HD Heads-Up: April 5

➢ Stripped reality programming has long been a mainstay of free-to-air TV but now the networks are starting to expand the strategy to drama, too. TVNZ 1 experimented with airing the first season of Doctor Foster across the week and now TVNZ 2 is attempting something similar with two of its dramas: season two of The Is Us will air 9.45 Wednesdays and 9.30 Thursdays from April 18, and new medical drama, The Resident, 8.30 Mondays and Tuesdays from the following week. TVNZ looks set to pair the latter with twice-weekly episodes of the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy, to create a two-hour hospital block. Meanwhile, season four of How to Get Away With Murder already airs 11.45 Mondays and Tuesdays, and the network will be repeating First Dates New Zealand, which airs 8.30 Thursdays from April 19, late-night Fridays …

➢ Another new TVNZ 2 drama, Clique, will screen 11.45 Wednesdays from April 18. The Guardian dubbed it a “madly seductive student thriller from Skins writer Jess Brittain that will hook you in – whatever age-box you tick” while the New Statesman argued it “hides a brutal takedown of fake feminism inside a sly thriller” …

➢ TVNZ 2 at last will premiere extra-terrestrial comedy People of Earth on April 20. Despite having run for two seasons in the US, where it was favourably reviewed, the network is consigning it to 12.45am Saturdays (tvnz.co.nz already has streamed both seasons but this will be your first chance to view them in full HD) …

➢ Three’s 9JKL will resurface for a 2.30 Saturdays run from April 14, in-between the seventh and final season of New Girl and fast-tracked episodes of The Goldbergs …

➢ Another primetime sitcom that seems to have been written off to off-peak, Prime’s Superior Donuts, will screen as the new Monday-to-Wednesday lead-in for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert from April 16 …

➢ Three’s latest All Star Family Feud special, Jono & Ben vs. 7 Days – The Decider (April 16, 7.30), will pit Jono Pryor, Ben Boyce, Guy Williams and Laura Daniel against Jeremy Corbett, Ben Hurley, Paul Ego and Urzila Carlson …

➢ On April 15, TVNZ 2 will double-bill the network movie premieres of The Good Dinosaur (7.00) and The Shallows (8.45) while Maori TV will debut Rush on April 20 (8.30). Other HD coming attractions that week include:

• 101 Dalmatians (TVNZ 2, 5.,00 Saturday)
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Despicable Me (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Expendables 2 (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Saturday)
• The Lovely Bones (Three, 8.50 Saturday)
• Scary Movie 3 (TVNZ 2, 10.30 Saturday)
• Hidden Camera (Three, 11.15 Saturday)
• Penguins of Madagascar (Three, 7.00 Sunday)
• The Change-Up (Three, 8.50 Sunday)
• The Fault In Our Stars (Three, 1.00 Monday)
• 21 Jump Street (Three, 8.30 Monday)
• Fracture (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Sweet Home Carolina (Three, 1.05 Tuesday)
• Iron Man 3 (TVNZ 2, 8.45 Tuesday)
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Three, 8.30 Thursday)
• Summer Dreams (Three, 1.00 Friday).