HD Heads-Up: February 8 – 14

➢➢ Variety, vegetables and valentines dominate the network premieres in the week starting February 8. Three will double-bill The Block Australia – Grand Final Auction (7.00 Sunday) with the 8.35 season premiere of Married At First Sight Australia, which will face off against TVNZ 2’s The Bachelorette thereafter. The same week Three will launch America’s Got Talent: The Champions (7.00 Saturdays) and TVNZ 1 The X Factor: The Band (7.30 Fridays), in which girl groups and boy bands battle it out to be crowned the UK’s newest pop sensations …

➢➢ The Guardian dubbed The X Factor: The Band Simon Cowell’s “tragic bid to revive a dying show” while Radio Times thought it “actually quite good – it’s just too little, too late for the talent show” …

➢➢ Also new to TVNZ 1 that week will be Jamie’s Ultimate Veg (8.30 Thursdays), a series dedicated to vegetarian dishes. It follows Prime’s premiere of How We Eat With Simon Gault (8.30 Sundays), in which the celebrity chef visits the Greek Islands to learn about the Mediterranean diet and compares it to what we eat here …

➢➢ Returning for new seasons will be Manifest (TVNZ 1, 9.30 Saturdays), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Duke, 7.00 Sundays), Top Gear (Duke, 8.30 Sundays), SVU (Three, 9.05 Mondays), Ambulance Australia (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Thursdays) and Naked Attraction (TVNZ 2, 9.45 Thursdays) …

➢➢ Prime will premiere season four of the BBC’s Ambulance on February 12 (8.30 Wednesdays). It went to air 14 months ago in the UK; S5 followed in May 2019. Also new to Prime will be John & Yoko – Above Us Only Sky (8.35 Tuesday), which explores Lennon and Ono’s collaboration on the 1971 album Imagine …

➢➢ Robert Downey Jr, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Terry Gilliam and Sara Bareilles will guest on the February 13 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.30) …

 ➢➢ TVNZ 2 will screen live HD coverage of the 92nd Annual Academy Awards from 2pm on February 10 (the broadcast will repeat 8.30 on Duke). TVNZ 2 also will air live red carpet coverage from 12.30pm and a behind-the-scenes special, On the Red Carpet After the Oscars, at 11.10. On Thursday, Prime will broadcast the Halberg Awards live from 8.30 …

➢➢ There will be four network HD movie premieres in the week starting February 8: Nocturnal Animals (Three, 8.55 Saturday), Den Of Thieves (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday), The Bookshop (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday) and Fifty Shades Freed (Three, 10.15 Sunday). Other HD coming attractions will include:

• Ballerina (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Zoolander 2 (TVNZ 2, 8.40 Saturday)
• Jackie Chan’s First Strike (Prime, 9.30 Saturday)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• The Wedding Ringer (TVNZ 2, 10.45 Saturday)
• Creed (Three, 11.10 Saturday)
• Moneyball (TVNZ 2, 12.40am Sunday)
• Wolf Creek 2 (TVNZ 2, 11.15 Sunday)
• Rush Hour 3 (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Getaway (TVNZ 2, 11.00 Tuesday)
• Hot Pursuit (Three, 7.30 Friday).