Land of Discovery

The owner of TV channel Three is making some big changes.

Discovery is expanding its free-to-air offerings in New Zealand, with two new channels, eden and Rush, though the former is taking the place of – and quite a few shows from – Choice TV. Discovery, which also owns Three, acquired Choice in 2019. Eden will retain some of its regular shows, mostly in its daytime scheduling.

One notable show that won’t be making the shift to eden is Antiques Roadshow.

The long-running British series won’t have a home on New Zealand television after Choice, which is currently screening the 43rd season from 2021 and disappears on March 20.

The new channel, though, is showing BBC series Bidding Room, weeknights at 6pm. Fronted by Nigel Havers (pictured above) and made by the producers of The Repair Shop, the show has a group of experts bidding against each other to buy items brought in by the public.

Among other new primetime offerings on eden are a half-hour Newshub bulletin fronted by Rebecca Wright. The new lifestyle offerings include the Ellen DeGeneresfronted design competition Ellen’s Next Great Designer

and a new series of Changing

Rooms UK. Other Brit shows on eden include the 2019 series of Dancing on Ice.

Thursday night offers a break from reality with a weekly drama slot, which begins with Australian series The Newsreader (see preview, page 67).

On Rush, hunting, fishing, driving and welding dominate the new schedule, with shows from the hefty Discovery catalogue, many of which have got a few miles on them and mostly date from the mid-2010s.

Rush will have themed prime-time schedules with “Survival Mondays”, “Tough Job Tuesdays”, “Extreme Build Wednesdays”, “Motorhead Thursdays”, “Unexplained Fridays”, “Strike It Rich Saturdays” and “Restoration Sundays”.

The two channels will be bringing more content to Discovery’s NZ streaming platform ThreeNow. Every episode of The Newsreader

and Ellen’s Next Great Designer

will be available after the broadcast of episode one, and some Rush content will also be available. ▮

Rush and eden start broadcasting on Monday, March 21. Rush will launch on Freeview 14 and Sky 24; eden on Freeview 8 and Sky 13.