TVNZ 2 Drops 100k Pound and Deposes Spartan

TVNZ 2 has ditched The 100k Pound Drop and Spartan: New Zealand vs Australia from its Saturday night schedule and is reinstating an evening movie slot.

After only three weeks, the transTasman reality competition is being relegated to 5.30 Saturdays, displacing the 6.05 broadcast of the UK game show.

I haven’t seen the ratings for Spartan but they must have been incredibly dire for the network to pull it so abruptly when summer viewership is low, anyway.

In Australian, Channel Seven was so confident of the show’s success it filmed two series back-to-back — only to watch the first crash and burn after going head-to-head with Married at First Sight.

The change takes effect from this weekend, when TVNZ 2 will add a 7.00 screening of Cars (Zootopia will screen in the new family movie slot on January 25 and the original Jumanji on February 1).

The rejig also will see the Saturday afternoon run of American Housewife axed to accommodate three back-to-back re-runs of Australian Survivor on Saturday and from February 1, The Bachelorette.