ABSTRACT
In her recent analysis of reality television programming on New Zealand screens, University of Auckland academic Misha Kavka (2003) makes the following assertion: ‘New Zealand is fertile territory for reality television. As a crossing point for popular programming from both the UK and the US, New Zealand television is uniquely positioned to pick up and reflect the going trends of television production and development in the West.’ If we proceed from the assumption that ‘reality television’ is largely equivalent to ‘format television’ (together with game shows and news bulletins the most replicated categories of programming around the world) then New Zealand provides a valuable site for study. The most prevalent format programmes on New Zealand fall into the loose category of reality television with only rare examples from other genres. There have been very few successful New Zealand-made sitcoms and no attempts to rework imported sitcom formats. There have been more examples of locally produced formats in the broad category of variety/light entertainment. In the early decades of New Zealand television (1960s and 1970s) prime time schedules were dominated by local music shows such as C’mon and The Country Touch, and celebrity-fronted cooking shows. The star of one of the latter shows (Graham Kerr) went on find success on American television. In recent years, however, gardening programmes have replaced cooking programmes and examples which might fit the variety/light entertainment categories are far fewer. They now tend to fall into the youth television category fronted by young presenters like Mikey Havoc out on the road looking for adventure.
