TVNZ bets on local originals backed by global acquisitions for 2026 slate
Great Southern Televisions’ Blue Murder Motel
Fresh original scripted drama and comedy feature in TVNZ’s content slate for 2026 as the New Zealand broadcaster seeks to cement its audiences across free to air and digital.
Under newly appointed TVNZ chief news & content officer Nadia Tolich in 2025, TVNZ engaged audiences with the most watched free-to-air shows in Aotearoa with streamer TVNZ+ capturing a weekly reach of more than 1.54 million and TVNZ’s broadcast channels watched by 4.35 million New Zealanders.
As part of TVNZ’s latest slate, Kiwi production company Kevin & Co will unveil new six-part commissioned comedy espionage series New Zealand Spy which has been picked up by Australia’s ABC and is being distributed globally by BBC Studios.
Great Southern Televisions’ new crime drama Blue Murder Motel, will debut alongside six part series from Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions’ Baddies, following a clan of charismatic bank robbers taking control of a camp for wayward youth.
Returning local dramas include the iconic long-running soap Shortland Street in addition to Screentime NZ’s A Remarkable Place to Die and Dead Ahead from Hi Mama Productions returning for second seasons.
Across international drama acquisitions, the broadcaster has acquired 10-part drama The Miniature Wife, starring Mathew Macfadyen and Elizabeth Banks from Sony Pictures Television.
The Paramount+ commissioned dramatisation of the Jon Benet Ramsay disappearance – Unspeakable: The Murder of Jon Benet Ramsey – starring Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen has also been acquired along with the BBC’s adaptation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
Monumental TV produced Frauds, Universal Television’s spy drama Ponies and thriller The ‘Burbs have also been picked up along with Drama Republic’s Riot Women; and The Other Bennett Sister. TVNZ has also acquired landmark docu-drama Titanic Sinks Tonight.
TVNZ’s slate also features a strong mix of new and returning reality and factual programming bolstered by the recently extended deal with ITV Studios.
Leading with the seventh season of Celebrity Treasure Island from Warner Bros International Television Production (WBITP), in addition to Taskmaster NZ from Kevin & Co and Aussie chefs Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge return for foodie road series Off the Grid with Colin and Manu. Format franchises, The Chase, Travel Guides, MasterChef Australia, My Kitchen Rules, Alone and Love Island all return in 2026.
TVNZ’s longest running reality series Hyundai Country Calendar will celebrate 60 years in its return season.
New factual programming includes Screentime New Zealand’s art and food fusion format Taste of Art featuring chefs Melissa Leong and Vaughan Mabee and original format from South Pacific Pictures’ Ready Gamer Mum, which features young gamers and their mums battling it out in live competition.
Returning series includes Origins, My Family Mystery, Grand Designs NZ, Love It or List It NZ, Eat Well for Less NZ, and Moving Houses, alongside a new season of Documentary NZ.
