HD Heads-Up: June 14-20

June 5, 2025 0 Comments

➢➢ Woo-hoo! Homer Simpson’s back on free-to-air TV. The Simpsons resumes from episode one of season 34 on June 16, in a 6.00 weeknight slot on TVNZ 2. Sister channel Duke also goes back to the future with a 7.30 weeknight block of double-episodes, starting from E1 of S17. The iconic ‘toon has been missing from prime-time ever since Disney+ launched and retained it as an exclusive drawcard for subscribers. But such have been the travails of streaming that the likes of Disney have started licensing their content to third parties again (Three recently picked up Will Trent). It’s not clear if The Simpsons is a one-off acquisition or part of a Disney package TVNZ has secured — or how far behind the Disney+ streams TVNZ 2’s broadcasts will lag (the streamer’s up to S36). In the meantime, it helps to plug a hole in TVNZ 2’s evening line-up that re-runs of Seinfeld and Aussie game show Deal or No Deal failed to fill in the wake of Friends becoming a Max exclusive and the ageing Big Bang Theory shifting back to 5.00 weekdays …

➢➢ Also new to TVNZ 2 late-night are Briarpatch (12.10am Tuesday) and Gold Diggers (11.15 Wednesday). Both have been streaming on TVNZ+. The former is a 2019-20 murder mystery set in a Texas border town starring Rosario Dawson (Dopesick); the latter is a “boisterously amusing” Australian gold rush comedy/drama about sisters who strike it rich in 1853. The network’s also picking up overnight re-runs of Duke’s Love Island UK …

➢➢ Do You Want To Live Forever? (Three, 7.30 Tuesday) is a “life-changing 12-week experiment” in which eight Australians try to wind back their biological clocks and add years to their lives. It first aired a year ago on Channel 9 …

➢➢ Airport Security USA (Sky Open, 9.25 Sunday) documents the work of Customs and Border Protection officers at some of the busiest airports in the US …

➢➢ Leading the new-season premieres is S11 of The Brokenwood Mysteries (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Sunday). Also back are Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes S2 (Sky Open, 7.00 Sunday), The Secret Genius of Modern Life S2 (TVNZ 1, 8.30 Monday) and, somewhat belatedly, the penultimate fourth season of 911: Lone Star (Three, 8.30 Monday), which premiered two-and-a-half years ago in the US …

➢➢ Ending their runs are:

Call the Midwife
Grand Designs New Zealand
Mythbusters: There’s Your Problem
Inside Tthe Force: 24/7
Sweetpea …

➢➢ Live/delayed FTA sport include:

ANZ Premiership Netball: Northern Stars v Southern Steel (TVNZ 2, 4.00 Saturday)
SRP: Semifinal 2 (Sky Open, 9.00 Saturday)
NRL: Knights v Roosters R15 (Sky Open, 11.00 Saturday)
Sal’s NBL: Hawke’s Bay Hawks v Taranaki Airs (Sky Open, 3.00 Sunday)
NRL: Wests Tigers v Raiders R16 (Sky Open, 9.30 Friday)

➢➢ Stacey Morrison and Mātai Smith front Matariki Mā Puanga (TVNZ 1, Whakaata Māori, Sky Open, 5.45am Friday), a live broadcast from the sacred Tirorangi Marae in Ohakune …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 also marks Matariki Day with the movies Whale Rider (10am Friday) and TVNZ 2 with Shrek Te Reo (7.05am Friday) while Whakaata Māori has Flight of the Navigator (11.30am Friday), The Mountain (7.00 Friday) and The World’s Fastest Indian (9.30 Friday). Other HD coming attractions include: