HD Heads-Up: September 19

The third-most streamed series on TVNZ OnDemand in August was the fast-tracked Love Island, which clocked up 284,000 streams over 10 episodes compared with 105,000 streams for five eps of Offspring and 165,000 for eight eps of Wentworth. Wentworth recorded the third highest streaming average, after the fast-tracked The Bachelorette and Shortland Street.

HBO showdown … Wrong vibe for Emmys? … Fall season faux season …

HBO continues to reign supreme at the Emmy Awards — but only just after an unprecedented challenge by FX. It collected 22 of this year’s trophies, with more than half (12) being for Game of Thrones. FX had the next most number of wins (18), collecting half of those for The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story. The third biggest winner was Netflix with nine trophies, four of which were won by Making a Murderer. The most decorated free-to-air network was PBS, with eight wins, while Amazon, Fox and NBC rounded out the top five with six each …

Variety notes HBO and FX each won six awards on the night, with the rest being presented earlier in the week. “Toward the end of the night, FX and HBO each missed out on opportunities to jump ahead of the other with losses in key dramatic acting categories. Game of Thrones came up empty-handed in supporting actor and actress categories, in which it had multiple nominees who likely cannibalised votes from one another” …

HBO achieved the rare feat of one network winning the best drama (GoT) and comedy (Veep) Emmys. The last time this happened was last year, when both series won in their categories. Previously, NBC achieved the double-header with Hill Street Blues and Cheers in 1983 and 1984 — which made Hill St vet Dennis Franz’s presentation of the best drama trophy particularly apt …

This year’s biggest Emmy winners are SoHo staples, which is why Sky took the unusual step of using its premium drama channel to “sponsor” today’s awards ceremony on another of its channels, Vibe. But it would have been a more meaningful gesture had Sky actually screened the Emmys in HD on SoHo or even Prime rather than in SD on one of its basic services …

With the Emmys over for another year, it’s time for the US networks to unveil their fall season hopefuls for next year’s nominations. But as the New York Times reports, most nominees won’t emerge until 2017. “The traditional crush starts on Monday, with more than 80 new and returning network shows (and about 35 significant cable and streaming shows) crammed into six weeks” …

Despite the disproportionate media attention the fall season still receives, “it’s definitely not the home of TV’s most acclaimed shows,” the NYT argues. “Take a look at this year’s Emmy nominees for best drama: Six of the seven shows started their seasons in the first half of the year, from January to June, and the seventh, Homeland, is moving from fall to winter (January) for its next season” …

“If the fall doesn’t have the most compelling dramas or cutting-edge comedies, what does it offer?” asks the NYT. “One partial, uncomfortable answer is that it offers the greatest concentration of expensive, ostentatiously bad TV — formulaic, bombastic, ingratiating shows that make you shake your head at the squandering of money and talent” …

TVNZ OnDemand will stream some of these series same day or week as the US, including Blindspot, Code Black, Arrow, Criminal Minds, Black-ish, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away With Murder, Shameless, Supergirl and The Flash …

TV2 will have a handful of fast-tracked shows and Duke will double-bill the latest seasons of The Flash and Agents of SHIELD, and Arrow and Gotham on Wednesdays and Thursdays from October 5 and 6 respectively. Fans of The Flash can also watch a box set of season two on Duke from 8.30 on October 1 …