It’s the home stretch on The Block NZ and things are getting more fragile than a marshmallow spaghetti sculpture. It’s Week eleven of The Block NZ, and the wheels have officially come off. Life in Hobsonville Point is careening out of control like a bunch of balls Mark Richardson just threw onto a footpath in the … Read more
Jane Yee and Alex Casey from The Real Pod spent an afternoon at Hobsonville Point to bring you this harrowing report. The Spinoff TV airs 10.45pm on Three, click here to catch up on ThreeNow
Because what your Friday needs is a loneliness lesson in te reo and a touch more Mark Richardson. Tonight on The Spinoff TV, we celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori with a very special three-part lesson in expressing your loneliness. Hayden heads to Nelson to gets to the guts of the 1080 debate, The Real … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we rip into the week in reality television as powerfully as we rip into a delicious tub of peanut butter Häagen-Dazs. The women of The Block NZ have shattered the … Read more
Just when you thought The Block NZ had thrown everything at us, Mark Richardson uttered the immortal words: “Welcome to Sheep World”. Tara Ward recaps another bewildering week on The Block NZ. It wasn’t Country Calendar, it wasn’t The Dog Show, it wasn’t even NZ Farmer of the Flipping Year. It was week ten of The Block … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. In a bleary Friday afternoon edition of The Real Pod, we reconvene to talk about a truly mad week in reality television. What was David Seymour doing on The Block NZ? How intense was Cass … Read more
We’ve hit the arse end of The Block NZ like a human Birdman belly-flopping into the ocean. It’s Kitchen and Dining week! Tara Ward recaps. On the now-seemingly-annual Kitchen and Dining Week, hopes are chopped into tiny pieces and dreams will be burned alive in the Breville slow cooker of our hearts. Never before has a … Read more
The first of a promised 100,000 Kiwibuild homes was unveiled today. Madeleine Chapman donned her safety glasses and gave the Auckland property a definitive review. Kiwibuild homes are on the market. Housing minister Phil Twyford stood in front of one today to say that the first 18 had been completed and would be sold through … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. The reality TV gods are smiling down on us this week, as The Block NZ delivers the exceptional talent competition and The Bachelor Australia gets extremely raunchy. Duncan doesn’t know how to pronounce Agni, Jane … Read more
Welcome to Week 8 of The Block NZ, in which Jason Gunn and Tom Sainsbury blesses us with their presence, Mark literally blows his own trumpet, and Chlo and Em choose their paint based on the colour of their mother’s nipples. Life on The Block took its toll on our beloved teams this week. They … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we’ve got an amazing new reality series to recap in The Bachelor Australia, Alex has torn her calf muscle and Jane has brought her weird cow lunchbox out of … Read more
Hobsonville Point had it all this week: scandal, drama, and a thousand painted teardrops on the window of Agni’s soul. The Block NZ was shaken to its very foundations as we witnessed the Wolf go on a rampage, relived the annual ‘Build a Plank’ challenge, and a thousand My Little Ponies were sacrificed in a ruthless … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, the team assemble over Chanui biscuits and spicy corn treats to look back at a wild week in New Zealand pop culture news. A man in Rotorua executed the … Read more
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It involved vanilla sponge. Tara Ward power-ranks week six of The Block NZ. I mean, just look at the state of it. It was Week 6 of The Block NZ, where the pinnacle of renovation glory involved strapping two chunks of vanilla sponge together, … Read more
Because what your Friday night really needs is Duncan Greive getting beaten up in a cow costume. Let’s face it: it’s been a hard week. Judith Collins has tweeted fake news, landlords want to rifle through your bank statements and Clarke Gayford’s beard isn’t going anywhere. Why not unwind at 10.45pm on Three with a … Read more
As we reeled from last week’s messy memories of the disastrous shit river in Chlo and Em’s house, a new Block NZ poonami threatened to wash us all away in a wave of shock and scandal. Inflate your water wings, this one’s a doozy. Amy and Stu nearly pulled off the perfect crime this week, by … Read more
Welcome to week four of The Block NZ, where the raw salad of life was chopped up and laid out before our very eyes. Our teams left Hobsonville Point on a one-way ticket to Struggletown, warping into frazzled reno zombies who were one misplaced skylight away from painting their spirit animal onto a piece of … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This very normal episode of The Real Pod begins with Duncan in the toilet and ends with him being stood on by Alex while Jane shouts loudly. Inspired by the hypnotist from The Block NZ‘s Dinner … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we are feasting upon the crucial final days of Survivor NZ alongside an assortment of snacks from The Food Show. Duncan and Jane recap the happenings on The Block … Read more
Ahoy there mateys and welcome back to The Block NZ, where tempers flared like an over-primed diesel heater and emotions flowed down the broken downpipe of hopes and dreams. Tara Ward recaps. Week two gave us drama aplenty as we witnessed teams fight like feral cats, Mark Richardson wave his umbrella around willy-nilly, and The … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. On this week’s Real Pod, the dream team are back together after a mad week and there is much to discuss from telly land. Heartbreak Island has come to an extremely poetic end, Survivor NZ … Read more
The Block NZ is back, and it’s time to rejoice like we just won a Bosch kitchen upgrade that includes both a griddle and a hand blender. Tara Ward power ranks. Somewhere in the pristine new suburb of Hobsonville Point lies four new couples on four new mattresses inside four new townhouses, which are as empty … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. On this week’s Real Pod, Alex is exiled to snowy South Island (like foot island, but lower), leaving Jane and Duncan to struggle on as a duo. Jane’s already daunting task of hosting without Alex … Read more
Tonight, four enthusiastic New Zealand couples begin their journey along the giblined highway to renovation glory. Tara Ward on what to look forward to in this season of The Block NZ. That’s right, our favourite reality show The Block NZ is back to suck us into its murky depths, and I’m more excited than Ling and Zing … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, the old gang is back together with your regular scheduled programming of reality madness. We look back at the whopper finale of Dancing With the Stars NZ, which crowned Sam Hayes … Read more
The Block NZ signifies everything that’s wrong with our tax system. Takapuna tax expert Terry Baucher fills Rebecca Stevenson in on how we can get a lump of cash, and keep it all to ourselves. This post was first published on September 19, 2017. After we all recovered from the horror that was The Block … 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
The Block NZ signifies everything that’s wrong with our tax system. Takapuna tax expert Terry Baucher fills Rebecca Stevenson in on how we can get a lump of cash, and keep it all to ourselves. After we all recovered from the horror that was The Block NZ finale, it’s a good time to learn why … 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