From Chris Warner’s beard to Newshub’s tearful goodbye, here are the TV moments that gripped the nation this year. 

We’re not going to lie, it has been a tough year for television in Aotearoa. We’ve lost current affairs institutions that have been around for decades and likely seen the end of many of our favourite reality franchises. While there’s plenty to be glum about, there are some twinkles of hope, as Duncan Greive discovered in this year’s Where Are the Audiences survey. Turns out Netflix is down from 42% daily usage to 38%, TikTok and YouTube declined by 5% for those aged 15-39, and both radio and television audiences have actually increased on last year.

To keep the positive vibes flowing, this year we are also happy to report that local television still delivered tonnes of gasp-inducing, side-splitting and heart-wrenching moments to remind us all what the medium is capable of. It’s a collective reminder of who we are, what we care about, and what challenges us. “For me, just about everything is about television,” veteran reviewer Diana Wichtel told us in her My Life in TV interview. “You bring your whole life to watching TV.” With that in mind, here are the local television moments that stopped us in our tracks in 2024. 

The haka that circled the globe

It is likely the single defining moment of the year in any category and against any metric, but it was also just one hell of a piece of television. During the first reading of the Treaty principles bill, Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke rose to her feet, tore her own copy of the bill clean in half, and led a haka in the debating chamber. In the footage that has now been viewed hundreds of millions of times around the world, there are some compelling television techniques deployed. There’s the frantic The Office-style crash zoom on Maipi-Clarke as she stands and begins the call. There’s the cut back to Gerry Brownlee who, as Chris Parker rightly observed, will be forever remembered for rolling his eyes and grumbling “don’t do that” during this hugely significant historical moment (the Parliament TV version weirdly stays on a close-up of Brownlee basically the whole time, which is a real journey through a thousand faces). In other versions there’s a powerfully timed zoom out that happens in tandem with the tearing of the bill, revealing half the house rising to their feet and fellow Te Pāti Māori MPs joining Maipi-Clarke on the floor. You’ve probably watched it 400 times already, but it is worth watching again to unearth so many more hidden gems. For example, you’ll never believe how many full glasses of water David Seymour has sitting in front of him. / AC

Dai Henwood made us laugh and cry

The three-part documentary Live and Let Dai was an intimate look at the experience of one of our most beloved comedians as he navigated his stage four cancer diagnosis. Taking us inside everything from scans, to standup nights, to solitude and sadness, the series was deeply personal and deeply affecting. “I don’t know if Henwood, director Justin Hawkes and executive producer Charlotte Hobson knew they were making important television from the outset, but important television is what they’ve made,” Anna Rawhiti-Connell wrote. “If it takes a comedian to teach us that there is extraordinary peace to be found in living generously, with your feelings fanging out, and doing the often painful work of developing self-awareness, so be it.” / AC

Ben Hurley bricked it on Taskmaster NZ

The last place we expected to see the sporting moment of the year was on Taskmaster NZ, but in August, comedian Ben Hurley delivered one of the most unlikely and impressive athletic achievements of 2024. The task? To push a single block out of a tall, unstable Jenga-style tower from a distance of two metres away. “Against all common sense and logic, Hurley decides to launch a tennis ball at the tower, in the hope of pushing out one tiny block,” we recapped, astonished at Hurley’s audacious choice. “‘Imagine if it just flies out,’ Hurley jokes to Taskmaster assistant Paul Williams, as he launches the ball into the air. The ball floats towards the tower and quickly bounces off. Before our very eyes, a single yellow block slides smoothly out of the tower, and falls silently onto the grass below.” It was a moment that represented everything Taskmaster NZ should be: unpredictable, ridiculous, and so full of joy. / TW

Shortland Street had its first fat storyline

We’ve long celebrated the ways in which our longest-running soap opera has confronted complex issues facing New Zealanders from all walks of life. Over the years it has tackled everything from trans rights to mental health, assisted dying to teen pregnancy, and explored these issues through a cast that has evolved to mirror the many faces and experiences of Aotearoa. But, as fat activist Joanna McLeod has long critiqued, one part of our population has been missing from the Shortland Street discourse for even longer than poor old Lionel has been at sea: fat people. 

