HD Heads-Up: December 6-12

November 27, 2025 0 Comments

➢➢ With The Floor Australia having already streamed on ThreeNow, Three is going back to the US original with host Rob Lowe (7.00 Friday). It’s billed as a “spectacular battle of the brains” in which 81 contestants stand on 81 squares on a massive floor to try to win US$250,000. Reality Blurred reckons “clever visual duels separate it from typical game shows”. Season 1 went to air on Fox in January 2024 and hit its stride eight months later with S2, driving multi-platform growth for the broadcaster. Reported Deadline: “Lowe attributes much of the success of The Floor to its strong co-viewing, as the game show attracts viewers from all age demographics, which he thinks is becoming increasingly rare in the TV landscape.” S3 kicked off in February, after Super Bowl LIX and scored a record 14 million viewers. Here’s the S1 trailer …

➢➢ Jacinda Ardern guests on The Graham Norton Show (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Friday), along with Kate Winslet, Alan Carr, Seth Meyers and, performing There’s Just Something About Her from her album How to Be Human, Cat Burns …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 premieres two Monday night crime documentaries: Sydney’s Killer Cop (8.30) and The Essex Millionaire Murders (11.40). The former shows what turned Beau Lamarre-Condon – a policeman, celebrity stalker and blogger – into the accused killer of his former partner and his boyfriend; The Guardian dubbed the latter “absolutely grim and astonishing true-crime TV” about the 2023 murders of Carol and Stephen Baxter, a wealthy couple in their sixties (it’s been streaming on TVNZ+ since June) …

➢➢ Spent (Three, 11.50 Monday) is a comedy-drama about an international catwalk model who becomes bankrupt and homeless. The Baby’s Michelle De Swarte stars in a series she loosely based on her experiences as a model. “There are clunky bits, but it is an astonishingly accomplished debut,” The Guardian said …

➢➢ Paper Dolls (Three, 00.10am Wednesday) is another real life-inspired ThreeNow import, a Paramount+ Australia commission about the meteoric rise and fall of a manufactured girl-group. “There’s a lot going on here, and while there are times when a plot thread or two could have been fleshed out more, the whirlwind pace of things adds to the authenticity,” ScreenHub said. “These five young women really are on a roller-coaster ride, and the faster Paper Dolls moves the better it works” …

➢➢ Location Location Location returns for S28 (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Monday), there’s another run of The Dog House Australia (TVNZ 1, 7.00 Saturday), and in Rob and Romesh VS (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Wednesday), “the comedian duo follow in the footsteps of Gordon Ramsay and Gregg Wallace as they head to Santa’s home for some fun-filled festive TV” (The Telegraph) …

➢➢ Ending their runs are:

The Au Pair
Q+A With Jack Tame
RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service
Fire Country
The Tube: Keep London Moving
Earth Oven With Temuera Morrison
Yellowjackets
Kitchen Nightmares
Rutherford Falls …

➢➢ Kiwi golfers are to the fore in Chasing the Fox (TVNZ 1, 7.00 Friday), in which Ryan Fox takes on sports stars, media personalities and NZ golf professionals in a six-hole Ambrose shootout, and the two-hour documentary that first screened on Sky Sport, Dare to be Different: The Michael Campbell Story (Sky Open, 7.30 Saturday) …

➢➢ Live/delayed free-to-air sports coverage includes the draw for the FIFA World Cup 26 (TVNZ 1, 5.55am Saturday) and the NZ Rugby Awards (Sky Open, 9.30 Thursday) as well as :

Test Cricket: BlackCaps v West Indies (Duke, 10.30am Saturday, Wednesday-Friday)
Football: A-League Men: Auckland FC v Wellington Phoenix (Sky Open, 4.30 Saturday)
Premier League Goal Rush — Manchester City v Sunderland (Sky Open, 10am Sunday)
UFC 323 Prelims (Sky Open, 2.00 Sunday)
Basketball: Tauihi: SF2 (Sky Open, 4.00 Sunday)
American Football: NFL (Duke, 7am Monday)
Football: A-League Men: Central Coast Mariners v Auckland FC (Sky Open, 9.30 Friday) …