HD Heads-Up: October 12

➢ TVNZ 2 is giving its Friday night make-out marathon a make-over, with two October 27 premieres sandwiching Take Me Out: Love Connection at 7.30 and Naked Attraction at 9.45. The former is a revival of theChuck Woolery classic, with Bravo’s Andy Cohen, who’s just been announced as Kathy Griffin’s replacement for CNN’s New Year’s Eve show, as host of the blind date format. “Amusing and harmless, but even Andy Cohen can’t raise the dead,” was Newsday’s verdict …

➢ Naked Attraction is a British dating game show in which a fully dressed person selects two contestants from six naked people, whose bodies are revealed in stages from their feet up. The controversial Channel 4 series has run for two “wildly derided” seasons but this year was praised for at last doing something right. Reports The Telegraph: “The first episode of the show’s new season has attracted warm praise from viewers, thanks to the fact that the programme-makers decided to include a dater who identifies as pansexual, as well as transgender contestants” …

➢ Streaming from today on Lightbox are the latest seasons of Chance and Mr. Robot. “Season 3 of Mr. Robot is a masterpiece, ballasting the global ambitions of season 2 while sharpening back to the meticulous build of season 1,” raved Entertainment Weekly. But UPROXX lamented: “There are so many interlocking agendas and conspiracies and secrets that the show feels more like work than it originally did” …

➢ Prime will launch another nostalgic CNN documentary series (The Nineties) on October 27 called Soundtracks: Songs That Defined History (8.30 Fridays). The eight-part popular music chronology explores the music tied to iconic moments in history, from the March on Washington in 1963 to the riots at Stonewall, from the moon landing to Hurricane Katrina. Premiering the same week will be the Prime Rocks special, George Michael: Freedom (8.30 Monday), which celebrates his highly acclaimed second solo album …

➢ Joining three’s top-rating Tuesday line-up from October 24 is Employable Me. It follows people with neurological conditions, like Tourette’s and autism, trying to prove they’re not unemployable. The Guardian headlined its review, “Moving telly that destigmatises disability”, and said: “This warm documentary follows a jobseeker with Tourette’s and another with autism — although at times reductive, it encourages a more enlightened approach to recruitment” …

➢ Ending their runs that week are Endeavour, When We Rise, Big Angry Fish and Unreal Estate while returning for new seasons are Highway Cops (TVNZ 1, 8.00 Monday), The Walking Dead (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Monday) and, in a late-night slot, The Wrong Girl (Three, 10.55 Wednesday) …

➢ Two specials to watch for: Wait For Me Hollywood on October 22 (TVNZ 1, 7.30) and Polterguest two days later (TVNZ 2, 9.05). The former is an hour-long Sunday interview with actor James Rolleston (Boy, Goodbye Pork Pie) about his recovery from a car crash; the latter showcases Internet pranksters who mount a house of horrors …

➢ Apologies to Grey’s Anatomy fans: it’s not the latest season that TVNZ 2 will screen 10.05 Tuesdays from next week but the balance of the previous season, which was cut short by the network’s stripping of ratings flop Love Island …

➢ TVNZ 2 will premiere on October 22 the movies The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (8.30) and Good People (11.00). Other HD coming attractions that week include:

• Bedtime Stories (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• Robots (Three, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Thomas Crown Affair (Three, 8.45 Saturday)
• The Hot Chick (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Saturday)
• Dinner for Schmucks (TVNZ 2, 11.00 Saturday)
• For a Good Time, Call … (Three, 11.05 Saturday)
• Puss in Boots (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• The Lincoln Lawyer (Prime, 8.30 Sunday)
• Bad Neighbours (Three, 8.35 Sunday)
• Under New Management (Three, 10.35 Sunday)
• RoboCop (Three, 8.30 Thursday).