KEY POINTS:
9.25pm, TV2
BALLS OF STEEL
TV2's attitude seems to be that if you stay at home on Friday night you deserve to be humiliated, or at least watch people being humiliated, with this British-made show followed by the contestant-terrorising quiz show Distraction.
The makers of Balls of Steel incensed
Tom Cruise at a War of the Worlds premiere in London, when they squirted him in the face with water using a fake microphone.
Footage of that prank was shown around the world, and it's indicative of the level of humour involved here.
Among the 12 acts vying to be voted the one with the most metallic testicles is New Zealand's top stuntman Randy Campbell, previously seen on Back of the Y.
The walking disaster of the stunt world is up against other acts that either try to inflict extreme pain on each other, play pranks on people or do inappropriate things in public.
Some of the characters on the show could have stepped straight out of the adult comic Viz - there's Militant Black Guy, who approaches members of the public and deliberately takes offence at imagined racial slurs, the F****ers , a couple who simulate sex in various places for passers-by, and Penis Fly Trap, a seemingly helpless female who, when blokes try to help her out, accuses them of sexually harassing her.
You get the picture. Host Mark Dolan oversees all this anarchic behaviour then invites the studio audience to vote for the most outrageous performance.
While some might argue that the Cruiser deserves a good water-pistolling, a lot of critics didn't see the funny side of harassing the public in the name of cheap laughs.
7.30PM, TV3
AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL
The girls continue to live it up in Spain, inviting their newly acquainted male model friends round for dinner. With 10 go-sees set up for the next day, the models are left to their own devices to navigate their way around Barcelona, with mixed results.
8.35PM, TV ONE
THE AMAZING MRS PRITCHARD
Panic reigns in London when a plane crashes over the East End. With people quick to assume the crash is terrorist-related, racial tensions escalate and Ros is faced with her biggest crisis yet.
MOVIES
11.25PM, TV3
Herald Rating: * * * *
THE BEST MAN
Romantic comedy set in a small north Italian town in 1899, where Francesca (Ines Sastre) has reluctantly agreed to wed Edgardo Osti (Dario Cantarelli), a well-off older businessman. The marriage will solve her father's business problems, but instead, the bride falls in love with the best man at the altar. She's determined to annul her marriage and marry him, but he has other ideas and leaves town. (1998)
8.30PM, SKY MOVIES 1
Herald Rating: * * *
THE ISLAND
Set in 2019, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson)live in a society sheltered from the contaminated environment outside by giant domes. The citizens all hope to win a
lottery where the prize is to move to an island paradise. Logan's
Run with dashes of Total Recall thrown in for good measure. (2005)
10.45PM, SKY MOVIES 1
Herald Rating: * * * *
KINKY BOOTS
Aussie good-bloke Joel Edgerton (Secret Life of Us) plays the owner of an English shoe-making business, who can't make a profit until he meets a drag queen named Lola and finds a niche in the market for men's fetish footwear. (2005)
