HD Heads-Up: March 30 – April 5

➢➢ TVNZ 1 is fast-forwarding acclaimed espionage drama Mrs Wilson from OnDemand to primetime to replace Deception (9.30 Sundays from March 31). The US procedural opened poorly on March 3, with only 1.1% of the network’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, and the next two episodes were pre-empted by Leaving Neverland and last Sunday’s programming purge following the attacks on the Christchurch mosques. Given such a shaky start, the series, which lasted only one season in the US, was never going to recover. But Why TVNZ 1 even thought Deception was worth a punt on Sundays in the Q+A slot is the year’s biggest programming mystery …

➢➢ Mrs Wilson was launched last month with much ballyhoo as an OnDemand exclusive to drive streaming of the platform (as TVNZ looks to monetise the service). Unsually for an OnDemand premiere, the show made the cover of TV Guide magazine. Early this month, a disappointed reader wrote to lament its unavailability on linear TV. To which TVNZ replied: “We’re delighted to let you know Mrs Wilson will be on air later this year” …

➢➢ Said The Guardian of Mrs Wilson: “This tale of marital deceit and espionage, in which Ruth Wilson plays her own grandmother, exerts a melancholy meditation on how little we can know about each other” while the New Statesman hailed it as “understated, beautifully acted and lovely to look at”. Echoed the US TV Guide: “Ruth Wilson delivers a tremendous performance of mounting hysteria, despair and fury” …

➢➢ Three will catch up fans of series that were pre-empted by movies in the wake of the mosques massacres. In the week starting March 30, it will double-bill episodes of The Rookie (8.30 Monday), NCIS (8.30 Tuesday) and The Blacklist (11.35 Wednesday). However, Designated Survivor and Tin Star will still lag a week behind their original scheduling …

➢➢ The same week Three will proceed with the similarly delayed network premiere of Get Out (8.30 Sunday). It will screen opposite TVNZ 2’s 8.45 premiere of Doctor Strange. Other network coming attractions in HD will include:

• I Am Number Four (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Despicable Me (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Jaws (Three, 8.55 Saturday)
• Jackie Chan’s First Strike (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Saturday)
• Da Kath and Kim Code (TVNZ 1, 9.30 Saturday)
• Mr. Pip (Three, 11.30 Saturday)
• Mud (TVNZ 2, 1am Sunday)
• Jane Eyre (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Blade II (TVNZ 2, 11.55 Sunday)
• Vice (Prime, 9.30 Monday)
• Vantage Point (Duke, 9.25 Tuesday)
• The Amazing Spider-Man (Three, 8.30 Thursday)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Friday)
• The Dukes of Hazard (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• Waterworld (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday) …

➢➢ Pilgrimage: Road To Santiago (Prime, 8.30 Sundays from March 31) sends seven second-tier celebrities of varying faiths, including Neil Morrissey, Debbie McGee and Ed Byrne, on the famous medieval pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago. Will this journey of a lifetime change the way they think about themselves and their faith? The Telegraph dubbed them a “motley crew” but thought it “refreshing to hear normal-ish people discuss their beliefs in religion, the supernatural and ‘God’, so seldom does it happen these days” …

➢➢ Fear the Walking Dead will have its season four, free-to-air premiere the same night (Prime, 10.45) while ending their runs that week will be Rich House, Poor House, The Walking Dead, Location, Fresh Eggs, Location, Location, Elementary and Jamie Cooks Italy.