HD Heads-Up: April 4-10
March 26, 2015 
5 Comments
TV2 will try to rebuild its Wednesday comedy block with the return of The Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke Girls.
They will resume their traditional 8.30 and 9.00 slots from April 8.
TV2 has been deploying them as an 8.30 Sunday double-bill to try to bolster lead-out Gotham but that hasn’t worked, with both comedies proving competitive but shedding viewers.
The effect has been to destabilise with weaker comedies TV2’s midweek block, which was once unassailable, while failing to significantly strengthen Sundays.
Don’t be surprised if TV2 revamps Sundays after Easter Weekend with movies and the new Thunderbirds series as the shiny lead-in to a 7.30 comedy hour.
TV2 said earlier this month it would screen Thunderbirds Are Go close to the UK, where it blasts off on April 15 4, and producer Pukeko Pictures has confirmed this.
However, there’s no word on what will happen to Wednesday comedies Mom and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season two of which only launched last night.
Expect Mom to return to its 7.30 Wednesday berth when Two and a Half Men completes its double-episode run but it’s hard to see where TV2 would slot B99 given it’s not strong enough for an earlier showcase (the network simply says it will screen at a later date).
Another Wednesday casualty, Marry Me, will be repeated back-to-back on Easter Sunday (TV2, 10.45) but it’s not been decided when or where the rest of the series will run out.
TBBT and 2BK aren’t the only changes to Wednesdays — the same week TV2 will replace Agent Carter with season two of Resurrection at 10.30.
This series originally rated gangbusters when it aired 8.30 Thursdays but viewers quickly lost interest, to the point where TV2’s relegating it to off-peak.
Variety said the first season of this “zombie version of Brothers & Sisters” had “one of the more intriguing pilot concepts in recent memory, which gradually spiraled out of control and now returns (pardon the expression) seemingly desperate to hit the reset button.
“Yet the latest contortions don’t work, suggesting this is one of those concepts tailor-made to a limited series – one in which the trip to the Great Beyond should rightfully be a one-way affair.”
Also new for the week starting April 4 are Hyundai Country Calendar (TV1, 7.00 Saturday) and Secret Life of Cats (TV1, 7.00 Sunday).
“Did you know your pet moggy can spot a mouse scratch 30ft away, can boost your immune system and has the balance of a ballerina?” The Mirror asked.
“These are just some of the brilliant facts you’ll pick up from Secret Life of Cats, ITV’s new show that uses revolutionary filming techniques to show a side to our moggy mates you’ve never seen before.”
“These tales were sweet,” The Telegraph said, “but did they really justify narrator Martin Clunes’s talk of ‘a super-normal sense’ and ‘awe-inspiring’ qualities? I don’t think so.
“Clunes hyped his feline friends so much I felt let-down that the cats didn’t sprout capes after the umpteenth declaration of their other-worldly powers.”
For the second week running, TV3 will air the two-hour live performance of The X Factor NZ on a Monday night (pre-empting The Blacklist), with the results show to follow 7.30 Tuesday (with an 8.30 broadcast of The Bachelor NZ pre-empting NCIS).
Otherwise, one of the channel’s most lucrative franchises would have aired on a non-commercial (Easter Sunday) night.
Screening instead on Sunday will be a 7.00 re-run of Avatar, followed by the 9.40 network HD premiere of Savages.
Also having their free-to-air HD premieres are Safe Haven (TV2, 8.35 Saturday), Oz The Great And Powerful (TV2, 7.00 Sunday) and Kath & Kimderella (TV2, 9.45 Sunday).
Other HD coming attractions that week include: Valiant (TV2, 7.00 Saturday), Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane (TV1, 10.35 Saturday), Rabbit Hole (TV2, 1.35am Sunday), The Debt (TV3, 1.35am Sunday), Another Earth (TV3, 3.30am Sunday), Waking Sleeping Beauty (TV2, 3.15am Sunday), Happy Feet (TV2, 5.10 Sunday), The Help (TV2, 8.30 Monday), The Heartbreak Kid (TV3, 8.30 Wednesday), Flight of the Phoenix (TV3, 8.50 Thursday) and The Hunger Games (TV2, 8.30 Friday).
Lastly, and as first reported here, TV1 is to start broadcasting highlights of the PGA and LPGA tours.
Rounds three and four of the Shell Houston Open will screen late-night on April 5-6, presumably in HD, although this has still to be confirmed.
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March 26, 2015 at 9:02 am
Anyone know when Agents of SHIELD is coming back on? I see it stared in the US on March 3.
TVNZ Ondemand says it’s returning “soon”. Chances are it may turn up OD first as it’s unlikely to resurface on TV2 until Gotham ends its run. It looks as if TV2 will be pushing Gotham back to 10.30 after Easter, and presumably will maintain late-night Sunday as its super hero slot for shows that aren’t heroic enough for primetime. They tested the first half of SHIELD’s second season at 9.30 Sunday close to its US broadcast and on the back of Gotham but the ratings for both didn’t justify continuing that strategy this year. Similarly, moving Gotham to 9.30 hasn’t paid off, either, so expect TV2 to next month resume its 8.30 Sunday movies, which traditionally rate well.
Thunderbirds Are Go! has been moved forward a week in the UK, airing the first two episodes on April 4th.The NZ premiere is a week later on April 12th, at which point the UK would have seen the third episode, putting us two weeks behind. Unless TV2 push back the start of Galavant by one week, which is do-able since it’s only eight episodes long.
Thanks for the update, Brad. There are more hot-off-the-press details here.
About time TV2 gets a makeover and thank you for also what is on-demand. Will they air on the channels and when?