter list reads like a short story collection: a man whose friend is a vacuum cleaner, a companion robot for empty nesters, someone dating a robot, a man who hates them, a robot suit for people with disabilities and a robot pet for the elderly. At its center is Hiroshi Ishiguro, the Osaka University roboticist famous for the Geminoid, an android built as his own double. A short clip followed two days later, pulling out the moment Dateline asked him why he made a clone of himself, with the title quoting him: he wants to look like it.
The third upload looked forward instead. Reporter Rhiona-Jade Armont went to Liberia to see what happened to a sanitation project paid for by USAID, the agency the Trump administration dismantled in 2025, after critics had held up "toilets in Africa" as a waste of money. The short points to her full film, Liberia: Dumped By America.
The archive episode is the week's quickest new video by a distance, but the real weight still sits with older reporting. A 34-day-old film on Sweden's Nordic Model, where selling sex is legal and buying it is not, has passed half a million views, and Prue Lewarne's trip into Sinaloa cartel territory, posted 27 days ago, is not far behind on daily pace.
Among documentary and journalism channels of a similar size, Dateline had one of the calmer weeks, close to the fifth estate, while Channel 4 Documentaries gathered by far the most views in the group.
Published on Trari
Read next
Is this your channel?
Share the story with your audience: in a community post, in your channel's description or on your socials. The text and the badge are ready.
You may use the picture, the badge, and link it to this story.
The videos drawing views on SBS Dateline right now
What happened to the US-funded 'toilets in Africa'? #Liberia #USAID #…3,625 views · 2026-09-30
'I want to look like my clone robot' #Japan #humanoidrobot | SBS Date…1,896 views · 2026-10-01
The Nordic Model: Legal To Sell Sex But Not Buy It | SBS Dateline503,610 views
Inside the Mexican State That Became a Drug Cartel War Zone | SBS Dat…170,396 views
- Channel
- SBS Dateline
- Subscribers
- 791,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 323,118
- Videos published this week
- 3
- Video published
- September 29, 2026
- Video views so far
- 11,884
- Views on its first day
- 4,475
The numbers
Here is how SBS Dateline's week looks in figures.
💡 Test your knowledge
Paro, the famous Japanese therapy robot used in elder care, is modeled on which animal?
Paro, developed by Japan's AIST, is a soft robotic baby harp seal designed to comfort elderly and dementia patients.
