HDTV Heads-Up: September 22-28

TV3 is shifting new Aussie drama Tricky Business back an hour because of dismal ratings while TV One is devoting primetime Wednesdays to re-runs of Criminal Minds and Castle.

Tuesday’s episode of Tricky Business averaged only 2.5% – 3.6% but TV3 saw the ratings on the wall even before the second episode aired.

It alerted media ahead of the broadcast that the Antony Starr vehicle would replace SVU at 9.35 Tuesday from September 25, with Grand Designs Australia taking over the 8.30 hour.

Also on the move is Ramsay’s Best Restaurant, which will air 3.25 Saturday afternoons from September 22.

It’s being replaced at 8.30 Wednesday by re-runs of Criminal Minds’ fifth season, from episode one.

No surprises there — the grisly crime procedural has become TV One’s HD stand-by for whenever there’s a hole in its peak-hour schedule.

But compounding this cynical scheduling is the network’s choice of an HD stablemate: re-runs of the bland Castle, from episode one of season two.

Also of note in HD for the week starting September 22:

❑ The season premiere of Annabel Langbein The Free Range Cook: Simple Pleasures on Saturday (TV One 7.00)

❑ Season finales of MasterChef Australia on Saturday (TV One, 7.30) and Auckland Daze on Thursday (TV One, 10.05)

❑ The network premiere of the movie, Cop Out, on Sunday (TV2, 8.30), and re-runs of The Secret Life of Bees on Saturday (TV3, 10.30), There’s Something About Mary on Sunday (TV3, 8.30) and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra on Monday (TV3, 8.30).