ScreenScribe

Press | Lightbox, from Wednesday ☆☆☆☆ “Mike Bartlett’s new drama gets more things right about newspapers than most, but this will still amuse or rankle with many journalists … I imagine this is how police and doctors feel watching cop or hospital dramas. Bartlett is, however, a very good writer, and I sense the drama will ramp up […]

Bancroft | TVNZ 1, 9.00 Sunday ➢ “After watching Thandie Newton’s meltdown in Line of Duty (to which this plot bore truly remarkable similarities, to the possible extent that lawyers might begin to rub their little hands), and that of Suranne Jones in Doctor Foster, it was poor Sarah Parish’s turn to play the driven, […]

Trauma | TVNZ 1, 8.30 Sunday ➢ “Trauma is a twisty tale of two men whose lives become dangerously intertwined by bleak chance. Even the credits hint that the pair are doubles, one representing the light side, one the shadow. That the doctor (Adrian Lester) is black and the grieving father (John Simm) white is […]

The return of The Walking Dead on Monday helped TVNZ 2 to wipe out the competition for the night. The season-eight premiere posted the zombie sensation’s lowest opening US ratings in five years but here held up well and easily won the 9.30 hour in the key commercial demographics. It averaged 4.0% of 25-54 and 18-49 […]

Three’s struggling Tin Star has rebounded in the ratings since TVNZ 1’s pulled Criminal Minds for Doctor Foster. Monday’s episode of the British crime drama averaged 4.1% of Three’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds, to win the 8.30 hour against Doctor Foster (2.5%) and all but one quarter-hour segment of TVNZ 2’s comedy combo, Will & […]

TVNZ 1 hopes to take Doctor Foster off life support by resurrecting the season-two premiere on Saturday night. After being all but DOA on Monday at 8.30, the network is banking on picking up more viewers by repeating the premiere after its time slot-winning Saturday edition of The X Factor UK — and thereby boosting viewership […]

TVNZ 1 viewers don’t want another dose of Doctor Foster. The season-two premiere flopped on Monday when it drew fewer 25-54 year-olds — the core commercial demographic for TVNZ 1 — than TVNZ 2’s comedies and barely more than Three’s struggling British drama, Tin Star. It averaged 2.7% of the network’s core commercial demographic compared […]

New Zealand’s definitive guide to what’s airing nightly free-to-air in 1080i    Saturday  Nature’s Weirdest Events (TV1, 4.55, R) Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers (TV3, 5.00) Ados Addicted to Fishing (Prime, 5.00, R) 1 News at 6pm (TV1, 6.00) Season Premiere: The Barefoot Bandits (TV2, 6.00) Newshub Live at 6pm (TV3, 6.00) Flog It! (Prime, 6.00) The Middle (TV2, 6.30, […]

Doctor Foster | TVNZ 1, 8.30 Monday ➢ “The joy of the second series of Doctor Foster (BBC1) is that we now know it is not aiming for gritty drama and failing, but aiming for histrionic melodrama and succeeding beyond its wildest expectations … We can now run gleefully towards the waves of madness – already […]

  TVNZ 1 will premiere season two of Doctor Foster on October 9 at 8.30 — and at the same time offer all five episodes for streaming online as a box set at tvnz.co.nz. Such programming shows how the importance of linear scheduling has declined even on free-to-air TV, despite it remaining the platform with […]