HD Heads-Up: February 8-14

➢➢ TVNZ 2 uses the return of Shortland Street (7.00 Monday-Wednesday) in a new mini-seasons format to shake up its schedule with an unusual programming stunt: stripping Romesh Ranganathans’ Parents Evening (7.30 Monday-Wednesday) with a same-night repeat after 8.30 re-runs of Big Fat Quiz of Sport and The Big Fat Quiz of Telly and the premiere of The Big Fat Quiz of Everything. Taking over SS’s Thursday slot is Junior Taskmaster, in which Rose Matafeo and Mike Wozniak challenge “25 crafty kids go head-to-head in fiendishly tricky tasks”. It leads into the obesity special, Heavyweight With Dave Letele: Tipping the Scales (8.00), and boyfriend bootcamp newcomer Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends (9.00) …

➢➢ “This pint-sized version of the mighty Taskmaster format is great fun,” The Telegraph said of Junior Taskmaster while The Guardian declared it “messed with perfection … and it’s a triumph” …

➢➢ Romesh Ranganathans’ Parents Evening is a game show in which “celebrities and their parents answer questions to win money for charity – with some seriously cringeworthy moments,” The Guardian said. “The real star, though, is host Romesh Ranganathan’s razor-tongued mother, Shanthi, who within minutes has got the parents talking about having sex in space and admitting: ‘Why not try it there? I haven’t had it here, so … ‘” …

➢➢ In other TVNZ 2 programming notes, movies will screen 7.00 Fridays and making its free-to-air debut overnight Sunday is Hulu’s 2019 boarding school drama, Looking for Alaska (3am) …

➢➢ Sky Open overhauls Sunday nights with a new line-up:

• local wildlife newcomer Our Other Islands (7.00), in which musician Troy Kingi visits Stewart Island
• Miriam Margolyes Made in New Zealand (7.30), in which yet another British celebrity tours the country — this time in a campervan
• sturdy BBC whodunit The Jetty (8.35)
• acclaimed Hulu dramatisation The Girl From Plainville (9.45), in which a teen’s suicide unearths painful questions for his family and reveals a complicated – mostly virtual – relationship with a young woman who may hold the answers ….

➢➢ The Wives (TVNZ 1, 9.35 Sunday) is a Channel 5 mystery about a dysfunctional family’s holiday in Malta that divided viewers: “cracking stuff'” or “soap opera crap”? …

➢➢ Changing their time slots are Three’s The Graham Norton Show, which moves from 7.00 to 7.30 Thursday, with guests Reese Witherspoon, Will Ferrell, Ariana Grand, Don Gilet and Olly Alexander, and Duke’s From, which shifts back an hour or so to 10.20 Friday ….

➢➢ Norton is making way for Three’s first run of The Middle, a comedy that’s been repeatedly stripped off-peak on TVNZ 2 and Sky Open but which Three still deems worthy of spearheading its Thursday night comedy block to help launch a double-episode of Vince (8.35), the Jono Pryor series about a disgraced mid-life TV host seeking redemption …

➢➢ Also changing channels is TVNZ 2 staple Travel Guides Australia, which begins a new season 7.00 Sunday on TVNZ 1, with subsequent episodes to air 7.30 Sundays after the new season of Country Calendar …

➢➢ Also returning for new seasons are SAS UK (Three, 8.30 Monday) and The UnXplained With William Shatner S5 (Duke, 8.30 Wednesday) while ending their runs are:

• Better 
• Grand Designs UK
• New: Caged: Kai Kara-France 
• When Bob Came 
• The Man Who Fell to Earth
• Help! We Bought a Hotel 
• Sick Note …

➢➢ Live/delayed FTA sport includes:

• A-League Women: Wellington Phoenix v Melbourne Victory (Sky Open, 3.55 Saturday)
• SailGP Sydney (Three, 4.30 Saturday & Sunday)
• FA Cup (Sky Open, 10am Sunday)
• UFC PPV Prelim Events (Sky Open, 2.00 Sunday)
• NFL Super Bowl LIX ( TVNZ 1, midday Monday) …

➢➢ HD coming attractions include:

• Are We Done Yet? (TVNZ 2, 12.25 Saturday)
• Igor (Three 6.30 Saturday)
• Fun With Dick and Jane (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Saturday)
• Like a Boss (Three, 8.15 Saturday)
• Braven (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Saturday)
• Blades of Glory (TVNZ 2, 1.25am Sunday)
• Dakota (TVNZ 2, 3.00 Sunday)
• Wonder Woman (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• Uncharted (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Monday)
• Identifying Features (Whakaata Māori, 8.45 Sunday)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (Sky Open, 8.30 Sunday)
• Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Bad Grandpa (Duke, 9.30 Monday)
• Universal Soldier (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• House at the End of the Street (Duke, 10.20 Tuesday)
• The Dark Horse (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• 50 First Dates (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Friday)
• Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Sky Open, 7.30 Friday)
• Tamara Drewe (Sky Open, 9.30 Friday).