TVNZ has announced its new season of programming. The line-up includes all the biggest returning series as well as local dramas and international blockbuster movies.

Top picks for TV1 include a brand news series of Absolutely Fabulous and our own Sam Neill starring in a new drama called Alcatraz revolving around America’s most infamous prison, as well as more stories from Beyond the Darklands and Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

New shows for TV2 include 2 Broke Girls and Chelsea Straight Up starring Laura Prepon from That 70s Show, as well as returning series such as American Idol and Go Girls.

For the full line-up visit the TVNZ website here.

Below is a listing of the top ten programmes on NZTV, recorded as of the 25th September 2011 via Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

The top programme being watched is still One news TV ONE, with a mixture of New Zealand drama and current affairs in the other top spots and RWC coverage making it into the top 10.

To watch some of these programmes please follow this link to the TVNZ website.

Below is a listing of the top ten programmes on NZTV, recorded as of the 18th July 2011 via Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

The top programme being watched is Shortland Street, with News programmes dominating the remainder, and interestingly The Food Truck is currently rating fourth – a reality TV programme looking at the challenge of making fast food healthy.To watch some of these programmes please follow this link to the TVNZ website.

TVNZ is has announced its plans for its Rugby World Cup coverage.

The state broadcaster announced its commentary, presenting and news team today and they are clearly nicely placed to win the ratings war that is about to explode around the tournament.

With Sky Television, Maori Television and TV3 all having rights to the tournament the battle for the television audience will come down to points of difference.

Today’s announcement included:

• All Blacks great Jeff Wilson will be the broadcaster’s expert comments man.
• The award winning sports journalist Andrew Saville will be the lead commentator.
• Martin Devlin will front the World Cup coverage
• A new panel based show, Rugby World Cup 2011 – Tonight will air every match night.

“We needed to approach the Rugby World Cup with a fresh presentation,” TVNZ’s General Manager of Sport, Murray Needham said.

“With these key people on board I am anticipating that we will deliver an event which will be both informative and entertaining.”

Simon Dallow will be a regular guest on Rugby World Cup 2011- Tonight which will be hosted by Devlin and he’s excited by the groundwork put in by TVNZ’s executives.

“When New Zealand bid for the tournament they talked about a stadium of four million people,” he said. “Well, with the resources that TVNZ has, we will be able to take the Rugby World Cup to those four million. It’s hugely exciting for everyone involved.”

Journey into Darkness – The Strongman Tragedy, a documentary currently in production about  the Strongman Mine explosion that claimed the lives of 19 men, and the subsequent Commission of Inquiry.

The 90 minute telefeature is being produced for TV3 by Paula McTaggart from A Bigger Picture Ltd in association with Gaylene Preston Productions, with funding from the prestigious New Zealand On Air Platinum Fund.

Acclaimed filmmaker Gaylene Preston will direct the dramatic content of the feature-length programme, which will blend dramatisation with interviews filmed by McTaggart along with archive gathered over the past four years.

“I am humbled by the stories of lives completely thrown into chaos by that explosion in 1967,” says Preston.  “It is an honour to be involved in bringing the story of this terrible mine tragedy and inquiry to the screen.

Opened in 1939, the state owned Strongman Mine (11 kilometres north-east of Greymouth) was the pride and flagship of NZ’s coal industry and the largest underground coal mine in the country.  On 19 January, 1967, an explosion blew through the section of the mine known as Green’s No 2.

The telefeature is a labour of love for Runanga-born and raised Paula McTaggart, who comes from a long line of coal miners.  McTaggart has been developing the project since 2007, when a visit to her uncle, the late Ron Gibb, sparked her interest in this largely untold New Zealand tragedy.  Gibb was one of five men from Mines Rescue who received the British Empire Medal for their actions during the tragedy.

“The more he spoke, the more I felt that this was a critical piece of NZ history that had been largely overlooked outside of the West Coast”, McTaggart explains.

“My Uncle and I talked about the possibility of a documentary and he shared with me his knowledge of the tragedy along with the material to go forward.  Ron had a strong desire that the truth be told.”

McTaggart began filming interviews for the project in 2008.  TV3’s Head of Factual, Sue Woodfield, says the documentary’s gripping story of bravery and human resilience in the face of disaster will resonate with all New Zealanders.

“Although this project has been in development for several years, there’s a terrible sense of history repeating itself with the recent tragic events at Pike River, and the current Royal Commission.

“This is a very important film.”

McTaggart says the production team is interested in hearing from anyone who would like to be part of the documentary, at the email address enquries@biggerpicture.co.nz.

“It is important that those involved have the opportunity to contribute to the project,” she says.  “I hope that more people will come forward to tell their individual stories, or to share photos, film footage or other materials.”

Journey into Darkness – The Strongman Tragedy is being produced for TV3 with funding from New Zealand On Air’s Platinum fund which is reserved for high quality programs of historical and cultural importance with a significant relevance to New Zealand and New Zealanders.

TVNZ Kidzone24 will feature trusted educational and inspiring content for pre-school children in an advertising-free environment. TVNZ Kidzone24 will air 24 hours a day on the SKY platform from 1 May.

Chief Executive Rick Ellis is delighted that SKY has made it possible for TVNZ to extend the popular Kidzone brand beyond the two hours that are available on public service channel TVNZ 7.

“Kidzone has been an increasingly popular collection of programming, providing educational and entertaining content for young New Zealanders, with a significant amount of locally produced programming.

“It is fantastic that we are now able to offer a commercially-viable, expanded Kidzone channel, on the SKY platform.”

The TVNZ Kidzone24 schedule features a strong focus on local programming including existing favourites like Kidzone with Kayne which features p resenter Kayne Peters and offers opportunities for young viewers to think and learn about the world around them. Other local shows include Buzzy Bee and Friends , hilarious sketch-comedy show The Giggles and f rom the creative minds of the Academy Award-winning Weta Workshop, The Wot Wots .

TVNZ Kidzone24 will also feature exciting new content including Guess with Jess (the popular cat from Postman Pat) which will allow children to learn about science and nature and Babar And The Adventures of Badou – a show centred around Babar’s eight year old grandson, Badou and speaks to the importance of diversity, acceptance and strong family values.

The channel will be located on SKY Channel 046, within the stable of family channels and will be available as part of the SKY Basic Digital Package. Select content will also be available on iSKY.

For more information please follow this link

For Shadow a homeless Aucklander who has spent most of his life on the streets. Drama has been a been a positive  and life changing experience.

“Shadow”, who says he has forgotten his real name because of years of glue-sniffing, started living on the streets in his early teens because of problems at home with his mother’s boyfriend.

Yesterday, at a national conference on homelessness, he sang and played the harmonica and with five other homeless men.

He also plays a homeless man in a TV3 series called Super City.

“They had to get a streetie to play a streetie,” he said. “I hope they do another series, I wouldn’t mind doing some more work. It was cool.”

Auckland City Mission homeless worker Wilf Holt, who helped to form the drama group 18 months ago, said it tapped the skills of people such as Shadow and guitarist Jem Pauro, 41, both regular Queen St buskers.

The group worked with professionals from The Edge to put on a show called Homeless Economics in the recent Auckland Fringe Festival.

Another member, Garry, 55, said he had known most of the members for 10 years and the drama group was “the biggest positive change I’ve seen”.

“To see them come out in front of people – wow!

“For me, it’s been the greatest distraction in my life. It takes me away from my personal issues that I can’t fathom to understand. It’s an extraordinary thing, I believe this should be part and parcel of every country’s homeless policy.”

Iris Pahau, of the Coalition to End Homelessness, which organised yesterday’s conference, said homelessness was “sadly, a growing industry”.

Auckland Night Shelter manager Corie Haddock, who co-chairs the coalition, said he was advising Tauranga police, council and churches about a planned night shelter for a growing number of rough sleepers. He will meet another group in Palmerston North in June.

He said the coalition wanted a parliamentary inquiry into all aspects of homelessness, including boarding houses, overcrowding and substandard houses as well as rough sleeping.

National MP Katrina Shanks, who chairs Parliament’s social services committee, said the committee felt the whole issue was too broad and lacked adequate research, but it was considering an inquiry into boarding houses.

“We have just done a lot of legislative changes with the Residential Tenancies Act,” she said.

“So it’s a good bit of work to see whether it’s changing what we are concerned about, which is slum landlords.”

For a full listing of this story please follow this link

Jax Hamilton and Anthony McEntee and judge Simon Gault (centre) preparing dishes for Euro relaunch party .

