HD Heads-Up: September 30-October 6

➢➢ TVNZ 1 and TVNZ 2 are tweaking their schedules for the first week of October while Three continues to experiment with more stripped programming in primetime. The biggest change is TVNZ 2’s pairing of the latest Taskmaster UK season with Taskmaster Australia. The 8.30 double-bill opens on Tuesday at 8.30 and continues on Wednesday. It pre-empts NCIS: Hawai’i and Kings of Pain that Tuesday and the previously scheduled Wednesday movie Mamma Mia …

➢➢ Julian Clary, Lucy Beaumont, Sam Campbell, Sue Perkins and Susan Wokoma feature in S16 of Taskmaster, which Channel 4 has commissioned for another five seasons. The new series bows September 21 in the UK whereas Taskmaster Oz debuted seven months ago on Network 10. According to Wikipedia, “The pre-recorded tasks were filmed in the same house in New Zealand that the Taskmaster New Zealand uses. It is known as ‘The Taskmaster Retreat’ in the Australian version and ‘The Taskmaster Ranch’ in the New Zealand version” …

➢➢ Taskmaster’s last-minute addition just happens to coincide with Three stripping the latest run of Married at First Sight UK 8.30 Monday-Wednesday the same week. MAFS UK is a 36-episode commitment. It went to air September 18 on Channel 4, where the series screens four nights a week and presumably will here, too. Three’s also pre-empting its Sunday movie for a double-episode debut of Aussie gangster drama Last King of the Cross, which has been streaming on ThreeNow. Paddy Gower Has Issues returns to anchors Wednesday nights from 7.30 …

➢➢ TVNZ 2 premieres wartime satire C*A*U*G*H*T (9.25 Monday) the same day as its TVNZ+ launch. It becomes the new lead-in for The Walking Dead: Darryl Dixon, which airs at the earlier time of 10.05 …

➢➢ TVNZ 1 is demoting and promoting Alan Carr in the same week. It’s pushing his Friday night Interior Design Masters to 9.30 and swapping over to 8.30 a re-run of Location Location Location UK. But such is its faith in Carr’s appeal that it’s launching Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow (7.00 Saturday) the same night it premieres for a binge marathon Changing Ends (8.05), a semi-autobiographical account of Carr’s ’80s youth as the son of a professional football manager in Northampton …

➢➢ The Guardian dubbed Changing Ends “a light, self-deprecating slice of hilarity … camp, cheeky and clever”, Radio Times “a laugh-out-loud autobiographical comedy with a lot of heart” and The Telegraph, a “sweet sitcom … [although] the jokes sometimes sit uncomfortably alongside the bigotry he experienced” …

➢➢ Also new to TVNZ 1 are toy auctioneers series Scouting for Toys (3.00 Saturday) and S2 of Nick Knowles Heritage Rescue (S1 aired in peak hour) while Jack Tame moderates a Multi-Party Debate  (7.00 Thursday) …

➢➢ Matt Watson: In Too Deep (Three, 7.00 Saturday) is a 90-minute profile of how the former roof-tiler hatched 20 years of The ITM Fishing Show …

➢➢ Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (Sky Open, 8.30 Tuesday) is a three-part Max docuseries about the 44th President of the United States that sounds more hagiography than history. Said Decider: “While Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union is likely more reverent than most people might like, it’s still an effective portrait of a president whose desire was to unite instead of divide” …

➢➢ Live sport on Sky Open includes ICC Cricket World Cup: NZL v ENG (9.00 Thursday) and Live: NPC Quarter Final 1 (7.00 Friday) …

➢➢ Mud Mountain Haulers (Sky Open, 7.30 Monday) returns for S2 and S3 of Call Me Kat resumes off-peak (TVNZ 2, 12.55 Saturday) while ending their runs are Lucky Hank, Border Patrol, Killing It, Poker Face, Paramedics, Channel Patrol, The Celebrity Chase, The Resort, Would I Lie To You? and Saving Lives at Sea …

➢➢ HD coming attractions for the week starting September 30 include:

• Philomena (TVNZ 1, 1.00 Saturday)
• Jurassic World (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Saturday)
• April and the Extraordinary World (Whakaata Māori, 7.00 Saturday)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (Three, 8.30 Saturday)
• Ideal Home (Eden, 8.30 Saturday)
• Empire Records (Whakaata Māori, 8.40 Saturday)
• 28 Days (TVNZ 2, 9.20 Saturday)
• The Grudge 2 (Duke, 10.55 Saturday)
• Mother’s Day (TVNZ 2,11.25 Saturday)
• Something Borrowed (TVNZ 2, 1.35am Sunday)
• Kung Fu Panda 3 (TVNZ 2,4.10 Sunday)
• ‘Crocodile’ Dundee (TVNZ 2, 7.00 Sunday)
• I Love You Phillip Morris (Eden, 8.20 Sunday)
• The Mole Agent (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Sunday)
• XXX – Return of Xander Cage (TVNZ 2, 8.50 Sunday)
• Deep Blue Sea 3 (TVNZ 2, 11.50 Sunday)
• Ablaze (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Monday)
• Miami Vice (Duke, 8.30 Tuesday)
• The Idol (Whakaata Māori, 8.30 Wednesday)
• Super 8 (Three, 8.45 Friday)
• Minority Report (TVNZ 2, 9.00 Friday)
• The Tuxedo (Duke, 9.30 Friday).