Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? Harper gets bizarre with a ham, lads steal a laptop and Leanne is the human embodiment of this song: Our favourite London lovebirds Ula and Dallas sent a delightful postcard snap from the London Bridge this week. It … Read more
The Herald asked us to contribute entries to a forthcoming list of the worst reality TV shows in New Zealand history. Here’s an extended cut of Duncan Greive’s entry – a love letter to a televisual cesspit known as The Player. // In April of 2004 filming commenced on Sky’s first ever reality TV show. … Read more
In case you missed it, last night John Campbell got the biggest treat of his life. It had just been a regular episode like any other, until there was an abrupt change in John’s silky schedule. Suddenly, Ali Ikram beams live from the Kings Arms. I mean beaming in both senses of the words, you can … Read more
NZ On Air announced a whole slew of true blue kiwi documentary projects today, so I decided to break down the lucky winners and see what televisual bang we are getting for our hard-earned buck. Our Big Blue Backyard 2, 6 x 1hr on TV One Buck: $2,066,927 Bang: A whale of a series, and an unsurprising … Read more
The debut of Duncan Greive’s weekly X Factor power rankings, which will drop Monday mornings and serve as a guide to where the show’s momentum lies. Season two of X Factor New Zealand started recording months ago, and already feels like it’s been going for years. The show has already run for 14 hours, versus the 18 … Read more
Let us take a minute to step off the gilded X Factor NZ patios of Bangkok to the dusty suburban plains of TV1’s Our First Home. The other night whilst Joe Irvine was swimming at (presumably) the beach from The Beach, Robyn Schreuder was up to some true blue wheelbarrow mishaps. Being the card that she is, … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss Judges’ Retreat Week on X Factor NZ, and look towards our Top 12 contestants. // Eli Mathewson on Lili’s Lockdown Lili stands inside a Bangkok hotel when a sudden realisation seeps over her. With all the excitement of a beach holiday, a chance to plan some cheap dental and tough … Read more
Fragmentary Thoughts is a new comic strip by José Barbosa, in which he’ll tackle a different television show or phenomenon each month. This time round it’s everyone’s favourite Ed Sheeran-belting swear-fest: The X Factor NZ. This season of The X Factor NZ has already brought us much: a contestant with a past manslaughter conviction, poor beautiful Stan getting chewed … Read more
With the shocking departure of Jazzy “Jazzy” Acton from our screens last night, beaming Archie Hill represents the last of the 14-year-olds standing on stick thin, vinyl-trousered legs at this year’s X Factor. He absolutely ripped Ed Sheeran a new one at the auditions, before walking on stage and into our hearts with ‘Blank Space’ … Read more
Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? TK and Kylie hits the clubs, a bathtub hits the floor and Leanne hits the road: Although Pania had tried to get him into internet dating, TK found love in a hopeless place this week – with … Read more
The Bachelorettes Revealed In the biggest and only TV news you need to know this week, TV3 have released the full lineup of women vying to win the heart of New Zealand’s first ever Bachelor. If you would like a comprehensive assessment of their entire personalities and life experience based on a photo and a short … Read more
My Life in TV is a weekly feature interview with a member of the television industry. This week, Alex talked to X Factor NZ host Dominic Bowden. // There is no denying Dominic Bowden has earned the title of New Zealand’s National Host. After early beginnings on kids TV show Squirt, he moved to hosting … Read more
Duncan Greive visits the set of Best Bits, One’s panel show discussing the week’s worst television, to see how the sausage gets made. // On a glass coffee table in the Best Bits green room there is a bowl with two chocolate chip biscuits in it alongside a purse-sized packet of Carefree panty liners. “I see they’ve … Read more
With The Bachelor NZ coming to TV3 on March 17, Alex Casey analyses all the biographies of the newly-announced Bachelorettes, and flags some early favourites to look out for. // The Bachelor NZ is mere weeks away, and finally we are getting a little more intel on the women looking to find love in a hopeless place … Read more
Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson’s X Factor-centric After the Factor podcast is joined by Guy Williams, star of Jono and Ben, voice of The Edge and (most importantly) prolific X Factor live-tweeter. Together they break down the third week of X Factor. Topics include boot camp happenings, Avatar sex and Dom Bowden’s meadow apology. They also rerank … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss boot camp week of The X Factor NZ.// Robyn Gallagher on The Forgotten Four During the first boot camp episode, we were very quickly introduced to the 48 contestants who were going on to the merciless six-seat challenge. They were all familiar faces from the audition shows, but … Read more
Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? We meet Professor Boris, three Ferndale folk flee, and Chris talks about colons for some reason: It was Colon Week at the Street, with Professor Helgard (known to his friends as Boris) visiting the hospital to hear … Read more
That Girl is a Monster After her luxury Sound of Music showcase at the Oscars on Monday, it was confirmed yesterday that Lady Gaga has signed on for the latest season of American Horror Story: Hotel, the fifth series in the Ryan Murphy anthology. Little else is known about the project, with Gaga that first … Read more
Earlier this week an unusual auction briefly appeared on TradeMe: a set of used sheets, towels and a feedback form from Natalia Kills and Willy Moon. Alex Casey tracked down the man responsible. / Notwithstanding the furore enveloping ex-con Slim Shaedy, there was far more more disturbing news out of The X Factor NZ universe … Read more
Checking in With… is a regular column which features a Spinoff writer watching one or more episodes of a current show and attempting to decode its appeal. This week: Kina’s K9s. // Episodes Consumed: One – the series debut on Maori TV last Friday. What’s it about? It’s a show about “the world of dogs … Read more
Remember last year when MediaWorks announced they were accepting pitches for their own local five-night-a-week soap? Remember the massive buzz around it? Remember the phenomenal pitches that came flooding in, bursting with as many ingenious plot lines as high profile TV3 celebrities? Hitting up the powers that be to see where the project is at, all we … Read more
Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson’s X Factor-centric After the Factor podcast is joined by Spinoff’s staff writer Alex Casey to break down the second and final week of X Factor auditions. Topics include the latest semi-painful-but-much-improved batch of auditions. We also rank the judges, hypothesise about the Simon Cowell/Fuller relationship and Nic and Joseph interview … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss from the much-improved second week of X Factor NZ. // Jack Riddell on Darren Smyth This is Darren Smyth, 36 from Point England. He’s one of many who you won’t see on X Factor this year. He was accepted into the audition round, cameras followed him back … Read more
Please enjoy this excellent episode of Shorty Street Scandal, wherein James Mustapic recaps the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week? Chris and Rachel reconnect, Clementine flirts with Santa and Murray has a small heart attack: Chris and Rachel, our very own Ross and Rachel, got back together this week. Harry was very upset to find a lipstick at … Read more
JABAT Goes JABAST Our favourite blazer-wearing larrikins are expanding their comedy empire even further. MediaWorks announced that Jono and Ben at Ten is now moving to the 7.30pm timeslot, and will be an hour long. The stripped-back title has become a simple Jono and Ben. Chic. With a brand new time, the team are hoping to expand … Read more
This morning came an extremely casual announcement that a handsome chap named Art Green might be New Zealand’s first ever Bachelor. Alex Casey analyses his online presence to find out if the size ten shoe fits. // // When Picasso said “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,” it’s probably because he … Read more
TV3 have just announced their casting call for MasterChef NZ, so Alex Casey talked to her brother about his shockingly successful drunken application many moons ago. // In a press release today, TV3 announced that casting is now open for MasterChef NZ 2015. They are looking for the “unsung heroes of the kitchen – Kiwis who … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at television roundtable to reveal their hopes, dreams and insights from the first week of The X Factor NZ. // Joseph Harper on TrendPrince Holy shit Trend Prince dot com is a real thing. There are no jokes anymore. Just real things that are kind of fucking terrifying. Trend Prince doing a rap is … Read more
Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson’s After the Factor podcast is joined by The Spinoff’s editor, Duncan Greive, to break down the opening trio of episodes. Topics approached include the drudge of wading through the bad-but-not-terrible contestants, the early backstories, the arrival of Fare Thee Well, aka #KiwiHaim and the shocking decision to deny Trend Prince more … Read more