HD Heads-Up: January 26
January 26, 2017 
9 Comments
Next month TV3 will dedicate most of primetime to reality shows. From February 6, the genre will dominate weeknights from 7.00-10.30. The Block Australia will be teamed with another transTasman import, Married at First Sight Australia, which will air Monday-Thursday. And for the first two weeks in February, re-runs of Bodyshockers will be stripped 9.30 Monday-Wednesday. The only peak-hour relief from this “surreality” will be weekend movies and light ent on Fridays; meanwhile, last month the NZ Herald reports plans for a NZ Married at First Sight have stalled …
The Nine network is promising this will be the fourth and “most explosive” season yet for Married at First Sight Australia, which will screen here a week after its launch across the Tasman. This will be the first multi-night version of the series, with contestants including twins, a male stripper and a former model. Nine is using its extended take on the show to compete directly with Seven’s My Kitchen Rules, which is a couple of weeks away from returning to TVNZ 2 …
Back on TVNZ 2 from early next month will be another Aussie crowdpleaser, Home and Away, which will open with a movie-length special on February 5 at 7.00 before resuming its 5.30 weeknight slot (and displacing The Simpsons). The same week TVNZ will farewell The Voice (9.05 Friday) off the back of the season premiere of Take Me Out, which will have as its 7.30 lead-in season seven re-runs of The Middle (which has has just been renewed for a ninth season) …
The pick of the network movie premieres that week will be Prime’s Beatles documentary, Eight Days a Week (8.35 Tuesday), which came out in a deluxe Blu-ray package only two months ago. TV3 also has a couple of free-to-air premieres: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (8.20 Sunday) and The Pyramid (10.20 Sunday), which will compete with two SD relics on TVNZ 2: Ghost and Dead Calm …
Other coming attractions in HD for the week starting February 4 will include: The Purge (TV3, 9.20 Saturday), Keith Lemon: The Film (TVNZ 2, 11.55 Saturday), Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds (TVNZ 2, 1.35am Sunday), The Cell (Prime, 10.25 Sunday), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Thursday) and Men in Black (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Thursday) …
There’s still no word on when Prime will premiere Planet Earth II but its curtain raiser could be the two-part special, Attenborough’s Zoo Quest In Colour, which debuts February 5 at 7.30. Not only has this ’50s landmark wildlife series been digitally rejuvenated but also it will air in HD. “The restored colour footage from these early adventures was exquisite, superior to many of today’s TV images,” the Daily Express claims …
TVNZ 1’s 8.35 Saturday travelogue slot will continue on February 4 with the premiere of Travel Guides, in which “five ordinary British households review some of the world’s most popular holiday destinations”. The Daily Mirror likened it to “a televised TripAdvisor, with no-holds-barred accounts on everything from an all-inclusive in Tenerife to a five-star in Dubai. And it’s all for free in return for their reviews. All they have to do is moan about the air-con, or rave about the breakfast and they’re done.” An Australian version will screen this year …
Other HD newcomers in the week starting February 4 will include the return of The Force (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Tuesdays) and 20/20 (TVNZ 1, 9.30 Wednesdays) and the premieres of The Wonder of Animals (TV3, 4.55 Saturday), Elizabeth At 90 – A Family Tribute (Prime. 8.35 Sunday) and The Truth About Healthy Eating (TVNZ 1, 9.45 Tuesday) …
Also: TVNZ 1 will air the NFL Super Bowl 51 live from midday on February 6 … Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Ben Affleck and Sienna Miller will guest on that week’s The Graham Norton Show (8.30 Friday) … TV3 will dust off first-run earlier HD episodes of Live at the Apollo, starting with season four (12.30am Sundays) … Prime will air in HD the Halberg Awards (11.30 Thursday) …
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January 26, 2017 at 8:33 am
That TV3 lineup is an utter embarrassment. The only linear TV I have watched since the start of the year has been live cricket or tennis. The rest has been Netflix, hard to see any of that changing soon.
I hardly ever watched TV3 any more, I wish they would realise not everyone likes reality TV shows 🙁
Amen to that Trevor 🙂
I agree with you Clint, I used to be a HUGE supporter of TV3 but all I watch on TV3 now is Family Feud and NewsHub and maybe The Project when it starts in February. Now I mostly just watch Netflix and Sky Sport and of course one of my many TV shows on Blu-ray or DVD 🙂
Bravo was bought into replace four with more reality TV but now it’s like MediaWork devotes 2 channels to reality TV. There is hardly any comedy on anymore. After that change, TV3 need a hard look at themselves and I agree with you Clint, it’s all what I’ve done! Also: Phil, I see Friends will move to 4.30pm a week later, with The Simpsons being moved to 5pm instead, which is a great move, so we can still see it every night as well as weekends at 6pm and new episodes due to take the 7pm Sunday slot. Hope they play as many as they can to catch up in the States.
Hi Trevor.How many Blu-rays and DVDs do you have? Cheers, Mark.
Hi Mark, do you mean recently from Amazon UK or in general? I have bought quite a few over the years but I haven’t counted them but it’s probably over 100 movies and TV shows, how about you Mark? 🙂
Hi Trevor. Way too many I think. I have 1635 Blu-rays and 227 DVDs.
OMG, just saw a promo for The Project! Looks like another epic fail for the 7pm slot — rotflmao! Ny, you guys have a lot of discs, I only have ~500 BD and ~300 DVD,
still got some Laserdiscs and VHS, too 😀