HD Heads-Up: November 9

Homer meets Leno … Hotel swell in HD … Lucifer hot … Summer dead …

TVNZ 2 will resume first-run episodes of The Simpsons from November 20 (8.00 Sundays). The season will open with episode 20 of season 27, which guest stars vintage car buff Jay Leno. S28 started September 25 in the US, which means TVNZ 2 broadcasts will be running about two months behind Fox’s. Guest stars will include Amy Schumer, Allison Janney, Drew Carey, Dan Rather, Stacy Keach and Kelsey Grammer …

The first season of Hotel Hell to air here in HD will premiere on November 22. Season three will replace Grey’s Anatomy in the 9.30 Tuesday slot. The same night will see Scandal end its fifth season (TVNZ 2, 12.30am) while Take Me Out (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Fridays) will be taken out on November 25 …

TVNZ 1’s Person of Interest and Lucifer are to flip slots. Lucifer will air 8.30 Mondays from November 21 ahead of Person of Interest at 9.30. It’s a sensible strategic move given this is PoI’s final season and Lucifer recently received a full second-season order. It’s also been out-rating PoI. I don’t have the ratings for this week but last week Lucifer averaged 2.5% of 25-54 year-olds vs PoI’s 2.3%. Incidentally, the same night Life Flight will end its run on TVNZ 1 …

The Guardian recommends you put TVNZ 1 newcomer, The Job Interview, “on your shortlist … The jobs are real, the companies are real, the ads were real, the applicants are real and the interviewers are real, which makes it as refreshing as it is agonising.” The Job Interview will air 8.30 Tuesdays from November 22 the same night Kiwi Living and The Island With Bear Grylls end their seasons while exiting from TVNZ 1 on November 23 are Dirty Laundry and Nashville …

Dead of Summer is dead in the water. The Sunday night horror show that TVNZ 2 felt deserved an earlier slot than The Exorcist has been axed in the US after one season. Also jettisoned today is another series destined for TVNZ 2, Conviction, which Variety dubs the first casualty of the fall season …

The latest property hour to premiere here will be Prime’s Charlie Luxton’s Homes by the Med, which will air 7.30 Thursdays from November 24 ahead of the return of Prime Rocks at 8.30. Queen: From Rags to Rhapsody will be in HD but the second half of the double bill, Behind the Music: Bad Company, will be SD …

60 Minutes on Monday (Prime, 8.30) embeds itself with Iraqi Special forces on the frontline in its battle for Mosul and its brutal war against ISIS; explores how far artificial intelligence has come and how it can benefit, but also be potentially dangerous to, our lives; and interviews social media influencers like Kim Kardashian to see how their online power is turning the advertising world on its head …

Pre-empting 60 Minutes on November 21 will be Prime’s docudrama, Pike River. Made in association with NZ On Air’s Platinum Fund, the movie-length special “reveals the tragic back story” behind the deaths of 29 miners in the 19 November 2010 explosion …