Calum Henderson watches the revamped My Kitchen Rules NZ, with shiny new judges and shady new contestants. By now we should all understand the basic rules of reality television, especially the one that dictates every series must portray at least one team or contestant as being the embodiment of pure evil. Deep in our heart … Read more
Madeleine Chapman becomes bewitched by a new television phenomenon: people reacting to Don Brash on current affairs panels. This morning Don Brash, former leader of the National Party and current bad person, was on The AM Show alongside writer Verity Johnson. The topic was the Māori Party and I guess every single other person in the country … Read more
Have you ever prepared a meal so gluttonous, so shameful, so grotesque that you’ve had to take a cold hard look at yourself in the mirror and ask ‘what would Pete and Manu think?’ Alex Casey was able to ask them IRL. Just as you shouldn’t look at a solar eclipse without special glasses, I’d … Read more
Election Night 2017: Here are our first impressions from the major election results coverage, if you are still deciding which channel to turn to. 1 NEWS Vote 17 Election Night Special “I’m on time and a half tonight,” sighs Mike Hosking. He’s fed up, luckily Hilary appears to be fizzing in her seat. They are … Read more
Tomorrow from 7 pm, the election results will start seeping onto every transistor radio, television screen and phone tree in the country. It’ll be thirsty work, so we’ve put together a little something to keep spirits up. With apple juice, obviously. Take a sip when you hear/see: “Neck and neck” “Drag race” “Jacindamania” “Stardust” “Knife … Read more
Unless you have eight eyes like some kind of politically-engaged spider, your second most important decision tomorrow will be choosing which channel to watch the election results on. Luckily, we’re here to help For the Spinoff’s election night plans, scroll all the way to the foot of this page 1 NEWS Vote 17 Election Night … Read more
What could a TV2 election special from 2002 teach modern news producers as they prepare for Saturday night’s big event? Calum Henderson investigates. Election night has historically been one of the biggest events in live television, second only to the telethon. This year, all the major newsy channels will be working hell for leather, designing … Read more
For about two months in 2014, Elle Hunt watched nothing but Gossip Girl. On the 10th anniversary of the show’s premiere, she reflects on the legacy of the Upper East Side snark-fest – and why sometimes it’s OK to give up on a mediocre TV show. Warning: contains a big spoiler – the biggest – directly … Read more
Calum Henderson watches Face the Classroom, TVNZ’s two-night special that forced our politicians to confront their harshest critics yet – the children of NZ. Move over Mike Hosking, Paddy Gower, Lisa Owen – it turns out the best political interviewers of this election campaign might just be a classroom of 8-12 year old kids from Ellerslie … Read more
The Real Pod team assemble in the boardroom of dreams to talk reality TV and real life in New Zealand, including The Block disaster, Max Key’s new merch and the engagement of the King and Queen of New Zealand television. It’s been a tremendous week for The Real Pod team this week, with New Zealand TV … Read more
Last seen two weeks ago sipping on a pink panther at Toni Street’s birthday party, Mike Hosking made his return to terrestrial television last night. Tara Ward was watching, and found herself sucked right into his eye-rolling vortex. The planets aligned, the clouds cleared and rainbows filled the skies when Mike Hosking returned to Seven Sharp … Read more
The cast of the first season of Married At First Sight NZ has left us with snow blindness, writes Leonie Hayden. Diversity in media is important. It’s so important. The Emmys gave out their first ever gongs for comedy writing and directing to black artists this year. A fair reflection of who we are as a … Read more
Superfan Tara Ward counts down the top ten moments from episode two of Outlander season three. Contains spoilers, obviously. If you thought last week’s episode of Outlander was heartbreaking, then you need to prepare yourselves. I have bad, bad news. Something terrible has happened to Jamie Fraser, and it looks like this: Jamie has 99 problems and … Read more
Duncan Greive reflects on the shambolic end to The Block 2017, and what the show has revealed to us about our housing market and crisis over that time. For the last six years – or two parliamentary terms, if you prefer to measure time in that unit – The Block NZ has been both New … Read more
