TV3’s Night Manager Shorter But the Same

TV3 isn’t shortchanging fans of The Night Manager, despite each episode running up to 15 minutes shorter than the BBC’s version.

Over the weekend reader thx1138 pointed out TV3’s premiere of the Sunday night spy drama had a running time of 42 minutes compared to 57 minutes on iTunes and the BBC iPlayer.

Similarly, lead-in The Hunt is running shorter than the BBC broadcast so TV3 can squeeze it into a ‘commercial hour’.

Once, NZ networks would have achieved this simply by editing the content to fit the slot but now there are acceptable alternatives to this strategy.

In the case of The Night Manager, TV3 is screening the same version as US cable network AMC (The Walking Dead, Mad Men), with the drama unfolding over eight commercial hours rather than six full-length ‘BBC hours’.

TV3 did source The Hunt from the BBC but says it’s only cut the making-of segment that aired at the end of each episode in the UK.

These are being compiled for a stand-alone episode that will screen at the end of The Hunt’s seven-week run.

The Hunt will be released on a three-disc Blu-ray on April 20; a NZ release date for The Night Manager has still to be confirmed but the BD goes on sale in the UK on March 28.