Today’s TV: Friday 20 December 1991
from the NZ Listener and The Press
TV One
9.35am Teletext in Vision
9.50 Family Film on One - It Nearly Wasn’t Christmas (1989) (G)
11.30 New Zealand Today (Final)
12.30pm ABC World News Tonight
1.00 Film on One - La Traviata (1982) (Rpt, G)
An Italian film with English subtitles
3.10 Top of the Hill (Rpt, G)
4.15 Kate & Allie (Rpt, G)
4.45 Emmerdale (G)
5.15 Te Karere (Final)
5.25 Wheel of Fortune (Final) (G)
6.00 One Network News
6.30 Holmes (Final)
7.00 Sale of the Century (Final) (G)
7.30 Coronation Street (G)
8.00 The Bill (PGR)
8.30 Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin (Part 2) (Rpt, G)
9.30 Bread (PGR)
10.10 One Network News
10.40 Mini-Series - Baby M (Part 2, final) (Rpt, PGR)
12.45am Closedown
Channel 2
6.15am Teletext in Vision
6.30 My Little Pony ‘n Friends (Rpt, G)
7.00 The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (Rpt, G)
7.25 The Bullwinkle Show (G)
8.00 ITN World News
8.30 Breezly and Sneezly (Rpt, G)
8.40 Sesame Street (G)
9.35 The Kidsongs TV Show (Rpt, G)
10.05 Aerobics Oz Style (G)
10.30 Neighbours (Rpt, G)
11.00 Santa Barbara
Noon The Young and the Restless
1.00 Days of Our Lives
2.00 Who’s the Boss? (Rpt, G)
2.30 ALF (Rpt, G)
2.55 Charlie Chalk (Rpt, G)
3.10 Maya the Bee (G)
3.35 The Little Flying Bears (G)
4.00 The Jetsons (Rpt, G)
4.30 Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (G)
5.00 The Bugs Bunny Show (G)
6.00 Candid Camera (G)
6.30 Studs (G)
7.00 Neighbours (G)
7.30 The Young Riders (PGR)
8.30 The Flash (PGR)
9.30 Top Cops (AO)
10.35 In Living Color (PGR)
11.05 Channel 2 Cyclone Aid for Samoa
A 13-hour national telethon with TVNZ personalities and NZ celebrities; continues through the night
TV3
6.25am EBS, including:
6.25 Aunties Alphabet (Rpt, G)
6.30 Pinocchio: The Series (G)
7.00 The Real Ghostbusters (Rpt, G)
7.30 Police Academy (Rpt, G)
8.00 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (G)
8.30 Closedown
Noon The Bold and the Beautiful (PGR)
12.30 Generations (PGR)
1.00 NBC Nightly News
1.30 Another World (PGR)
2.30 The Oprah Winfrey Show (G)
3.30 The Super Mario Bros Super Show! (G)
4.00 Dennis the Menace (G)
4.30 Double Dare (G)
5.00 Voltron (G)
5.30 Home and Away (G)
6.00 3 National News
7.00 Hey Dad..! (Final) (Rpt, G)
7.30 TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes (G)
8.30 3 Special - The 1991 Supermodel of the Year Awards (G)
10.30 Nightline
11.05 Late Movie - Heavenly Bodies (1985) (AO)
1.05am (approx) Closedown
Sky Movies
Noon Nostalgia at Noon - A Man for All Seasons (1966) (GY)
2.00 Rascal Dazzle (1950) (G)
3.30 The Merrie Melodies Show (G)
4.00 The Snowball Express (1972) (G)
5.41 Primo Music Box (G)
6.00 Supergirl (1984) (G)
8.00 The Good Mother (1988) (GA)
10.00 Extreme Prejudice (1987) (RP16)
11.45 Burglar (1987) (GA)
1.24am Closedown
Canterbury Television (CTV), Christchurch
4.30pm Susan Sells (G)
5.30 First Report (News)
6.00 What Would You Do?
6.30 Horse-Power Racing Preview
7.30 Jim Hopkins Live
8.00 First Report (News) (Rpt)
8.30 The Evening Movie - All the Right Moves (1983) (PGR)
10.15 Susan Sells (Rpt, G)
A repeat screening of tonight’s programme
11.10 Cyclone Aid for Samoa
A 13-hour national telethon with TVNZ personalities and NZ celebrities; live simulcast with Channel 2 and continues through the night
TVNZ’s first taste of 24-hour television
For most of television history in New Zealand, the end of the night was a certainty. Programmes would conclude at a set hour, continuity would wind down and viewers would be gently ushered to bed by the familiar sight of the Goodnight Kiwi (or TV Kiwi as he’s also known) and his feline companion (known as just the Cat). Television, quite literally, went to sleep.
That certainty was temporarily shattered in the summer of 1991/92 when TVNZ made a bold and unprecedented move: Channel 2 would broadcast 24 hours a day for the first time in the nation’s television history - not just overnight, but continuously, for months.
A summer experiment like no other
In December 1991 TVNZ announced that Channel 2 (now TVNZ 2) would operate around the clock from 20 December 1991 until the end of February 1992. The move was ambitious and historic: it marked the first extended period of 24-hour transmission since television began in New Zealand in June 1960.
Such was the success - or at least the curiosity - of the experiment that the run was later extended until Monday 30 March 1992.
The thinking behind the move was pragmatic. Summer viewing habits were different: people were on holiday, shift workers were awake at odd hours, and insomniacs finally had something to watch. As Aline Sandilands, TVNZ’s head of public relations at the time, later explained in a reply published in the NZ Listener:
“Viewing patterns at this time - with many New Zealanders on holiday - lent themselves to a far greater flexibility. We were delighted with the results, and hope to repeat the extended telecasts later.”
What filled the overnight hours?
The overnight schedule was never intended to rival primetime - but it wasn’t filler either. According to TVNZ, the extended service primarily consisted of:
- classic movies;
- mini-series;
- repeats and cult favourites; and
- music programming designed for late night audiences (including concerts).
One of the most memorable features was A-Z Video Gold, a homegrown music video programme from TVNZ during the summer of 1991/92.
A-Z Video Gold was exactly what it sounded like: an alphabetical run-through of music videos, blending older classics with more recent hits. It was shown on randomly selected mornings (but not every day) usually between 5am and 5.30am, though it occasionally began as early as 4.55am. The running time was equally unpredictable, ranging from 30 minutes to as long as 55 minutes.
This unpredictability only added to its charm. For early risers, night owls or anyone who happened to leave the television on - A-Z Video Gold felt like a reward for being awake.
Channel 2 Cyclone Aid for Samoa
The very first night of Channel 2’s 24-hour service was also one of its most meaningful.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Val devastated the Samoan Islands in December 1991, causing an estimated $600 million in damage and becoming the worst cyclone to hit the region since the infamous 1889 Apia disaster.
In response, TVNZ organised Channel 2 Cyclone Aid for Samoa, a 13-hour national telethon broadcast live to air from 11.05pm on Friday 20 December until noon the next day.
The telethon was based in Auckland and featured live studio links from Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. There was also a live outside broadcast link from Otara, underscoring the strong connection between New Zealand’s Pacific communities and Samoa.
The response was extraordinary. By the end of the broadcast, $1,002,091 had been raised - a figure that was matched dollar-for-dollar by the National Government (led by then Prime Minister, Jim Bolger, who died recently). All funds were donated to the Cyclone Val Relief Fund, administered by non-government agencies including Samoan representatives and the New Zealand Red Cross.
In Christchurch, the telethon took on a special local flavour.
TVNZ and Canterbury Television (CTV) jointly provided content, with the broadcast simulcast on CTV from 11.10pm until 9am - before switching to a locally produced entertainment extravaganza from CTV’s studios (where TVNZ’s Christchurch operations were based until the end of The Mainland Touch in 1990) until 11am when live racing (CTV Race Day) took over.
It was a powerful demonstration of television’s ability to unite a country - even in the dead of night.
The end of the first 24-hour era
The summer experiment came to a close on the evening of Monday 30 March 1992. Channel 2 reverted to a traditional nightly closedown, ending transmission at 12.35am in the early hours of Tuesday 31 March.
Fittingly, the final programme before closedown was a rerun of the 1970s action classic, The Professionals, screening at 11.25pm - after which the screen went dark once again.
Channel 2 resumed transmission at 6.30am the next morning with Casper and Friends, followed at 6.50am by a rerun of TVNZ’s Māori news programme, Te Karere (shown on TV One [now TVNZ 1] the day before).
Sandilands later noted that while the extended telecasts were popular, audience behaviour shifted as summer ended:
“It was noticeable that towards the middle of February people reverted to their ‘working’ habits and switched off earlier.”
Still, the experiment had planted a seed.
The gradual return of 24-hour TV
After March 1992, Channel 2 returned to nightly closedowns but the idea of continuous transmission was no longer radical - merely postponed.
On the evening of Friday 7 May 1993, Channel 2 quietly resumed 24-hour transmission on Friday and Saturday nights. The response was overwhelmingly positive, prompting TVNZ to expand the format.
Overnight schedules included feature films (e.g. Legal Eagles, The World According to Garp, The Rose etc), major music events (e.g. 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, 1992 World Music Awards etc) and reruns of Pepsi RTR Countdown (first shown at 11am on a Saturday and then repeated in a Saturday night/Sunday morning slot, i.e. approximately 5am) and its new spin-off, Pepsi RTR Showdown (introduced in 1993 as a Sunday morning show [10am] and repeated in a Friday night/Saturday morning slot, i.e. approximately 5am).
By mid-July 1994, 24-hour transmission was extended to Thursday and Sunday nights, and on 19 October 1994 Channel 2 finally went 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Goodbye Kiwi
That decision marked the end of a beloved era. Since the launch of New Zealand’s second television channel (originally known as TV2 South Pacific Television) at 1pm on the afternoon of Monday 30 June 1975, nightly closedowns had been accompanied by the gentle ritual of the Goodnight Kiwi and the Cat.
With continuous transmission now permanent, there was no longer a need to say good night.
The Kiwi quietly disappeared from regular screens - but never from memory.
A turning point in NZ TV
The summer of 1991/92 now feels like a transitional moment: a bridge between the old rhythms of broadcasting and the always-on media world we take for granted today.
What began as a seasonal experiment became the foundation for a permanent shift. Channel 2’s venture into 24-hour television wasn’t just about filling airtime - it was about rethinking how, when and why us as New Zealanders watched TV.
And for those who remember stumbling across a movie at 3am, discovering A-Z Video Gold by accident or staying up through the night to support the victims of Samoa - it remains a quietly historic chapter in our broadcasting story.
@TV4 @OnAir What do you think of my piece in regard to 24-hour television?
