HD Heads-Up: November 9

➢ Season two of TVNZ 2’s Seven Year Switch Australia will premiere on November 21 and air 7.30 Tuesday-Thursday. Asked TV Tonight about the contestants who signed up for the couple-swapping series: “What does it say about the participants happy to be a swinger on TV under the premise of ‘relationship therapy’?” Or about TVNZ 2’s scheduling sensibilities? Here it will screen in a pre-adult watershed slot whereas Channel Seven aired it post-8.30 (as TVNZ 2 did the first season) …

➢ An Adelaide newspaper reviewer said it “plumbs new depths of intrusiveness” while an online critic hailed its “tears, tantrums and way too much testosterone: Channel Seven’s Seven Year Switch is back and trashier better than ever. Called ‘immoral’ in its first season, the show observes four committed couples ‘on the brink’ of separation, who enter into a so-called ‘social experiment’ and switch partners with each other in a bid to save their failing relationships” …

➢ The Sydney Morning Herald reports the show’s ratings “flatlined” midway through its second season, with viewership slipping about 30% on the first season. It opened with 692,000 viewers, bottomed out with 530,000 and peaked with 732,000. S1 opened with 957,000, sunk to 873,000 and peaked with 1.088 million …

➢ “Interesting ideas illustrated with fairly silly stunts”: That was The Guardian’s verdict on TVNZ 1’s The Truth About Stress (November 21, 9.30), which The Telegraph dubbed “a brisk hour of rudimentary fact-finding” about why we’re experiencing more stress and how we can reduce it …

➢ Rebecca Gibney returns in the lighthearted Australian crime drama Wanted on November 20 (Three, 8.30) while ending their runs that week are The Brokenwood Mysteries, Three Wives, One Husband, The Catch and Naked Attraction …

➢ Guesting on November 24’s The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.00) are: Daniel Radcliffe, Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick and Robbie Williams …

➢ Not only are the HD coming attractions for the week starting November 18 all re-runs but also TVNZ 2’s even sneaking in an SD transmission of 2006’s Gridiron Gang as its so-called Sunday Premiere Movie:

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Mr. Deeds (TV3, 7.00 Saturday)
• Double Jeopardy (TV3, 9.00 Saturday)
• The Lucky One (TVNZ 2, 9.25 Saturday)
• Step Up 3 (TV3, 11.05 Saturday)
• Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Light (TV3, 7.00 Sunday)
• Predator (TV3, 9.25 Sunday)
• The Gift (TVNZ 2, 11.00 Sunday)
• Days of Thunder (TV3, 11.35 Sunday)
• Shoot Em Up (Prime, 9.30 Wednesday)
• Fantastic Four (TV3, 8.30 Thursday).