HD Heads-Up: May 9 – 15

➢➢ TVNZ 2 will refresh Friday nights from May 15 with new seasons of Fear Factor (7.00) and 8 Out Of 10 Cats (8.55). The former is an MTV revamp of the NBC original hosted by rapper Ludacris, “custom-created for a generation that is increasingly empowered, while also more anxious than ever”. But the website Reality Blurred thought it “the same old show, just younger” …

➢➢ Season 21 of 8 Out of 10 Cats is the first season of the original series to screen here. It will air after 7.55 re-runs of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and ahead of 9.50 re-runs of Naked Attraction. Re-runs of Countdown also will continue 7.30 Wednesdays. S21 of Cats aired this time last year in the UK; S22 screened earlier this year …

➢➢ Prime is taking a punt on two SoHo series to beef up Sunday ratings from May 10: McMillion$ (8.30), a six-part documentary series that reveals how $24 million dollars was stolen from the McDonald’s Monopoly game of the 1990s; and White Dragon (9.40), a thriller starring John Simm as a professor who’s drawn into a web of conspiracy after flying to Hong Kong to identify his wife’s body following a car crash …

➢➢ A Very British Brothel (Prime, 8.30 Wednesday) is a candid 2015 documentary about a massage parlour whose speciality is the services of older women. “The joy of this documentary about family-run Sheffield business City Sauna lay in the constant counterpoint between the sleazy and the cosy,” said The Guardian …

➢➢ Jamie: Keep Cooking and Carry On has a new slot from May 9 (TVNZ 1, 7.00 Saturdays). Returning the same week will be Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours To Hell And Back (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Mondays) and Mega Transports (Duke, 9.20 Wednesdays) while ending their runs will be Flesh and Blood, The Amazing Race Australia, Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport and Lego Masters USA …

➢➢ There will be five network movie premieres in the week starting May 9: The Emoji Movie (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday), BlacKkKlansman (Three, 10.40 Saturday), The Second Mother (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday), Tea With the Dames (Maori TV, 8.30 Monday) and Level Up (Three, 7.30 Friday) …

➢➢ Other coming attractions in HD will include:

• Yes, I Do (TVNZ 2, 1.15 Saturday)
• Evan Almighty (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• Wedding Crashers (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Saturday)
• Get Out (Three, 8.45 Saturday)
• Last Action Hero (Duke, 9.00 Saturday) 
• Triple 9 (TVNZ 2, 12.25am Sunday)
• Wonder Woman (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• Kung Fu Panda 3 (Three, 7.00 Sunday)
• The Breaker Upperers (Three, 8.40 Sunday)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Sunday)
• Knock Knock (TVNZ 2, 11.40 Sunday)
• Cell (Prime, 8.35 Monday)
• Disclosure (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Top Gun (TVNZ 2, 8.00 Thursday)
• 101 Smurfs: The Lost Village (TVNZ 2, 4.30 Friday)
• Jackass 3 (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• The Break-Up (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday).