ScreenScribe

Manifest | TVNZ 1, 8.30 Monday/TVNZ 2, 9.30 Wednesday ☆☆☆☆ “The epitome of what Hollywood calls high-concept story-telling. A plane takes off from an airport in the Caribbean one afternoon and, despite a little rough weather, arrives seemingly intact in New York … five and a half years later. If that sounds weird but not particularly […]

Hawaii Five-O fans frustrated by time slot changes and pre-emptions will be heartened to hear TV3 hasn’t yet washed its hands of the splashy crime show. TV3 is taking it off-air after next week and replacing it with the Underbelly Files movie, Tell Them Lucifier Was Here. Although Underbelly is one of the network’s most […]

Season seven of House opens tonight (TV3, 8.30) but it still won’t be in HD — despite MediaWorks TV resolving its HD dispute with distributor NBC-Universal. The distributor has been an exclusive supplier of TV3’s since the channel launched 21 years ago. But in TV3’s first few years as an HD broadcaster, NBC-Universal wouldn’t provide […]

TV3’s Sons of Anarchy ended its first season last night as the network’s highest-rating hour. It drew 7.6% of TV3’s traditional audience, 18-49 year-olds, to earn a 23.5% channel share opposite TV2’s Austin Powers in Goldmember, which averaged 7.9/24 over two hours. The groovy spy spoof dominated against both Anarchy and lead-in Survivor: Nicaragua but […]

As forecast on this site last month, TV3 is ditching The Event from primetime. The HD conspiracy thriller was one of the network’s top picks for its new season but after plummeting ratings, programmers aren’t even waiting for the mid-season finale before re-scheduling it to late-night. Next week’s double-episode cliffhanger will air post-Nightline, at 10.55pm […]

TV critic Jane Clifton’s review of The Event in this morning’s Dominion Post summed up the HD drama’s dilemma. “How is it possible to thoroughly enjoy a television programme, but understand only a tenth of what’s going on?” she asked. “After Lost, TV3’s The Event, on Tuesdays, is doing a terrific job of driving the […]

TV3’s Outrageous Fortune replacement, the HD conspiracy thriller, The Event, last night won its slot with the audience the network is targeting in 2011: 25-54 year-olds. It averaged 10.7% of this demo over the course of its hour-long premiere, opening with 10.6% and closing with an unusually consistent 10.5%, peaking at 10.9% in-between. But in […]

The next couple of weeks will see a slew of local shows debut in HD as well as an epic conspiracy serial that’s likely to be summer’s most compulsive drama. TV3 is replacing Outrageous Fortune, from November 16, with The Event, a riveting thriller that’s like 24 meets FlashForward, only more coherent than the latter […]

TV3 will jump-start its 2011 season by launching several HD highlights before Christmas. On November 5 Glee will return to its original 7.30pm Friday slot after the second half of season one fared less well at 8.30pm. Also confirmed for next month is The Event, a stunning conspiracy thriller that’s cleverly and tautly told, while […]

Expect a big jump in TV3’s primetime HD content. The network will unveil its 2011 highlights to media and ad agencies this week, when it’s also tipped to announce major management changes. One of next year’s biggest breakthroughs will be most of TV3’s US content screening in HD. Until now, one of its key suppliers, […]