HD Heads-up: April 3 – 9

March 25, 2021 0 Comments

➢➢ The Thursday night ratings battle map is being redrawn, with TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2 and Three rolling out the big guns after Easter. TVNZ 1 will anchor the night with former Three hit Grand Designs UK at 7.30 opposite Three’s premiere of the US version of the mini golf sensation Holey Moley. The latter will lead into new seasons of 7 Days and New Zealand Today, which will push back the struggling Graham Norton Show to 9.30 …

➢➢ Norton’s popularity has declined since Three switched the chat show from its long-established Friday night slot to Thursdays — a gambit that was undermined by format changes due to COVID-19 production restrictions that robbed the series of much of its appeal. Appearing on the first 9.30 Thursday broadcast will be Amy Poehler, Nick Jonas, Leonie Elliott, Rob Beckett, Jennifer Garner and Tom Odell …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 will overhaul Thursdays with new episodes of Motorway Patrol at 8.00, Renters at 8.30 and Hoarders at 9.30. It’s also relocating A Current Affair from 7.00 Sundays, where it bombed from the outset, to 9.00 Thursdays. Hammocking ACA between two hits sounds like a last-ditch bid to justify its primetime retention …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 also will refresh Wednesdays with the 8.30 premiere of the Bill Bailey-fronted trans-Tasman panel show Patriot Brains, in which Kiwi and Aussie comedians test each other to find out who knows their country best. It will air ahead of a new season of Would I Lie to You? at 9.30 and after a 7.30 Motorway Patrol special that recycles some of the most unbelievable moments from previous seasons; there also will be a same-week 8.40 Friday repeat …

➢➢ Said one British reviewer of Three’s 7.25 Easter Sunday special, Prince William: A Planet For Us All: “It’s easy to be cynical, but I found it surprisingly moving“. It will screen opposite TVNZ 1’s repeat of Bradley Walsh: Happy 60th Birthday. Originally TVNZ 1 planned to premiere Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights in this slot …

➢➢ Other Easter Weekend highlights will include an hour-long episode of Shortland Street (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Monday), all-new The Chase Bloopers (TVNZ 1, 7.00 Monday), The Bachelor & Bachelorette NZ Tell All (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Monday), The Bachelor & Bachelorette NZ After Party (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Tuesday), and more of the dated Bill Bailey specials that TVNZ must have done as a package deal with Patriot Brains: Dandelion Mind (Duke, 8.30 Saturday), Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra (Duke, 8.10 Sunday) and Tinselworm (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday) …

➢➢ Ahead of the Masters golf tournament, Prime will air part one of the HBO Tiger Woods documentary Tiger (8.30 Thursday) …

➢➢ Also new in the week starting April 3 will be the return of Line of Duty, but on a new channel (TVNZ 1, 9.05 Sunday), S3 of Manifest (TVNZ 1, 11.05 Monday), S7 of NCIS: New Orleans (Prime, 8.30 Friday) and Interior Design Masters With Alan Carr (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Friday), in which 10 aspiring interior designers compete in a commercial design challenge to redesign Oxfordshire show homes …

➢➢ Ending their runs that week will be Tipping Point: Lucky Stars, Chasing Monsters, The Walking Dead, Traffic Cops and Between Two Worlds …

➢➢ Network movie premieres for the first week of April will include Hunter Killer (Three, 8.40 Saturday), Parasite (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday) and Stories We Tell (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday). Among the week’s other HD coming attractions: