Can TVNZ 1 Foster Interest in Doctor Dud?

TVNZ 1 hopes to take Doctor Foster off life support by resurrecting the season-two premiere on Saturday night.

After being all but DOA on Monday at 8.30, the network is banking on picking up more viewers by repeating the premiere after its time slot-winning Saturday edition of The X Factor UK — and thereby boosting viewership of episode two.

The hastily scheduling gambit means the Suranne Jones drama will pre-empt the re-run of Wild New Zealand previously slated for 8.35 Saturday, which will push back Coronation Street to 9.50 and When We Rise to 10.45.

Wild NZ will return the following weekend to begin its well-deserved primetime re-run.

TVNZ 1’s strategy for Doctor Foster seemed flawed from the start. Even when stripped across consecutive nights early last year, the series never developed the momentum that was expected.

That experience should have made series two a better fit for 9.30 Sunday or 8.30 Thursday or even 8.30 Saturday, when a half-decent drama slot against movie re-runs on TVNZ 2 and Three could improve TVNZ 1’s viewership.

Further undermining the 8.30 Monday strategy was the decision to put the entire second season online at tvnz.co.nz.

So if the show did have a fan base to exploit, those viewers would have binge-watched it on-demand rather than endure it on weekly drip-feed.