Linda Herrick: Credit where it's due

So many people have been knocking TV One, but give them some credit. The channel's line-up for next year is truly innovative, quite unlike any other state broadcaster in the world.

In the snappy booklet showcasing what we can look forward to, its news and current affairs coverage has been pruned so there's no more of that in-depth stuff to make your head hurt.
One News is still in the schedule of course, but no photo of a presenter, eliminating - for now - the issues of pay and ego. There is a smiley pic of Ms Wood on the Close Up page in the booklet, and the photo of the Sunday lineup is lovely. They look human, as opposed to the spooky alien-abductee footage Sunday uses over the credits. Gone are lengthy evening grillings, which must be a great relief to politicians, and there is no foreign affairs documentary slot. Who needs to know what's going on in the big bad world, anyway?

Most exciting, Headliners is included in the news and current affairs lineup. Showbiz tittle-tattle, movie reviews, pop star antics - finally receiving the serious recognition they deserve.

The TVNZ programmers have also shown their mettle by deciding to ditch the Festival New Zealand series after next year. They've cunningly managed to stave off the series this year, so we'll hardly notice when it's gone. Festival NZ was so smart, so well-made, so interesting - but just not right for the new TV One. Those Saturday night slots are much better filled with gore like Wire in the Blood, made overseas.

And don't you love the way One is managing to subvert its brief as a charter channel, and look more like TV2 or TV3 by chucking in the odd American crime series when you least expect it? We're getting a warmup right now with Rescue Me and next year is going to be a cracker because One has nabbed Jerry Bruckheimer's Close To Home, and The Evidence, a cop-crime lab drama, as well as a return season of Cold Case. That'll teach us!

And so will the current Friday night lineup, because it certainly encourages one to leave the house. Bet the One programmer was tickled pink by the coup of scoring Rosemary & Thyme, because it must have been cheap to buy. Surely. It's the same plot week after week and those two old biddies in it, they're not acting. They're having a laugh. But that's nothing compared to Desperately Seeking Sheila, which follows. Single men in the Aussie outback looking for love. That's a new level of programming.

Next year's One has Michael Boulgaris helping people find a slice of paradise, Paul Henry trekking to the ends of the earth in a part-personal documentary, and an investigation into cleanliness. Bet the programmers at rival networks are wetting themselves over that kind of standard. How can they possibly compete?

Uh oh. While TV One has been focusing on this radical makeover, they must have blinked and missed some of the stuff Prime's Andrew Shaw has grabbed. Like Ricky Gervais' hot new comedy Extras. Or new series of those old favourites that used to screen on One, like Poirot, Dalziel and Pascoe, Midsomer Murders, a spectacular new production with David Attenborough and anything with Jeremy Clarkson.

Kind of makes some of us who are a bit old fashioned feel nostalgic, for the days when programmers were programmers, not marketeers... Ironically, Headliners recently featured an interview with Gervais about Extras. Given where he's found a home in New Zealand, he would find that hilarious.