Feast of New A-List Shows for TV3 and Four

Spy thriller The Blacklist (above) isn’t the only top drama MediaWorks will secure under its new deal with Sony Pictures Television: Hannibal also should at last rise up on to our screens.

The bad news is it will probably screen in SD on Four, where MediaWorks has consigned other outstanding HD horror series, namely American Horror Story and the pending Bates Motel.

Then again, if MediaWorks is aggressively pursuing new programming opportunities such as the Sony pact, it also may be revisiting the possibility of upgrading Four to HD.

Along with a beefed-up schedule with new content from a resurgent Sony, HD would bolster Four’s appeal against TVNZ’s HD youth channel, TV2.

However, there’s no doubt that the pick of Sony’s slate, The Blacklist, will air in HD in TV3, most likely after Homeland given both series go to air within a week of one another late September in the US.

Teaming them so close to the US playdate would provide TV3 with a dynamite adult drama double-bill on Mondays after The Block NZ.

Whereas TV3 gambled heavily on Homeland (and won) and The Americans (and lost), The Blacklist may be its best new drama hope yet given its plum time slot on NBC’s schedule: after The Voice

Writing in the trade paper WorldScreen, veteran industry observer Elizabeth Guider reported foreign buyers at the LA Screenings thought The Blacklist was easily “the top ticket” on Sony’s slate.

“Several buyers also said it was ‘a plus’ to see just how much Sony has bulked up with additional network shows on offer.”

In addition to the shows MediaWorks already announced — Rake, The Michael J Fox Show (which was greenlit for 22 episodes without a pilot), Us & Them — the Sony deal will deliver TV3 (or Four) the comedies The Goldbergs, Welcome to the Family and Bad Teacher.

TV2 will air the original Bad Teacher movie in HD on August 4 and, according to Guider, several buyers who had seen the pilot called it “hilarious” and “outrageous”.

It stars Fringe’s Ari Graynor (right) as a sexy, foul-mouthed divorceé who becomes a teacher to find her next husband.

Meanwhile, the New York Times quoted a top ad media buyer describing ‘80s comedy The Goldbergs, which stars Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Garlin, “having a Modern Family meets The Wonder Years feel to it” and praised it as “the most promising” of the new comedies.

That would make it a natural fit for the next season of Modern Family, although a tough time slot in the US may limit its longevity.

The last of Sony’s new dramas, Night Shift, is described as an ensemble medical show about the late shift at a San Antonio hospital and stars Revolution’s Daniella Alonso, CSI: Miami’s Brendan Fehr, Lost’s Ken Leung and Six Feet Under’s Freddy Rodriguez.