HD Heads-Up: December 7

➢ Fans of Modern Family and Michael McIntyre will think all their Christmases have come at once. Three and Prime will go head-to-head with 7.00 weeknight reruns of the sitcom over summer while TVNZ 1 will screen two dated Michael McIntyre specials ahead of Three airing the latest. TVNZ 1 will repeat McIntyre’s 2014 and 2015 Christmas specials at 7.00 on December 19 and 20, and “premiere” The Celebrity Chase Christmas Special (2014), with Coronation Street’s Paula Lane (Kylie Platt) among the contestants, at 7.00 on December 21 …

➢ Even more bizarre than TVNZ 1’s primetime festive relics are the Modern Family clash: from December 18, Three will play season five (which originally aired on Prime in SD) and Prime will repeat season eight, its most recent before Three acquired the rights …

➢ Prime will roll out a new US sitcom the same week: Superior Donuts, which will air 8.00 Thursdays from 21. About a donut shop owner’s relationships with his employee and customers, it stars Judd Hirsch, Darien Sills-Evans and Katey Sagal. The New York Post liked its “nostalgic feel of a 1970s sitcom” but the Los Angeles Times called it “just another plain-glazed TV show — too sweet and empty in the middle” …

➢ TVNZ 2 will air a Will & Grace Christmas Special on December 18 at 8.00, in which the gang go back to 1912 (The AV Club dubbed it “an attempt to clunkily craft some commentary on immigration and modern-day progressivism”). It screened this week in the US after a month-long hiatus and posted a 13% jump in the 18-49 demo and 24% rise in total viewers compared to its last, early November original …

➢ Other Christmas specials in the run-up to Christmas Week include: Coca Cola Christmas in the Park 2017 (TVNZ 2, 6.00 Sunday), The Great British Bake Off Christmas Masterclass (Prime, 7.30 Tuesday), Eat Well For Less at Christmas (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Thursday), Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special (TVNZ 1, 9.15 Thursday) and A Big Lego Christmas, which goes behind-the-scenes of Lego on the eve its biggest Christmas ever (Prime, 8.30 Friday)  …

➢ Two other documentaries will premiere that week: director Annie Goldson’s movie-length Kim Dotcom: Caught In The Web (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Wednesday); and Obsessed With My Body (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Monday), which explores how teenage vanity has encouraged everything from body building to facial waxing …

➢ The hour-long season finale of Shortland Street on December 18 will spearhead an evening reshuffle on TVNZ 2, when Home & Away assumes Shortland Street’s 7.00 slot from December 19 and double-eps of The Big Bang Theory screen from 5.30. Shortland Street resumes January 15 …

➢ Also ending their runs that week are: 5 Star Family Reunion, Homes by the Sea, Moving Out With Tamati, Tipping Point Lucky Stars, The Celebrity Chase, Jamie’s Super Food, Wanted, Brian Johnson’s A Life On The Road, DNA Detectives, Big Life Fix, Seven Year Switch Australia, Imposters and Travel Guides …

➢ Free-to-air movie premieres for the week starting December 16 are limited to Bad Santa 2 (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Sunday) and Joy (Three, 8.40 Wednesday). Other HD coming attractions include:

• Joyful Noise (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Someone Marry Barry (TVNZ 2, 9.20 Saturday)
• Jack and Jill (TVNZ 2, 11.00 Saturday),
• Rise of the Guardians (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (Three, 9.05 Saturday)
• What Lies Beneath (Three, 11.00 Saturday)
• Love Actually (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• House at the End of the Street (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Sunday)
• Lincoln (Three, 11.00 Sunday)
• Fred Claus (TVNZ 2, 8.40 Tuesday)
• The Sapphires (Prime, 8.45 Tuesday)
• Firewall (Prime, 8.30 Wednesday)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (Three, 8.30 Thursday)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Friday)
• Jurassic Park (Three, 7.30 Friday).