HD Heads-Up: February 9

MediaWorks’ roll-out of a new imagery that turns TV3 into Three coincides with the launch of The Project as Story’s replacement in what hitherto has been a current affairs slot, a new-look Jono and Ben on a new night (7.30 Thursdays) and a rejig of Three’s top-rating Friday night line-up. The Project will air for half-an-hour 7.00 Monday-Thursday from February 20 but for an hour on Friday nights — as the lead-in to the return of The Graham Norton Show and 7 Days, both of which will air half-an-hour earlier at 8.00 and 9.00 respectively. It will be interesting to see if the earlier slot affects the latter’s ribaldry and profanity given it will no longer screen after the 9.30 watershed …

TVNZ 1 will refresh Saturday nights with two new series from February 18: Outback Pilots and Te Radar’s Chequered Past. Surprisingly, the network isn’t publicising the latter beyond its billings — which, given it was made in 2015 and expected to air this time last year, suggests TVNZ isn’t as excited about this eight-part series as it was the star’s previous efforts. Ironically, Te Radar describes his show as being “about people in New Zealand history who gave it a go, but it all went a bit pear-shaped!” …

Outback Pilots is a 13-part series about modern-day “guns for hire” from the producers of Outback Truckers about the pilots who undertake everything from emergency services to delivering essential supplies to isolated communities in Australia’s outback. It appears to be airing here ahead of its 7Mate debut in Australia …

The newest HD addition to Prime’s schedule is Channel 4’s controversial Skint (8.30 Wednesdays from February 22). Asked The Independent: “How should the poor be represented on television? Do they exist only as a social problem, penned into the segregated area of earnest documentary? On the other hand, how do you stop the reporting of the very poor from turning into a condescending voyeurism? One way to start, I would have thought, is to prevent your programme from looking like a non-fiction version of Shameless.” Prime also will re-run Making New Zealand (7.30 Sundays from February 19) but this will be the first chance to see the documentary series in HD …

To help promote its new line-up, Three will have three network movie premieres in the week starting February 18: Let’s Be Cops (8.30 Sunday), The Hollow (10.45 Sunday) and Hercules (8.30 Thursday). Other HD coming attractions for that week include: Daddy Day Care (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday), Walking With Dinosaurs (Three, 7.00 Saturday), Ted (Three, 8.45 Saturday), Kill Bill: Volume 1 (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Saturday), Road Trip (TVNZ 2, 11.10 Saturday), He’s Just Not That Into You (TVNZ 2, 8.40 Sunday), The Grey (Prime, 8.30 Monday) and The Doors (Prime, 8.35 Tuesday) …

Guesting on the February 24 broadcast of The Graham Norton Show will be Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Felicity Jones, Dawn French, Sir Michael Parkinson and Jack Savoretti while lined up this week on Prime’s The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon are: Seth Meyers, Dev Patel and Kid Cudi (2.00 Friday); Alec Baldwin, JoAnna Garcia Swisher and Future Islands (11.30 Friday); Lena Dunham, Common and Kate Berlant & John Early (10.40 Monday); and Magic Johnson, Luke Wilson and Roy Wood Jr (11.05 Tuesday). Note the Tonight Show that’s being pre-empted by tonight’s Halberg Awards will air 2pm tomorrow  …