Revealed: The programmes worth stealing
Three reckons it would steal Country Calendar from TVNZ, if it had the chance. At an inaugural event for TV advocacy group ThinkTV in Wellington, Three’s chief content officer Andrew Szusterman reckoned he couldn’t go past the show that delivers all things sheep.
When asked which competitors’ programmes he envied, he replied Country Calendar.
‘‘It’s gone for so long and delivers every week audiences of that size and scale and it’s about f ...... sheep,’’ Szusterman said. ‘‘I haven’t watched it, but there are a lot of sheep in Country Calendar, right?’’ he said.
TVNZ’s deputy director of content Andrew Shaw revealed the secret behind the success of the long-running rural series, which turned 52 this year.
‘‘The three critical things in the guide book for making Country Calendar are get a woman, a horse and a dog in the first three minutes,’’ said Shaw.
Szusterman said he’d also take Sky’s Game of Thrones for his collection. ‘‘You just look at that show and it’s amazing. The last season was like going to the movies every week watching an episode of that,’’ he said.
Shaw would nab crime drama series Ray Donovan from Sky, and he couldn’t stay away from a slice of true blue Kiwi comedy with Outrageous Fortune.
‘‘Not a big TV show but if you
‘‘It’s gone for so long and delivers every week audiences of that size and scale and it’s about f ...... sheep.’’ Andrew Szusterman, Three’s chief content officer
want big impact, I would have stolen Outrageous Fortune,’’ Shaw said.
Sky’s director of entertainment content Travis Dunbar’s favourite moment of television in the past year was Big Little Lies, which saw a ‘‘plethora of broader and more inclusive drama’’ from its onset.
For Shaw, it was Wellington Paranormal’s bucket fountain scene with the spillage of blood and the talking dog. As for Three, Szusterman said David Seymour’s twerking was one of the biggest talking points.