HD Heads-Up: January 21

Ahead of its Newshub Live launch on February 1, TV3 is overhauling its late-afternoon line-up to try to boost viewership of its flagship news bulletin. The X Factor Australia will take over the weeknight 5.00 hour from the first Monday in February, pushing back American Ninja to 4.00 and Entertainment Tonight to 3.30. The change coincides with TV2 about to refresh its evening line-up, with re-runs of Friends poised to shift to 5.00 and The Simpsons to usurp its 6.00 slot …

Surprisingly, TV3 will screen X Factor Oz from season six, which aired across the Tasman in 2014, rather than season seven, which ran from September-November last year on the Seven Network. You would think the network would air the most recent episodes if it was serious about boosting the lead-in to 3News but it looks like X Factor Oz is a temporary measure only, with the Dai Henwood-hosted Family Feud expected to take over the 5.30 slot within a couple of months …

MediaWorks’ Newshub will integrate the broadcaster’s TV, radio and digital newsrooms in a 24-hour platform following a “significant investment” in technology, including graphics editing and production equipment. This will include TV3 becoming the first NZ network — at last — to broadcast its news and current affairs output in HD, from Paul Henry to the midday, evening and late-night bulletins. These bulletins will be renamed Newsboy Midday, Newshub Live at 6pm, Story and Newshub Late. TV3 has yet to officially announce the HD redux but stay tuned …

Newshub’s launch is the only new-season addition of note on TV3 five weeks into 2016. The rest of its schedule for the first week in February is dominated by HD movies, including Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blue (7.00 Saturday), The Lovely Bones (8.55 Saturday), Star Trek (8.30 Sunday), Somewhere (11.00 Sunday), Bridesmaids (8.35 Monday) and Red Eye (8.30 Thursday). Story will return for another 7.00 Monday-Thursday run, with re-runs of Road Madness airing 7.00 Fridays …

HBO has greenlit another David (The Wire, Treme, Show Me a Hero) Simon drama, The Deuce, which dramatises the legalisation and rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-’80s. It will star James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is one of two Simon projects in the works at HBO. Meanwhile, Show Me a Hero is getting a DVD-only release here on February 3 but can be bought on Blu-ray from the US. However, unlike other Simon series on disc, it’s light on extras, with a making-of short being the sole supplement …