HD Heads-Up: August 16-22
August 7, 2014 
2 Comments
TV One’s Nashville will have its swansong five weeks short of its season finale.
The country music drama is being pulled from its 9.30 Wednesday slot on August 20 and the network is unable to say when it will return.
The only surprise about the axing is why it took so long given the series has been persistently low rating.
But it’s frustrating for fans that TV One should decide to dump Nashville when its first season has only weeks to run.
From the outset the show has been badly handled by TVNZ. Having sat in the vault for nearly two years, it was consigned to a slot where Scandal and Hostages had bombed — and where it had little hope of developing a following: after TV2’s top-rating comedy block which in recent weeks, with the even more popular My Kitchen Rules taking over at 7.30, has run through to 10.30.
Why didn’t TV One bite the bullet and see the season through? Because it’s poised to overhaul Wednesday nights completely.
Also ending their runs on August 20 are Highway Cops and Britain’s Biggest Hoarders, allowing the network to refresh its schedule from the following week — which will be the first Wednesday MKR hasn’t screened in months as the mega-cooking hit’s session finale also airs on August 20.
Expect Nashville to return for a late-night gig, where TVNZ airs other premium dramas like Southland and Shameless. (The good news for fans is TVNZ acquired Nashville through its ABC Disney output deal, so all seasons eventually will screen here.)
TV One’s also axing its Saturday Murder Mystery strand the same week, after abysmal ratings for Vera; the network’s Ford NZ Sunday Theatre season ends with Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story; and TV3 will pull the shutters down on The House That £100k Built on Tuesday.
Coming attractions in HD for the week include Superman Returns (TV2, 7.00 Saturday), The Town (TV2, 10.10 Saturday), Miss March (TV3, 10.25 Saturday), The Special Relationship (TV One, 11.20 Saturday), Employee of the Month (TV2, 2.20am Sunday), Rock of Ages (TV2, 8.30 Sunday), Shooter (TV3, 8.30 Sunday), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (TV3, 8.30 Monday) and The Green Hornet (TV2, 9.00 Friday).
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August 7, 2014 at 10:38 pm
Well this suxxs and I guess it will be replaced with a procedural or freak of the week doco! Nashville rated a lot better than the previous two shows with Hostages allowed to run its course despite its lacklustre ratings. Nashville deserves to end its season and not be dropped short of its finale. We will have to endure yet more delays! All episodes and season 2 should be up on TVNZ Ondemand or just launch a new bloody Freeview channel to play all the failed TV shows the networks give up on!
They do this to all the good shows. Thank goodness for TVNZ on Demand. That’s where I have to watch most of my favourite shows as they play too late for me. (Im up at 5am) Instead the evenings are filled with rubbish. I agree with Leo – how about a Freeview Channel with the dramas we seem to get the short deal on… so we don’t have to watch the likes of Friends (yet again). I use the off button more and more!