Things heated up last night on the latest episode of NZ master chef. The challenge was to cook for 100 vip’s at the launch of Simon Gault Euro Restaurant. The top ten impressed and judges decided to reward them with no one being sent home last night. Which forms the question is there going to be a double elimination next week?

The day started well for the contestants, boarding a party bus, believing they had a day of relaxation ahead of them.

Instead, they were told by judge Simon Gault, they were about to face one of their hardest challenges yet – cooking five-star dishes for the relaunch of Gault’s restaurant, Euro.

The group was divided into five teams of two, the first time the group had been paired up in a challenge, with each team preparing a dish for the guests.

The team with the highest score would be rewarded with a dinner at Euro, prepared by Gault himself, while one member of the losing team would be sent home.

So began a stressful day of prepping, cooking and well cooking again, as contestants faced up to the reality of preparing meals in a professional kitchen.

In the words of contestant Anthony McEntee, “We weren’t just thrown in the deep-end, we were shot out of a canon into the middle of the Atlantic and expected to swim to shore.”

McEntee, who was paired with Jax Hamilton, had the challenge of preparing duck breasts with foie gras ice cream and provided one of the more lighter moments in the kitchen when he binned several duck breasts after burning them.

That left him short of several duck breasts, but he played dumb when Hamilton counted and said they were short.

He said his main memory of the day was “fright”.

McEntee said the contestants were ”duped” into getting on a party bus but the mood quickly turned to one of terror once the challenge was laid bare.

“It was a very daunting prospect.”

And he said he has an innocent explanation about the duck breasts which ended up in the bin.

“We were only ever given 35 duck breasts to begin with and then I had to go source some more.

“We were given a chef to help us catch up for a bit, so it was blind panic because I didn’t realise that I didn’t have enough duck breasts.

“Later on, who knows what happened to them. Three or so went in the bin.

“There was no covering there, when you’re under so much pressure you just forget to do the simplest things.

“I use numbers all day, everyday in my job and I couldn’t count.”

Even making the ice cream was filled with pitfalls.

“After the first effort I was told by the chef it was not good enough and was then told off for wasting Euro’s food produce.

“To be honest I was quite intimidated and when he said ”you’ll have to make do” I assumed he meant I had to use the remaining 14 eggs.

“I didn’t realise there were trays and trays of eggs out the back I could have easily gone and used.

“I used 14 eggs and tried to alter the recipe in my head but when Gault came over and asked me if I’d followed the recipe it fell apart.”

If contestants needed anymore pressure they got it in the form of Euro’s restaurant manager Robere Pothier, who seemed to terrify everyone in his path.

“My grandmother’s been dead for 10years and she’d be faster than you tonight,” he barked at one point.

McEntee said he doesn’t think the staff were trying to be hard “it’s just the way they are as professionals”.

“Robere only accepted the best and would tell us he had seen better things on the back streets of Paris. He was intimidating.”

By the end of the service McEntee said everyone had learnt so much about what it takes to be a chef.

“And the passion that we all thought we had, that was the true test of it.”

Stu Todd and Nadia Lim won the competition but McEntee and Hamilton found themselves in the bottom team, with Michael Lee and a very worried and teary Tracey Lee Hooton getting the second lowest score.

So it must have been pure relief when Gault announced nobody was going home.

“Euro’s my baby and you didn’t break it.”

To watch this episode of NZ Master Chef please follow this link

What did you think of this episode, let us know.

TVNZ launches U, a ground-breaking new channel which integrates online social networking with broadcast content for the first time on New Zealand screens. U is a commercial free-to-air digital channel which features a mix of real life and factual entertainment programming and is aimed at all Kiwis aged 15-24.

The channel kicks off with our first ever episode of U live – a live daily interactive entertainment music show hosted by Connor Nester, Rose Matafeo and Tim Lambourne. Packed with giveaways, guests and entertainment news, no two shows will be the same. U live airs every day between 4pm and 7pm.

TVNZ has worked closely with Facebook to create a truly interactive show. Fans of the U live Facebook app are able to comment on topics, post pictures, vote in polls and peek behinds the scenes of the show through a live stream “producer cam”. Comments will then be pulled into the broadcast and onto screen, giving viewers a chance to interact with the presenters and each other like never before.

TVNZ’s Head of Digital Media and Channels Eric Kearley says that TVNZ is delighted to bring New Zealand its first true “social television” experience through the Facebook integration.

“It’s the first true technology-driven integration of online social media with television in New Zealand.”

U tv, which starts tonight and airs every Sunday at 8.30pm, gives viewers another chance to interact with the broadcast. People can enter a competition to be the U programmer for a month via the channel’s website. The lucky winner will effectively “own” the slot, choosing what viewers watch and then, via a video link, present their choices to NZ.

The rest of the schedule is made up of a selection of shows new to New Zealand audiences that are sure to shock, inspire and entertain. Britain’s Missing Top Model explores the biggest taboo in modelling… the lack of disabled models. The Buried Life follows the real life adventure of four guys on an epic quest to prove that anyone can do anything and to challenge strangers with the ultimate question: “What do you want to do before you die?”. And G Girls follows the glitzy team behind Britain’s top glossy – Glamour magazine. This is the series that gives fashion fans the kind of inside access they can only dream of.

According to Kearley, U is an innovative step for broadcasting in New Zealand and fills a gap in the market.

“We had identified that there was an opportunity to extend the content available for young New Zealanders with new locally made and overseas programming. U will be the only fully localised youth channel in the market providing bespoke opportunities for New Zealand advertisers to speak to young Kiwis.”

U will be broadcast on Freeview/TiVo channel 6 and SKY/Telstra channel 016.

For more information about “u” Channel please follow this link to the TVNZ page or follow this link to their Face book page.

This could be you!

One of Maori Televisions most watched and favourite shows is about to hit our screens once again with a new season. Homai Te Pakipaki gives entertainers, wannabes and anyone willing to leave their inhibitions at the door and let loose on the stage. You are given your fifteen minutes of fame, and a chance to win $10,000.

From March 18, HOMAI TE PAKIPAKI will once again be broadcasting live from Maori Television’s Newmarket studios every Friday night at 8.30pm. The karaoke show’s producer, Erina Tamepo, hopes to see the verandah full to busting with keen and eager contestants as soon as auditions start at 4.30pm that day.

“From that moment it’s all go as we screen the wannabe contestants and select the ten or so who’ll go on to perform live on air,” says Erina. “It’s always an amazing experience as 90% of the kaiwaiata (singers) have never been in a studio before, so there are usually some emotional moments – for them and for us! Unlike many other television singing shows, most of our kaiwaiata aren’t here because they want to be stars; they just really love singing and dream of singing in front of an audience. Our show is unsanitised, spontaneous and fun.”

Again, unlike many other similar shows, contestants on HOMAI TE PAKIPAKI have no rehearsal, no coaching, no choreography and only a little prep. After being selected to sing, they’re through to make-up and in front of the cameras, where it’s up to them to show the text voting audience at home what they’ve got.

The 2011 season sees the return of hosts Matai Smith (Rongowhakaata, Ngai Tamanuhiri, Ngati Kahungungu) and Te Hamua Nikora (Te Tai Rawhiti), who have both seen a wide range of talent in their time on the show.

“One of the reasons HOMAI TE PAKIPAKI has been so successful is that you don’t necessarily have to be a fantastic singer to get on air, although we’ve had some phenomenal singers on,” says Matai. “There’s so much aroha emanating from our audience that as long as you do your best, that’s all that matters. I love that HOMAI TE PAKIPAKI is so raw and so real. It’s not fabricated and slick – it’s all about the talent.”

As in previous years, the winner of each of the 20 heats receives $1000 and the chance to compete for prizes in the two semi finals, then $10,000 in the grand final, scheduled for August 26.

The auditions are open to anyone and whanau come from far and wide to sing their hearts out on HOMAI TE PAKIPAKI, and it’s not unusual to see familiar faces turning up.

“HOMAI TE PAKIPAKI has quickly become an institution in our nation, one I am extremely proud to be a part of. To be back to co-host the 2011 season of Homai, for me, is both a privilege and an honour. I absolutely love the job and am committed to bringing my own flavour to help with the uniqueness of Aotearoa’s favourite entertainment show” says Te Hamua.

For information on how to enter, visit the HOMAI TE PAKIPAKI page on Maori Television’s website www.maoritelevision.com