HD Heads-Up: October 8 – 14

➢➢ Howzat! The second week of October will deliver a free-to-air sports feast, with live primetime coverage of cricket, rugby and netball. Three will dedicate Saturday night to the Rugby World Cup, with pre-match analysis at 8.00, the NZ vs Australia game at 8.30 and post-match analysis at 10.15. The RWC clash will screen opposite TVNZ 1’s T20 Cricket, which will screen from 7.00 Saturday (Black Caps vs Pakistan) and Sunday (vs Bangladesh). And on Wednesday, Prime will screen another Kiwi-Aussie clash, when the Silver Ferns take on the Australia Diamonds in game two of the Constellation Cup. Prime’a also just added A-League: Wellington Phoenix vs Adelaide United Live (3.00 Sunday) …

➢➢ Prime will launch two new series the same week it premieres season nine of Ambulance (9.00 Wednesday). The First Lady (8.30 Tuesday) is a White House drama about the women behind the Presidents:  Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford and Michelle Obama. It wasn’t a vote winner with critics or viewers, and survived only one term on Showtime …

➢➢ A Question of Justice (8.30 Thursday) teams Bryan Bruce with three journalists to investigate four of NZ’s most challenging legal issues. Each episode will begin with a case study of a homicide that highlights a fundamental question of law: Should murder victims and their families have more rights? Why are Māori overrepresented at every stage of the criminal justice system? Should we have degrees of murder? Should we have specific hate law? It will open with the murders of Grace Millane and Sophie Elliot …

➢➢ Documentary NZ: Beyond Conversion (TVNZ 1, 8.45 Tuesday) is billed as “an intimate look” at the fight to ban conversion practices following a bill that promoted the largest number of public submissions in NZ’s legislative history …

➢➢ New to TVNZ 1’s 7.30 Wednesday game show slot will be Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win, a Who Wants to be a Millionaire wannabe in which pairs of contestants face quick-fire questions against the clock to win the world’s first limitless jackpot and a money ladder that never ends. The Daily Telegraph thought it “viscerally thrilling” …

➢➢ FBoy Island NZ (TVNZ 2, 9.30 Wednesday) is the first international version of an HBO Max series that Vanity Fair dubbed “enthrallingly shallow“. Reads the blurb: “Three stunning Kiwi women are searching for the guy of their dreams. But can they tell the difference between the genuine ‘nice guys’ and the ‘Fboys’ who are there for cash?” …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 will burn off Angelyne, a highly-acclaimed Peacock series midnight Fridays. It stars Emmy Rossum as a groundbreaking influencer in ’80s LA: a mysterious blonde bombshell who took over the city’s billboards …

➢➢ Returning to Three will be Lego Masters Australia (7.30 Monday and Tuesday) and The Graham Norton Show (8.30 Thursday), which will open with guests Rami Malek, Jamie Lee Curtis, David Tennant, Lydia West, and Robbie Williams …

➢➢ New to Whakaata Māori will be: Homesteads (7.30 Monday), which will uncover the stories of seven homesteads through the eyes of their ahi kā; and Rage Against the Rangatahi (8.30 Thursday), another season of the award-winner in which 21 Gen Zs let loose in the far north after multiple lockdowns, pandemic restrictions and political unrest …

➢➢ Low-rating Young Sheldon will complete its fourth season just as the sixth goes to air in the US. It will screen opposite The Block NZ: Auction Grand Final. Also ending their runs will be Waterhole: Africa’s Animal Oasis, Kalgoorlie Cops, Eat Well For Less?, The Great Kiwi Bake Off, SEAL Team and Have You Been Paying Attention? …

➢➢ HD coming attractions for the week starting October 8 will include:

• Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• The Swan Princess: A Royal Family Tale (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• Capote (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Saturday)
• Lost in Translation (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• Red Eye (Duke, 10.15 Saturday)
• Ted (TVNZ 2, 10.20 Saturday)
• 12 Strong (TVNZ 1, 10.30 Saturday)
• Django Unchained (Three, 10.45 Saturday)
• Den of Thieves (TVNZ 2, 12.20am Sunday)
• I, Tonya (TVNZ 2, 2.40am Sunday)
• How To Train Your Dragon 2 (TVNZ 2, 4.05 Sunday)
• The Bourne Identity (TVNZ 2, 7.30 Sunday)
• Top Gun (Three, 8.30 Sunday)
• Everything Must Go (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Sunday)
• Unbroken (Eden, 8.30 Sunday)
• Jaws 2 (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Sunday)
• RGB (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Vantage Point (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Casino (Duke, 10.10 Tuesday)
• Legally Blonde (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Hunter Killer (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Nutty Professor II – The Klumps (Duke, 9.25 Friday).