HD Heads-Up: October 4

➢➢ TVNZ 2 will add Will & Grace to its Wednesday night comedy block from October 17. It will air at 8.30, between The Big Bang Theory and Kevin Can Wait. The reboot will air two weeks behind its NBC broadcast and continue a rejuvenation of TVNZ 2’s schedule that includes the October 16 premiere of The Great Kiwi Bake Off (7.30 Tuesdays, opposite Prime’s The Great Australian Bake Off), a successor-of-sorts to Embarrassing Bodies, Don’t Tell the Doctor (8.30 Thursdays from October 17), and as counter-programming to Three’s 9-1-1 and The Good Sh*t, Australian Survivor: Champions vs Contenders (8.30 Mondays and Tuesdays from October 15), which went to air on Ten as a multi-night series two months ago …

➢➢ Returning the same week will be HOMEMade (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Thursdays), MasterChef USA (Prime, 7.30 Thursdays) and The X Factor UK (TVNZ 1, 7.30 Fridays and 7.00 Saturdays) while ending their runs will be Romper Stomper, Lucifer, Rich House, Poor House, MasterChef Australia and Valor …

➢➢ 7 Days will celebrate its 300th episode on October 19 (Three, 9.00), with an hour-long Spring Break special featuring Jeremy Corbett, Paul Ego, Dai Henwood, Mel Bracewell, Josh Thomson, Chopper and Justine Smith …

➢➢ Coming to TVNZ OnDemand are a new season of Kiwi computer game hit AFK (from October 18) and express from the US, season two of Splitting Up Together (from October 17) …

➢➢ Prime will refresh Tuesday nights from October 16 with the sequel to the The Eighties and The Nineties, The 2000s, which will be the 8.35 lead-in to The Looming Tower, the outstanding 9/11 build-up dramatisation that originally screened on SoHo …

➢➢ Prime Rocks: Rock N Roll Guns For Hire – The Story Of The Sidemen (Prime, 8.30 October 17) will reveal the unknown musicians behind the hit records of some of the biggest stars in music …

➢➢ Rowan Atkinson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gary Barlow, Jeff Goldblum, and Imelda May will guest on October 13’s The Graham Norton Show (Three, 8.00 Friday) …

➢➢ Guesting on TVNZ 1’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show (9am and 4pm weekdays) will be the cast of Will & Grace (Friday), Justin Hartley (Monday), Jamie Dornan and Busy Philipps (Tuesday), and Savannah Guthrie and Channing Tatum (Wednesday) …

➢➢ Scheduled for Prime’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert are: Nick Kroll, Jodie Whittaker and a musical performance by Cat Power (10.30 tonight); Lady Gaga. (10.30 Friday); and Ellie Kemper and Sam Elliott (12.05am Tuesday) …

➢➢ There will be four free-to-air movie premieres in the week starting October 13: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday), Me Before You (Three, 8.30 Sunday), Demonic (TVNZ 2, 11.50 Sunday) and Criminal (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday). Other HD coming attractions that week will include:

• Raising Helen (TVNZ 2. 7.00 Saturday)
• The Da Vinci Code (TVNZ 2, 9.15 Saturday)
• John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars (Duke, 9.30 Saturday)
• Resident Evil: Extinction (Three, 11.15 Saturday)
• Taking Lives (TVNZ 2, 2.05am Sunday)
• The Machinist (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• The Mummy Returns (Prime, 8.30 Monday)
• Independence Day (Three, 8.30 Thursday)
• Dumb and Dumber (Duke, 8.30 Friday)
• Analyse That (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)
• National Treasure (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Friday).