This Throwback Thursday, Calum Henderson discusses In Bed With Chris Needham, a self-shot teenage cult classic from the BBC. It starts with a pale, spotty youth, shifting from foot to foot, hanging on the telephone. His astonishing barnet is the cumulative result of not just one but a prolonged series of bad haircuts. “I’m not … Read more
The Spinoff received word that Natalia Kills and Willy Moon would be leaving the country last night, so dispatched Don Rowe to watch their final moments on our soil. // Like great dark bats they swooped through Auckland International Airport. He wore leather and she sheltered beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Both wore sunglasses. They walked … Read more
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 was just an ordinary evening on X Factor twitter. Jokes were made, memes were shared, the #xfactornz hashtag was enthusiastically tacked on to these jokes and memes, for fear of our hilarious content floating, unheard, into the abyss. We all rejoiced as national hero Joe Irvine was put through to the live … Read more
After the most climactic 24 hours in X Factor NZ history, Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson were joined by The Spinoff editor Duncan Greive to discuss the double judge elimination, the first live show and the debut of our sworn enemy, X Factor NZ analysis show Xtra Factor. The episode also features Alex Casey’s excellent … 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
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
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
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
This Music Monday, Alex Casey draws parallels between a fake singing competition featured within The Office and all the thrills, spills and celebrities of X Factor NZ. // The past few weeks have been filled with a literal and metaphorical airing of X Factor NZ‘s dirty laundry. We have had Slim Shady killers being edited out faster … 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
My Life in TV is a weekly feature interview with a member of the television industry. This week, Alex talked to Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby. // For those of you who might not have been exposed to to the Shore franchises (Jersey or Geordie) before, the premise is simple: take a bunch of 20–somethings … 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
With the competition reaching boiling point this Saturday night, Alex Casey provides some ways you can make a meal out of MasterChef Australia season finale. // I have had an on-and-off relationship with MasterChef Australia throughout what feels like its three-year season. Taking extended holidays over summer to the family bach, I found it had a … 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
Yesterday I nearly dropped dead during an X Factor NZ ad break. The first real promo for The Bachelor NZ is here. No more abstracted black and white abs, no more sail boats, no more National Bank horses galloping down sandy dunes. We have finally have real women, real candles, and real big watches: Things We Know About … Read more
Alex Casey thought she should probably write something about The X Factor NZ, so with Twitter’s help, she did. / Last night, like 305,000 other people up and down the country, I sat down and enjoyed The X Factor NZ premiere. And it was… fine. I always forget that the first audition stages just sort … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at television roundtable to reveal their hopes, dreams and insights before the new season of The X Factor NZ. // Nic Sampson on the Sponsored Car: Let’s face it, the entire X Factor competition is just a way to get around not paying actors to be in various commercials. Why cough up for an … Read more
The Spinoff is aroused to announce our first ever podcast. ‘After the Factor’ features in depth X Factor NZ analysis from Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson. // X Factor NZ hasn’t started yet, but we’re talking about it anyway. In episode zero of their weekly recaps, Joseph and Nic look at back on last season fondly, and preview the new … Read more
Duncan Greive watched Our First Home‘s opening week, and came away convinced that the three families at its core – considerate and good-hearted as they are – just shouldn’t be on TV. // We’re only through week one of Our First Home, but already the pain of renovation is palpable in the audience. The nauseating horror of having hacked … 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, Alex Casey dives into the absolute kiss-fest better known as The Bachelor USA. // Episodes Consumed: Five, slammed through faster than a row of whiskey shots at The Bachelor … Read more
The X Factor NZ is set to debut on February 15 at 7pm on TV3. Till then, the powers that be have provided us with an extended supertease trailer, promising sweeping drone shots of the Skytower, grungy bats out of hell and even someone flipping the bird (!). It aired tonight during the much coveted … Read more