Our friendly TV sponsors at Lightbox have a whole bunch of shows nominated for the Emmy Awards this year, so we got our resident award shows obsessive Sam Brooks to pick which ones might take home the gold. I love me an awards show. A bunch of people in pretty dresses saying long speeches and … Read more
The live auction final of The Block NZ tonight delivered more thrills and spills than Peter Wolfkamp on a motorised chilly bin. Devoted blockaholic Jane Yee was in the thick of it, and bring us this harrowing report. What a night to be at the Grand Millennium. I arrived expecting to be part of an … Read more
Before the winner is decided at the live auction tonight, Jane Yee looks back at the season that was The Block NZ for 2017. It may seem like an odd – perhaps even narcissistic – thing to do, but every now and then I wonder what might be said about me at my funeral. I’m sure mention … Read more
Lucy Zee pours a cup of tea and delves into the creepy slow-burn that is the Chanui ad universe. Can we just all agree straight away: the Chanui ads are really fucking weird. Basically it’s just a guy telling us to buy his tea and about three people seemingly held at gunpoint telling the camera … Read more
Tara Ward gazes back through time to remember TV One’s campaign dog Toby, the goodest boy to ever grace the small screen. Nothing says “watch this channel” more than a directionally-challenged dog trapped in a labyrinth of notable TV personalities. So it makes perfect sense that when 1991 TV One launched a promo campaign featuring … Read more
Former radio host, current Jono and Ben man and Billy T winning comic Guy Williams has just released a half-hour stand-up special for free on the internet. He spoke with Duncan Greive about a variety of things. The first time I saw Guy Williams live was a co-headliner with Rose Matafeo at the Grey Lynn community … Read more
With the sixth and final season arriving exclusively to Lightbox today, we bask in the top celebrity cameos to ever feature on The Mindy Project. For a woman who wears her shambolic heart on her bound-to-be-extremely-colourful sleeve, there’s really not a lot of intel out there about what we can expect from the sixth season … Read more
Bryan Bruce’s documentary Who owns New Zealand now? – which screened on Three last night in primetime – is a deeply problematic sequel to Labour’s ‘Chinese-sounding names’ fiasco of 2015, writes Duncan Greive. “There’s been about a trillion dollars that has left China in the last year or so,” intones the voice-over ominously, over flowing strings … Read more
The Real Pod team assemble in the board room of dreams to talk reality TV and real life in New Zealand, including a great week for lookalikes and a scary new addition to the KFC menu. This week Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey delve deep into almost every element of Toni Street’s surprise … Read more
Labour’s non-commercial RNZ+ multi-media network is a brilliant idea – but it makes no sense to keep it and retain public ownership of TVNZ, argues Duncan Greive. Labour: [We will] develop a new public digital media service… [including] a free-to-air noncommercial television service. The working title is ‘RNZ+’ Also Labour: TVNZ will remain in public … Read more
Jane Yee tackles the eleventh week on The Block NZ, including giant eclairs, pergolas and a Jason Gunn cameo for the ages. A pergola. Four and a half hours of my life this week revolved around an effing pergola. “The fact that you’ve moved it puts it under the recession plane, and I can’t see … Read more
Superfan Tara Ward counts down the top ten moments from the triumphant return of Outlander season three. Contains spoilers, obviously. Outlander is back! #Droughtlander is over, the never-ending tartan thirst is gone and we can once again drown in a hot ginger monsoon of time-travelling drama and adventure. I want ginger kisses! I want mashed potatoes! … Read more
With the latest season of My Kitchen Rules NZ enlisting international heavyweight judges Pete and Manu, Alex Casey finds another celebrity lurking in the contestant line-up. Let’s be honest: it’s been a really huge couple of days for New Zealand celebrity lookalikes everywhere. Mr Bean had a killer time at the rugby. Ryan Gosling did … Read more
Calum Henderson watches Common Sense, a reality show that asks real people for their real reckons on current events. Who hasn’t watched the vox pops on the news and thought: these random people on the street should have their own show? In Australia, that dream has become a new reality series called Common Sense. A spinoff … Read more
José Barbosa has watched the Election 2017 debates in his bunker and slaved deep into the night fuelled by only canned tuna and the odd dart to bring you this special report. This content, like all television coverage we do at The Spinoff, is brought to you thanks to the excellent folk at Lightbox. Do … Read more