ScreenScribe

➢➢ TVNZ 1 switches from Sunday night dramas to real-life whodunits with the August 23 premiere of Murder In The Outback. It’s being promoted as “in-depth re-examination” of the mystery surrounding the 14 July 2001 attack on British hitchhikers Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio that sparked a 16-month manhunt and led to the conviction of […]

Prime has pulled its new COVID-19 drama INSiDE because of the latest outbreak of the virus. The 15-minute drama was to have screened 8.30 Sundays-Wednesdays, starting this weekend, with a weekly Saturday-night compilation. But the network has shelved the NZ On Air-backed drama because of a storyline deemed too sensitive: Morgana O’Reilly plays a reclusive […]

Season one of Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys lands on Blu-ray with a “largely excellent HD rendition [that’s] decent enough to almost go toe-to-toe with Amazon’s streamed 4K equivalent,” AVForums says. “Detail is impressively realised, and The Boys enjoys a fairly gritty look which translates very nicely to a top tier Blu-ray presentation, with grain […]

Sky says the sale of its Outside Broadcast assets in a deal that will save it $50 million over the next five years won’t compromise the quality of its sports coverage. Meanwhile, Sky will release its results for the year ended 30 June 2020 on September 10. Here’s the Outside Broadcast media release: Sky sells […]

David Tennant plays a serial killer in Des, a true-crime dramatisation that will premiere on TVNZ OnDemand in the spring. It depicts how the “hugely damaged” Dennis Nilsen manipulated his victims, the police and the media between 1978 and 1983, when he murdered several boys and men. The three-part series will go to air on ITV within the […]

New series about to how to build a car and how to defuse a bomb are among the premieres due on Duke between October and January. The spring schedule was unveiled to media buyers with two new 8.30 flagships. The COVID-19 postponed Late Night Big Breakfast, in which John Leigh Harte and Jason Hoyte host […]

The latest Chuck Lorre sitcom, B-Positive, starring Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch, will be a key anchor for a new Tuesday night comedy block on TVNZ 2. The show was among the October-January highlights the broadcaster has promoted to media buyers. It stars Middleditch as a newly divorced therapist who falls in love with a rough […]

TVNZ has revealed to media buyers its October-January highlights. Here’s what to expect on TVNZ 1: Black Hands: Five-part dramatisation of the Bain family murders that focuses on the why rather than the how, leaving it up to viewers to be the jury. Cold Case: The true crime series returns for a second season of […]

SUNDAY ➢ Bob (Hearts) Abishola | TVNZ 2, 4.10 New Chuck (The Big Bang Theory) Lorre comedy about an uptight businessman who falls in love with his cardiac nurse, a Nigerian immigrant. “Groundbreaking, but unfortunately grating, Bob (Hearts) Abishola undermines its own progressive premise with underwhelming humour that relies too heavily on outdated stereotypes.” — Rotten […]

Saturday Marmaduke (TVNZ 2, 7.00) Swallows and Amazons (Maori TV, 7.00) Hot Tub Time Machine (TVNZ 2, 8.30) Jaws 3 (Three, 8.30) Shutter (Duke, 8.30) Inception (TVNZ 2, 10.30) The Birth of a Nation (Three, 10.35)   Sunday RocknRolla (TVNZ 2, 1.05am)  Game Night (TVNZ 2, 8.20) The Wife (Maori TV, 8.30)  The Boss (Three, 8.45) The Graduate (Duke, 10.45) The Exorcist (TVNZ 2, […]