HD Heads-Up: September 11 – 17

➢➢ TVNZ 1 will mark the 20th anniversary of September 11 with two primetime documentaries: 9/11: Life Under Attack (8.35 Saturday) and Surviving 9/11 (8.30 Monday). The former focuses on the lives of those affected by the horrors of the 9/11 and the footage they captured as events unfolded; the latter brings together 13 survivors who were caught in an event they weren’t able to fully comprehend and which they are still processing …

➢➢ The Independent praised Surviving 9/11 as “a moving portrait of trauma that doesn’t offer easy answers”, news.co.uk described it as “a straightforward yet intensely personal view of the attack, interspersing familiar footage with interviews with survivors and family members of those who died” and The Daily Telegraph thought it “a profoundly affecting achievement” …

➢➢ Three is replacing The Block NZ with S3 of Lego Masters Australia, which will premiere 7.00 Sunday and continue 7.30 Monday-Tuesday. The length of the episodes will push back Head High to 8.55 Monday and Emergency to 8.50 Tuesday …

➢➢ The Real Filthy Rich Asians (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Monday) will expose the lifestyles of some of Sydney’s wealthiest Asian residents …

➢➢ Premiering on Duke will be Red Arrows Take America (8.30 Wednesday), a fly-on-the-cockpit look at the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team’s most ambitious overseas tour, and new seasons of South Seas Spearo (8.30 Sunday) and The Russell Howard Show (8.30 Thursday). Duke also will screen for the first time Lance, the two-part ESPN documentary about Lance Armstrong that’s streaming on TVNZ OnDemand (11.10 Tuesday) ..

.➢➢ The New Zealanders (Maori TV, 7.30 Sundays from September 12) is a new travelogue series about some of the country’s quirkiest locations and characters. Other newcomers that week will include historic home makeover show Home Town (Three, 12.35pm Saturday) and Gold Coast Cops (TVNZ 2, 11.00 Thursday) …

➢➢ TVNZ’s deal with NBCUniversal has spawned one of the year’s strangest scheduling decisions: a Saturday night revival of Downton Abbey on TVNZ 2. The first season’s first four episodes will screen back-to-back from 10.15 on September 11. The series originally aired here on Prime and resurrecting it this way on TVNZ’s youth-skewing network is more puzzling than creator Julian Fellowes’ Downton successor Belgravia, which is part of the same deal, still languishing in limbo never having had a linear or streaming run here …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 continues to squeeze as much as it can from the popularity of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. From September 15 it will add a midweek broadcast of S12 as the 8.30 Wednesday successor to Taskmaster NZ while retaining the 10.05 Wednesday S9 re-run and continuing S12 eps on Fridays …

➢➢ TVNZ will push back the final of the low-rating It’s a Sin to 11.35 Saturday (the series premiered in a 9.30 slot) while TVNZ 2 is relegating The Walking Dead to 10.05 Mondays …

➢➢ Also ending their runs will be One Lane Bridge, Give Us a Clue, Million Pound Pawn and Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords …

➢➢ There will be four network movie premieres in the week starting September 11: Abominable (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday), Dora and the Lost City of Gold (Three, 7.00 Saturday), Fisherman’s Friends (Three, 11.00 Saturday) and Happy Death Day 2U (TVNZ 2, 10.50 Sunday) …

➢➢ Other HD coming attractions will include:

• A Simple Wish (Maori TV, 7.00 Saturday)
• Death Race (Three, 9.00 Saturday)
• Four Holidays (TVNZ 2, 8.35 Saturday)
• Constantine (Duke, 9.25 Saturday)
• Jason Bourne (TVNZ 2, 8.30 Sunday)
• Fargo (Maori TV, 8.30 Sunday)
• Spider-Man (Three, 8.45 Sunday)
• A Certain Justice (Prime, 9.30 Monday)
• Goodfellas (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Three, 7.30 Friday)
• Transporter 3 (Maori TV, 8.30 Friday)
• Revenge of the Nerds (Duke, 9.30 Friday)
• Secret in Their Eyes (TVNZ 2, 2.50am Saturday).