HD Heads-Up: August 8 – 14
July 30, 2020 
7 Comments
➢➢ TVNZ 2 will use two new light entertainment shows to refresh Thursday and Friday nights. Last Dad Standing (8.00 Thursdays from August 13) is a stand-up competition for Kiwi fathers that should be a big hit given it’s the lead-out for top-rating Police Ten 7; Michael McIntyre’s Big Show (7.30 Fridays from August 14) replaces the low-rating Fear Factor as a more compatible lead-in for 8 Out of 10 Cats. It will resume from season five, with guests Liam Payne, of One Direction, and Bear Grylls …
➢➢ Meanwhile, after only a few weeks on air, TVNZ 1 is demoting glossy crime caper The Mallorca Files to 9.30 Fridays from August 14, following the umpteenth SD re-run of Miranda at 9.00 …
➢➢ Returning for new seasons the same week will be The Split (TVNZ 1, 9.50 Saturdays), Knightfall (Prime, 9.45 Tuesdays), Paranormal Caught on Camera (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Wednesdays), Gino’s Italian Express (TVNZ 1, 9.00 Thursdays) and, on a new channel, Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Wednesdays) …
➢➢ Ending their runs that 
week will be The Mayor and Ordeal by Innocence …
➢➢ Chuck Lorre’s latest, Bob Hearts Abishola, will join TVNZ 2’s weekend sitcom graveyard (4.10 Sundays from August 9). About a businessman who falls for his cardiac nurse, a Nigerian immigrant, it lasted only 10 weeks it’s been renewed for a second season on CBS. Reviews were mixed, with some hailing it as groundbreaking and others as grating …
➢➢ Dogs: An Amazing Animal Family (Maori TV, 8.30 Tuesdays from August 11) explores how the fastest, strongest and most unusual looking dogs on the planet were bred from their wild wolf relatives. Quipped The Guardian: “It’s like Who Do You Think You Are?, but for dogs” …
➢➢ Prime will use a new season of Living With Tourettes (8.30 Wednesdays from August 12) to relaunch Honey Wars (9.30) ahead of the premiere of Weediquette (10.00). Two episodes of Honey Wars already have aired in a Sunday slot while Weediquette is a 2016 Viceland TV series about the science, culture and economics of legalising marijuana in the US …
➢➢ Tourettes will face off against Three’s reinstatement of Emergency, the Australian reality series that last month was pre-empted by local drama Head High after the latter flopped on Sunday nights …
➢➢ Three is dropping The Graham Norton Show from its Thursday line-up. Since switching from Friday nights, the chat show has struggled to maintain viewers, due to stronger TVNZ competition and COVID-19’s impact forcing an unpopular format change. Rather than persevere with low-rating repeats, Three is soon to revamp the night but will re-run a movie as a stop-gap measure on August 13. As a result, Norton lead-outs Mean Mums and Golden Boy will shift to 11.35 Friday, pre-empting the Millionaire Hot Seat repeat …
➢➢ There will be three network movie premieres in the second week of August: Swallows and Amazons (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday), Game Night (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday), The Wife (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday) and Mortal Engines (Three, 7.30 Friday) …
➢ ➢ Other HD coming attractions will include:
- Marmaduke (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
- Hot Tub Time Machine (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Saturday)
- Jaws 3 (Three, 8.30 Saturday)
- Shutter (Duke, 8.30 Saturday)
- Inception (TVNZ 2, 10.30 Saturday)
- The Birth of a Nation (Three, 10.35 Saturday)
- RocknRolla (TVNZ 2, 1.05am Sunday)
- The Boss (Three, 8.45 Sunday)
- The Exorcist (TVNZ 2, 10.30 Sunday)
- Scooby-Doo! Shaggy’s Showdown (TVNZ 2, 2am Monday)
- Edge of Tomorrow (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
- Amy (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday)
- Red Eye (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
- Shooter (Three, 8.30 Thursday)
- Epic Movie (Duke, 8.30 Friday).
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July 30, 2020 at 9:51 am
Not sure where you got your info about Bob Hearts Abishola, Philip, but it ran for a full season of 20 episodes on CBS, the end was cut short because of Covid, and has been renewed for a second season
Thanks for the correction, Tony. I’d love to blame the source but I didn’t properly read the description on Rotten Tomatoes. It listed only 10 eps but had a pointer to load more that I overlooked.
I notice Mortal Engines is number 2 on Netflix for New Zealand so it should be a popular movie for Three. Also just watched Shazam on Neon, it’s such a fun movie 🙂
I loved Shazam, too, Trevor, and am surprised Three’s running off the network premiere of Mortal Engines on a low-rating Friday night rather than 8.30 Sunday.
Yes, it does sound like a strange decision, perhaps they thought it wouldn’t be very popular … Not knowing much about Shazam, I loved how the whole family got together, sweet 🙂
Mortal Engines was a terribly convoluted piece of work. It bombed at the box office not making its costs and its Rotten Tomato ratings are an accurate reflection, IMHO, of the quality of the movie. For it to rank No 2 on Netflix says more about Netflix than it does about Mortal Engines.
The movie’s a mess all right, Mike, but I’m still surprised that Three is writing off the FTA premiere of a high profile Peter Jackson production with fantastic visuals to a Friday night slot. Plenty of movies just as bad have had their first airings on Sunday nights. Quality has never been a measure of popularity in primetime.