Grand Designs and Blacklist Top of TV3’s New Season List

TV3 will use The Block NZ: Villa Wars to launch a NZ version of housemate Grand Designs, new drama Satisfaction and the return of The Blacklist.

The premieres are part of a scheduling overhaul that will see The Block NZ stripped Sunday-Wednesday, the rebirth of 3D on 9.30 Mondays after Heroes Reborn, and new episodes of The Graham Norton Show and 7 Days.

Grand Designs NZ will air 8.30 Sundays from October 4 on a double-bill with relationship drama Satisfaction.

The latter went to air a year ago in the US, where it was favourably reviewed and popular enough to spawn a second season.

“At its best, it’s a well-acted, surprisingly clear-eyed look at the inconsistent relationship between passion and enduring love, and the innovative ways in which people bend their own rules to accommodate their need for pleasure,” the Los Angeles Times said.

“At its worse, it’s a morally and narratively contrived excuse to watch a very entitled Everyman navigate a world of rich but unhappy women, including his own wife and daughter.”

Screening much closer to its US transmission will be The Blacklist, which will replace Humans on October 6 on a double-bill with 7 Days of Sport (which premieres a week earlier).

Fans should expect “a different feel” to Blacklist’s third season, says executive producer John Eisendrath while creator Jon Bokenkamp stops short of calling it a reinvention: “It is a great shot of adrenaline. There’s a real energy and urgency, and it came from an organic place.”

Guesting on the October 9 premiere of Graham Norton’s 18th season are Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard and comedian Bill Bailey.

3D’s relocation to 9.30 Monday could be the struggling current affairs half-hour’s last chance to succeed.

It will be teamed with Aussie HD newsmag Inside Story, which bombed when TV3 tested it in primetime a few weeks ago.

TV3 will screen the network premiere of The Croods at 7.00 on October 3, ahead of HD re-runs of Mel Gibson’s The Patriot and It’s Kind of a Funny Story. TV2 also has two network premieres that weekend: Monsters University (6.25 Sunday) and Star Trek Into Darkness (8.30 Sunday). The network’s HD move re-runs include Orphan (12.25am Sunday), Love Happens (2.40am Sunday) and The Crazies (12.10am Monday).