HD Heads-Up: July 29-August 4

July 20, 2023 0 Comments

➢➢ TVNZ 1’s primetime schedule gets a mid-year makeover with new line-ups for Monday and Wednesday nights. Border Patrol returns for its latest season (8.00 Monday) ahead of the premiere of Inside the Superbrands (9.30 Monday), which explores the origins of brands like Heinz, McCain, Guinness and Kellogg’s. And on Wednesday S5 of Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad (7.30), in which the duo explores Latin America, leads into S11 of Travel Man (8.00) and the documentary, HMP: Women Behind Bars (8.30), which showcases the incarceration of some of Britain’s worst female criminals …

➢➢ The network also premieres Rich House Poor House: Millionaire Special (8.25 Thursday), when old and new money swaps homes and lives for a week, and The Cruise (9.45 Friday), another reality take on a life of luxury at sea …

➢➢ Compulsion (TVNZ 1, 10.30 Saturday) is a scorned Channel 5 thriller about a paramedic who’s stricken with panic attacks after surviving her own tragedy. TVNZ 1 also is “refreshing” late-night Saturdays with Why Women Kill (11.20), which first aired on TVNZ 2, and Power (1.10am Sunday), a 2014 Starz drug-dealer drama that ran for five seasons and spawned three successful spin-offs …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 has a slew of premieres as well, ranging from Heavyweight with Dave Letele (8.30 Thursday), in which the community advocate and “Local Hero of the Year” retraces his experiences with gangs, addiction and alcohol, to the modern-day Columbo delight, Poker Face (10.55 Monday). S6 of Young Sheldon screens 6.00 weeknights from Monday, new episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown resume (8.30 Wednesday), The Farmer Wants a Wife returns for S12 (7.30 Friday), and music fans can sample Kylie vs Bee Gees (7.30 Thursday), which compares the Aussie superstars’ careers, and Grease Live! (10.35 Saturday), a TV adaptation recorded in front of a studio audience …

➢➢ Three rolls out two of its big guns the same week it promotes Newshub Late to the earlier slot of 9.30 weeknights: Patrick Gower On: Vaping (7.30 Tuesday) and David Lomas Investigates (7.30 Wednesday) …

➢➢ Live free-to-air sport continues to make a comeback, with Samoa vs Fiji rugby (TVNZ 1, 3.30 Saturday) and the final Ashes test on Duke while NPC, NRL, Netball World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup games dominate Prime’s peak-hour schedule for the week …

➢➢ Twisted Metal (Duke, 8.30 Thursday) makes it linear debut the same time as its TVNZ+ and Peacock launch. It’s billed as a half-hour live-action adaptation of the PlayStation game, “a high-octane action comedy about a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a badass axe-wielding car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck” …

➢➢ Also premiering are S2 of Barry (Prime, midnight Sunday) and Channel Patrol (Prime, 7,30 Thursday) while ending their runs are Britain’s Got Talent, Tough as Nails, Rogue Heroes, Love Island UK: Aftersun and RPA …

➢➢ New to Whakaata Māori are the short film Foods for Coping (10.30 Sunday) and the documentary, Troubled Waters (7.30 Monday), an ABC Foreign Correspondent take on the Three Waters reforms …

➢➢ HD coming attractions for the week starting July 29 include: