NZ TV show ideas

Extra Mock Designs
31

The Morning Break
The Morning Break is a live-to-air, magazine-style morning show which combines strong editorial content with “in programme” commercial opportunities.

Content includes a wide range of regular segments, celebrity interviews, competitions and advertorials, all of which take 90 minutes (from 8.30am every Monday to Friday). Regular segments include cooking with guest chefs, movie and book reviews, panel discussions, live music, fashion, exercise, parenting, craft, interior design, gardening, makeovers, nutrition and relationship advice, and entertainment news.

This show will be produced at the studios of WhitebaitMedia in Christchurch, with Greg O’Connor and Ali Harper co-hosting. Greg is well known to participants in the racing industry as a racing broadcaster on Trackside, and Ali is an accomplished singer and entertainer. The duo will make their debuts as hosts of this new show.

The advertorial segments will be hosted by Sue Wells (well known from her Canterbury Television days) and Jason Mac (also known as J-Mac from More FM’s Breakfast Club).

WhitebaitMedia - which is based in Christchurch and described as ‘New Zealand’s leading creators and producers of live and pre-recorded children’s, youth and family television for national broadcast’ - opened its purpose built studio complex in 2009.

@TV4 @nztv @OnAir What do you think about the concept of a new, magazine-style morning show out of Christchurch?

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this post is based on one of my ideas and acts as a starting point only.

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32

The more done outside of Auckland, the better, in terms of diversity of NZ’s voices.

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33

Jason Gunn Tonight
Jason Gunn Tonight is a live-to-air, Christchurch based talk/variety show filmed in front of a live studio audience, with media personality Jason Gunn as host.

Produced at the studios of WhitebaitMedia in Christchurch, this show has a casual atmosphere and combines celebrity interviews, live music, skits, comedy routines and various competitions - all of which take 90 minutes - into a Tonight type format similar to In Melbourne Tonight and Penthouse Club from Australia. It will be perfect for running at 9.30pm every Thursday night.

Members of the Christchurch based Garden City Big Band - which has over 20 years experience providing musical entertainment both locally and further afield - will make up the seven-piece Jason Gunn Tonight orchestra, and there will be plenty of interviews and variety acts not only in Christchurch but throughly the length of New Zealand.

@TV4 @nztv @OnAir What do you think about the concept of a new, Tonight type talk/variety show out of Christchurch?

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this post is based on one of my ideas and acts as a starting point only.

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34

Looks good @PaddyTePou! Although maybe 9:30-11pm is a little late, especially with an audience. Maybe it could be recorded or air earlier?

I’m surprised nothing like this has been tried in recent years.

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35

@OnAir In those days, talk/variety shows across the Tasman used to go to air live and include interactive elements like a Wheel of Fortune type game/quiz similar to The Don Lane Show from Australia. It went to air live at 9.30pm (local time) on Monday and Thursday nights during the 1970s and 1980s.

Two people (i.e. one randomly selected member of the studio audience and one viewer phoning in from anywhere in New Zealand) are drawn at random from a barrel of entries (by post or email) each week. Their aim is to correctly answer a small set of trivia questions and win one of 21 prizes, according to the prize wheel as seen in the video.

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37

Phone ins don’t work anymore. It’s easy to just google it.

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38

Deadline
Set in the frantic world of newspaper journalism and inspired by actual events, Deadline is a 13-part weekly drama which focuses on the personal and professional lives of the staff of Kiwi Express, an Auckland based national newspaper, and the stories they cover.

We’re first introduced to print journalist Kate Harwood (played by Ria Vandervis) in the first, feature-length story that sets the stage for her return to Auckland from Australia. Fresh from The Sydney Morning Herald, she’s been recruited by Ian Watkins (Matt Chamberlain), CEO and editor-in-chief of Kiwi Express, who wants her Rottweiler qualities to save the struggling newspaper from closing its Auckland office.

Watkins appoints Kate without consulting Jim Tamihere (Jarod Rawiri), the senior editor of Kiwi Express. Jim and the rest of his staff are not too pleased with the decision, appalled by Kate’s tabloid-esque style and her “blood on the road” approach.

CAST
(in alphabetical order - subject to casting)
Simon Arblaster as Gerald Blake
Matt Chamberlain as Ian Watkins
Ido Drent as Tom Bidwell
Anna Jullienne as Shannon Fitzgerald
Morgana O’Reilly as Caroline Jeffries
Jarod Rawiri as Jim Tamihere
Nic Sampson as Peter Ellis
Jessica Grace Smith as Madeleine Clifford
Esther Stephens as Andrea Holden
Ria Vandervis as Kate Harwood
Will Wallace as Shaun Duggan

THEME MUSIC
The theme tune for Deadline is an arrangement of “The Power Connection”, originally composed as a production music track by Leon Berger for Cavendish Music. Click the YouTube link below to hear the original track.

@OnAir @nztv @TV4 What do you think of the concept of a new drama series set in a national newspaper? More NZ TV drama ideas to come…

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this post is based on one of my ideas and acts as a starting point only, although the story within my concept is fictitious and imaginary.

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39

I think I’d rather watch a comedy version set in some backwater community paper!

The premise of Character X returns from a bigwig job overseas to little old NZ/Australia has been overdone a bit though, hasn’t it? I saw the original Seachange, and I don’t need to see another.

That might sound all a bit negative, sorry. Keep up with the ideas, but instead of looking back to what worked in the past, try to think of something that hasn’t been done… set somewhere that we don’t often see on TV and with characters we don’t often see; and if it’s going to be a drama, look to current events and how people react, you can transpose that sort of stuff fairly easily into a plot.

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40

DAYTIME TELEVISION

For most intents and purposes, the traditional target audience of daytime television programmes in the United States (and around the world) has been demographically women aged 18-49, as the large majority of daytime viewership has historically consisted of housewives, according to Wikipedia. As such, daytime programmes are often hosted by women or personalities popular among women, and pertain to topics of interest to women.

Due to demographic shifts and the decreasing number of people at home during the daytime, the daytime television audience has shrunk rapidly in recent years, and that which remains is largely over the age of 55 and thus considered undesirable for most advertisers.

I have developed five New Zealand made programmes for inclusion in the daytime schedule, including the welcome return of Ready Steady Cook to New Zealand screens after a long absence.

For daytime formats in the 3.30pm slot, they should be 30 minutes and need to strip across the week, Monday to Friday, for 13 weeks of the year (i.e. 65 x 30 min episodes per programme). The other two are stripped across the week for 45 years of the year (i.e. 225 x 30 min episodes) in different timeslots - one in the late morning (10.30am) and one at lunchtime (12.30pm, following the midday news).

50 Forward
Hosted by broadcasting legend Peter Williams - who, in real life, hosts a morning show on Magic Talk - 50 Forward is a lifestyle magazine for the over 50s. 50 Forward has got ‘plenty of tips on how you can embrace life as you get older, including travel, health and retirement living’, and offers a blend of regular segments and a range of guests. (M-F, 3.30-4pm; weeks 1-13)

Really Living
Hosted by former Newshub journalist Isobel Ewing, Really Living is a weekday series on health and lifestyle choices available in New Zealand featuring reports on fitness, injury prevention and management and new developments in health and wellbeing. (M-F, 3.30-4pm; weeks 14-26).

Ready Steady Cook
The New Zealand version of Ready Steady Cook is making a welcome return with a fresh new look and a new host (TBC). This is a cookery game show in which two chefs and two contestants are challenged to create a meal with a bag of mystery ingredients. Featured chefs include Ben Bayly, Al Brown, Josh Emett, Monique Fiso, Simon Gault, Mark Southon, Mike van de Elzen and Chelsea Winter. (M-F, 3.30-4pm; weeks 27-39).

What’s Cooking?
Hosted by well known chefs Mark Southon and Nici Wickes, What’s Cooking? is a weekday series that takes viewers on a journey into the fabulous world of food. Mark and Nici demonstrate a variety of recipes providing something for everyone - from mouth-watering recipes made at home to cutting-edge recipes from some of New Zealand’s leading restaurants. As well as recipes there is loads of food news and information, along with an array of celebrity guests - both highly regarded chefs from within the industry and those not so skilled in the kitchen but who are willing to give it a go and have some fun. (M-F, 10.30-11am; weeks 1-45)

Beauty and the Beast
Do you have a problem? Beauty and the Beast is the weekday studio-based series that has built a reputation for its no-nonsense tell-it-like-it-is advice from the “Beauties”. Broadcasting legend Mark Sainsbury - aka “The Beast” - is joined by a rotating panel of some of New Zealand’s female celebrities including Bernadine Oliver-Kerby, Toni Street, Laura McGoldrick, Sharyn Casey, Stacey Morrison, Jen Bainbridge, Tracey Donaldson, Mel Homer, Carly Flynn, Kerre McIvor, Jacqueline Nairn and Teuila Blakely. “Sainso” and his guests draw on their own life experiences when answering viewers’ questions about life, relationships, work and health - from the major to the mundane and the rude to the ridiculous. (M-F, 12.30-1pm; weeks 1-45)

What do you think of daytime television in New Zealand? @OnAir @nztv

PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this post, including proposed timeslots, is based on one of my ideas and acts as a starting point only.

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41

Now you’re thinking Paddy!

I think it could do with a classic car programme too, chuck on Classic Resto’s, Low Gear or that Southern TV train thing… there’s a lot of men 50+ out there into that stuff, enough to give a half-decent sales-rep something to sell for. Sheds, making stuff &c.

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42

You mean the concept of a new programme dedicated to vintage cars? It caters for vintage lovers, pinups and rockabilly fans, too.

43

You could if you want… Rockabilly Fridays?

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44

Rockabilly Fridays (working title)
Rockabilly Fridays is a 10-part series of live studio-based performances by some of the best rockabilly artists in New Zealand, all filmed in front of a live studio audience. Acts appearing throughout the series will be: Chet O’Connell & the Rock’n’Roll Riot, Hot Diggity, Tim & The Rockets, Time Machine, Recliner Rockers, Boom! Boom! Deluxe, the Che Orton Band, Bonneville Boys, Al & the Wild Katz, Gerry Lee, Brian Elvis Childs, Rocking Roller Coasters, Blaze the Duo, Brendan Hopping and Tony Wellington to name just a few.

What do you think of that, @TV4?

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45

I’m very rarely at home to watch it. But it seems currently there’s not a lot of options.

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46

@OnAir Daytime television used to attract a female audience, including those who are at home. In my book, original daytime programming like soaps and talk shows was the most common but this has been replaced in recent years by next-day reruns of popular primetime programming so that viewers can catch up on what they have missed.

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47

Housewives/husbands, Shiftworkers, the unemployed, invalids, the ill and elderly… there’s plenty of people at home during the day… all, believe it or not, have some form of buying power, so there must be some money in daytime TV. The problem probably is that there’s so many channels offering ‘meh’ programming that most don’t bother turning their sets on… and who can blame them?

TV shouldn’t try to compete with streaming &c, they should celebrate what TV is, or rather used to be… a linear form of general entertainment. Then again, society seems to be less social these days and more individualised, so a return to the halcyon days would never fly?

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52

The Anzac Day Show
I created the concept of a studio-based musical variety show for broadcast on Anzac Day. It’s called “The Anzac Day Show” and it would feature live performances by Sisters of Swing (incorporating three of New Zealand’s best swinging jazz vocalists Trudy Lile, Emma Leon and Maria O’Flaherty, with Pete McGregor on bass, Loris Zigon on piano and Ron Samsom on drums) and a range of special guests. In fact, Sisters of Swing performed live on TV One’s (now TVNZ 1) Good Morning a few years ago.

“The Anzac Day Show” is similar in format to an Anzac Day programme from the late 1960s called The Songs They Sang, according to Robert Boyd-Bell in the book “New Zealand Television: The First 25 Years”. It was produced in Wellington (WNTV1) by John Barningham with musical direction by Garth Young, who arranged more than 30 songs from both World Wars. The songs were performed in sets representing a 1914 railway station, a French farmhouse vintage 1917, and a British pub of the 1940s.

There were 30 singers, including Yolande Gibson, Mike Durney, Judi Beaumont, Ana Veitch, Ronnie Davern, Malcolm McNeill, John Miley and Howard Neil. But Yolande Gibson stole the show with her accomplished version of “We’ll Meet Again” by Dame Vera Lynn, who died recently.

@OnAir @nztv @foxyrover What do you think of the “The Anzac Day Show” as one of my ideas, especially for Anzac Day? It’s like taking viewers back to an era of light entertainment.

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54

Asian Viewpoint
“Asian Viewpoint” is a magazine programme for and about the Asian population in New Zealand. It stretches right back to “Asia Dynamic/Asia Downunder” which aired on TVNZ from 1994 until it ended in 2011.

When Asia Downunder began life as Asia Dynamic in 1994, New Zealand’s Asian population numbered around 100,000; by 2006 it was 355,000 and growing. One prediction put it that by the end of this year (December 2021) the Asian population would number about 14% of the total population. These statistics are according to Annie Murray who, in real life, has been the senior commissioner at Sky Television and Prime Television (which is owned by Sky) since 2014.

Asian Viewpoint, like its predecessor, will be made for and about Asian New Zealanders and cover a range of magazine-style items from news and issues to profiles, arts, sport, business and travel.

What do you think?

55

A wonder if a “Commercial Calendar” would work?
Think Country Calendar but for manufacturing businesses. Could be an interesting watch, especially for the little-known companies about the place, in regards to R&D, sustainability and stuff.

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56

@TV4 You mean an urban version of “Country Calendar” - aka “City Calendar”?