HD Heads-Up: July 12-18

July 3, 2025 0 Comments

➢➢ It’s game on for Three, with the network debuting a slew of newcomers across the week. They range from a new lead-in for ThreeNews, Outback Opal Hunters (5.00 Monday-Friday), to Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee Australia (7.30 Thursday). Leading into Polk: Unanswered Questions (8.30 Tuesday), a documentary about what the sensational murder trial didn’t determine, is the premiere of Game On (7.30 Tuesday), a Match Fit soundalike in which Silver Fern legends spend 12 weeks getting back into shape to prove they’ve still got what it takes …

➢➢ Storm chaser showcase In the Eye of the Storm (Three, 8.30 Wednesday) faces off against TVNZ 2’s season premiere of I Literally Just Told You — ahead of Las Vegas tow truck driver show Sin City Tow (Three, 9.30 Wednesday) taking up space opposite TVNZ 2’s Taskmasterclass special, Education for All …

➢➢ Little Giants (Three, 4.55 Saturday) is a wildlife series that uses cutting-edge equipment and CGI to reveal “the elusive micro-monsters that exist just beneath our feet”: tiny creatures that can swim through the sand, shape shift their bodies and even shoot toxic blood from their eyes …

➢➢ After celebrating the free-to-air return of The Simpsons with the premiere of S34, TVNZ 2 reverts to S21 re-runs from Wednesday. The latest season streaming on Disney+ is the 36th. When TVNZ was able to relicense The Simpsons after years of its being locked up by Disney+, I asked how up-to-date the first-run eps would be: “This is a multi-year deal,” a spokesperson said, “and over time we’ll become current with seasons airing on Disney+, although Disney will remain the place to see new episodes first” …

➢➢ New to Prime are the six-part blue-chip adaptation of the novel by NZ author Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz (8.30 Sunday, double-episodes), which was one of Neon’s top 10 shows of 2024 (Melanie Lynskey and Harvey Keitel star), and a 5.30 weeknight strip of The Neighborhood S7 …

➢➢ Follow the Leader With Jamali Maddix (Duke, 9.25 Thursday) explores US subcultures, opening with the growing online phenomenon of paedophile hunters. The Guardian likened Maddix to Louis Theroux “only with more charisma … The four episodes are old-school documentary film-making, stripped down to little more than a camera and a skilled presenter who knows how to get people to open up … To know that these cults exist is nothing new. The precise badness of their approach is not what makes Follow the Leader an excellent series; it’s down to how Maddix handles the material” …

➢➢ Returning to TVNZ 1 are Britbox drama The Ex-Wife (10.25 Sunday) and grub-on-a-budget hit Eat Well For Less NZ (7.30 Monday) while ending their runs are:

New Amsterdam
The Equalizer
The Casketeers: Life and Death Around the Globe
Ghosts of Beirut
Lopez vs. Lopez
The Great Aussie Bake Off
Ghosts …

➢➢ Live/delayed FTA sport includes:

ANZ Premiership Netball: Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic v Central Pulse (TVNZ 2, 4.00 Saturday)
Rugby: All Blacks v France (Sky Open, 9.00 Saturday)
NRL: Cowboys v Bulldogs R19 (Sky Open, 11.00 Saturday)
Rugby: ANZAC XV v B&I Lions (Sky Open, 10am Sunday)
Sal’s NBL: Semifinal 1 (Sky Open, 1.00 Sunday)
Sal’s NBL: Semifinal 2 (Sky Open, 3.00 Sunday)
NRL: Warriors v Wests Tigers R19 (Sky Open, 6.30 Sunday)
Tuesday Winter Football: Wrexham v Sydney (Duke, 9.25 Tuesday)
NRL: Panthers v Rabbitohs R20 (Sky Open, 9.30 Friday) …