Following enormous restructures at both TVNZ and Three, an unprecedented number of local current affairs shows will be axed this year. 

While the specific details are yet to be revealed, it has been widely reported this week that TVNZ is set to cancel iconic current affairs shows Sunday and Fair Go in a cost cutting plan which will see 68 jobs axed. Meetings with each team, as well as Re: News, have been held today.

“As their meeting has concluded I can confirm that a proposal has been presented which could result in the cancellation of Sunday,” said a spokesperson for the national broadcaster. “As other meetings are ongoing, I cannot comment further at this stage.” 

This news comes just over a week after Warner Brothers Discovery, the parent company of Three, revealed their proposal to close “all Newshub’s multi platform news operations and output” by the end of June. In December last year, the closure of The Project NZ shocked audiences, but has turned out to be just the beginning of what Duncan Greive has called “the shocking end of Three as we know it.” 

Combined, these two proposals reveal an unprecedented number of factual and current affairs shows coming to an end, many of which have become household names in Aotearoa. In total, New Zealanders will be losing at least 20 hours of news and current affairs television per week. Here are all the titles on the chopping block in 2024. 

Newshub

After nearly 35 years of live evening news on Three, it was announced last week that Warner Bros Discovery is proposing to close the entire news operation on June 30, including the 6pm Newshub broadcast, Newshub digital and Newshub late. “Going, going, not quite gone: The future of Newshub is looking bleak” Mike McRoberts began the Newshub bulletin announcing their own closure, with his longtime co-host Samantha Hayes adding “This is not the news we thought we would be delivering today.” 

Since the announcement, present and former Newshub stuff have said they are “heartbroken”, “gutted” and “devastated” by the news. “I find it [Newshub] an embodiment of New Zealand: smart, open-hearted, honest.  So this news is really shit,” wrote Hal Crawford, former Newshub news director. “TV3 represented an electric and charismatic challenger to the hegemony of state-owned and controlled media,” reflected Duncan Greive. “New Zealand’s media landscape just got that little bit colder and less colourful as a result.”

Fair Go

For the past 47 years, consumer rights show Fair Go has stood up for ordinary New Zealanders. Whether it’s stories about kids getting vapes delivered to their front doors or sorting out a viewer’s fitted sheet nightmare, Fair Go has defended us when we’ve been ripped off, chewed up and spat out. They’ve championed the underdog and given power back to the people, and there was never an issue that was too big or too small. From helping a family finally get a roof over their head to investigating the shrinking size of marshmallow Easter eggs, Fair Go worked for the good of the consumer. 

In 2020, producer Sophie Baird spoke to The Spinoff about the power of making a show that changes people’s lives by sticking up for the little guy. “You go out with Fair Go, and people think you’re the bee’s knees, and it’s such a feeling of privilege,” she said. “It’s a genuine honour and privilege to empower New Zealanders to expect better and to demand better.  We’re a teeny tiny team, but we all work hard, because we’re passionate about it.” 

Today, the Fair Go team have shared a statement to say they’re “devastated” to learn today of the plan to axe the show under the proposal. “For 47 years we’ve been battling for New Zealanders, and we are not ready for that to end,” the said. “Our next challenge is working out how to keep going for you.”

The Hui

The Māori current affairs show currently presented by Julian Wilcox has been a staple in producing investigations and human interest stories in te ao Māori. Previously helmed by Mihingarangi Forbes, The Hui has shone a light in some pretty dark places, notably abuse in state care which led to the royal commission of inquiry. Though not officially slated for cancellation, The Hui relies on NZ On Air funding and Three as a platform, so its ninth season (airing now) may be its last.

Newshub Nation

Three’s Saturday morning politics show, formerly The Nation, launched in 2010 as an interview-based series with rotating political guests. The show has featured a number of hosts including Sean Plunket, Lisa Own, Rachel Smalley, Simon Shepherd and Rebecca Wright.  The show had not yet returned for 2024 when the Warner Bros Discovery proposal was announced and co-host Simon Shepherd’s Linkedin states he is now a “business correspondent” for the company, with the role beginning last month.

Sunday

Sunday premiered on TVNZ in 2002, and for the next two decades, delivered a weekly primetime hour of in-depth current affairs reporting. They broke many important stories, like when Janet Macintyre took us inside Gloriavale, or when John Hudson interviewed John-Luc Kister, the man who planted the bombs that blew up the Rainbow Warrior, or revealing the use of electric shock treatment at Lake Alice Hospital. They got closer to notorious personalities like Paul Holmes and John Clarke. They even had Mike Hosking interview Destiny’s Child. 

In 2022, Duncan Greive praised the way Sunday forced issues in front of New Zealanders. “Spread over three segments and running to more than 30 minutes, Kristin Hall’s work is more like a short documentary than a typical current affairs package,” he wrote about a story on the homelessness crisis in Rotorua. “Thanks to its location on the last remaining primetime current affairs show on mainstream TV – one which regularly hauls in around 500,000 viewers – its power fused with the audience scale to create a storm impossible for those involved to ignore.”

AM

The proposal made by Warner Bros Discovery last week also impacts Three’s daily three-hour morning current affairs show AM. In the first broadcast following the announcement, hosts Melissa Chan-Green and Lloyd Burr were tearful as they addressed the news. “AM and Newshub are one in the same. We are all part of the same family… so, yes, it does mean the end of AM too,” said Chan-Green. “We will get through it and you are going to get through it with us” her co-host Burr added, having only been in the role for a month. 

Paddy Gower Has Issues

Patrick Gower’s current affairs show Paddy Gower Has Issues will also close under the Warner Brothers Discovery proposal announced last week. Launched in 2023, the weekly show saw the journalist tackle various serious issues facing New Zealanders, including the dire state of our dementia care, plummeting literacy rates and the exorbitant expenses associated with cancer treatment, all in front of a live studio audience. 

Gower was also joined by comedians Karen O’Leary, Eli Matthewson and Courtney Dawson to provide some comic relief and look at the lighter topics affecting the nation. “I worked in the Newshub newsroom all last year and was constantly blown away by the incredible work ethic and team spirit,” Matthewson posted following the announcement. “Small teams working long hours, incredibly devoted to what they do. We deserve and need good news media.” 

Three’s new 7pm current affairs show

​​Not long after The Project NZ came to an end last year, Warner Bros Discovery announced that they would be launching a brand-new, live, news and current affairs 7pm show in 2024, hosted by former AM presenter Ryan Bridge. “I can’t wait to show New Zealand what we have planned,” said Bridge at the time. “Expect lively debate, context around the day’s big stories and both local and international guests.” 

With the premiere date pushed back repeatedly and no new name for the show announced, Three’s replacement to The Project NZ never even made it air before it was cancelled under the new proposal. Following the news last week, broadcaster Ryan Bridge told reporters that he was thinking of all his colleagues and was “going to go and have a drink.”