That all changed with nurse Selina To’a (Bella Kalolo) and the first fat storyline to ever grace Ferndale. “A fat patient came into the hospital, and Selina was incredible,” wrote McLeod. “When Jocelyn worried that the blood pressure cuff wouldn’t fit her ‘giant arms’, Selina cheerily replied ‘the usual ones don’t fit me either babe, so I got this one’.” Jocelyn was treated with respect, dignity and allyship, with the show confronting fatphobia, and debunking myths about health and weight. “By that stage of the episode I was bawling – it was exactly what’s been missing on our screens,” said McLeod. / AC

There were too many current affairs farewells 

One of the hardest things this year was covering the farewell episodes of our local television institutions gone too soon. It began in May, where both Fair Go and Sunday said goodbye to their decades-long slots in the TVNZ lineup. “Even in the show’s closing minutes, Sunday tried its best not to make it about Sunday,” wrote Tara Ward on the final episode of Sunday. “From the Dilworth sexual abuse scandal to emergency housing in Rotorua to the cost of living impacting on the elderly, Sunday let us tell our stories until the very end.” 

Farewelling Fair Go, a mainstay on our screens since 1974, was also a chance for the former presenters to reflect on the legacy of the series that always fought for the underdog. “We lose a fascinating, entertaining TV show when Fair Go is at its best,” wrote Kevin Milne. “But far more important is that every New Zealander loses the unique option they’ve had for nearly 50 years: to threaten a business with ‘well, I’m going to Fair Go’. That works with a primetime, high-rating TV show with mana. That’s all about to go.”

The shock closure of Newshub saw a tearful final bulletin in July, where Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts farewelled the 6pm institution and the hundreds of people who helped make it since 1989. “We have loved making the news, thank you so much for watching us,” says Hayes. McRoberts grabs her hand, and shares a whakatauki. “Ko te mea nui o te ao? What is the most important thing in the world? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It is people, it is people, it is people… Thank you for being our people, we’ve absolutely loved being yours.” / AC

What Now pivoted to YouTube

New Zealand’s longest-running kids’ TV show returned in January, but looked a little different to its previous four decades on our screens. 2024 saw What Now pivot away from its traditional live in-studio show to becoming “digital first”, with a focus on developing its YouTube channel. Producer Emma Martini explained that this was a response to the changing ways that New Zealand youth are accessing media today. “We want to be where our tamariki are, which is very much online, watching content when they want,” she said. 

As well as having the pre-recorded Sunday morning show, What Now fans can now watch fast and furious internet-inspired videos like a helicopter dropping 375 litres of gunge, or kids playing video games with their grandparents, or a giant city-wide game of hide and seek, whenever they like. It’s a new era, but what hasn’t altered is What Now’s ability to connect with kids around the motu. As we said in this year’s Top 100 NZ TV show list: “for all the change, one thing is constant: What Now remains a rip-roaring celebration of New Zealand childhood in all its vibrant, chaotic, gungey glory.” / TW

The Traitors NZ brought the heat

There were honestly so many moments from season two of The Traitors NZ that deserve to be preserved in amber for all of eternity. There’s the moment that Brie randomly bellowed “I WANT TO FUCKING WIN BECAUSE I HAVE A WEDDING TO PLAN!!!!!” at the roundtable. There’s the moment that guilty Jane did her guilty as gulps. There’s Whitney the funeral director and the fall-out of hoofgate. But the moment that made me clap my hands like a seal was when Mark sacrificed himself at the altar of Paul Henry. 

After figuring out that gulpy Jane was a Traitor, Mark wrote a secret note to Utah outlining his theory, before choosing to seppuku HIMSELF instead of continuing on as Jane’s soon-to-be sacrificial lamb. “Mark knew he’d be the scapegoat, and respects this game so much that he made the ultimate sacrifice to make the best television possible,” I wrote at the time. “Plus, is it even a sacrifice if the move likely earns you an instant place in The Traitors hall of fame and an eventual all stars season? This games master is playing a longer game than anyone.” / AC

Christopher Luxon said ‘what I say to you’ 26 times on Q+A

In December, Christopher Luxon appeared on TVNZ’s Q+A for the first time since he became prime minister in 2023. Journalist Jack Tame asked Luxon a variety of questions about the economy, climate change and race relations, but no matter the query or how tricky the topic, Luxon only had one answer: “what I say to you”. “In fact, Luxon said “what I say to you” (or variations of it) 26 times in 30 minutes,” we recapped, as Luxon dropped one “what I say to you” every 1.15 minutes. “Tame was focused and persistent in getting straightforward answers to his questions, but Luxon was just as determined to tell us that he had something to say. Eventually, if we waited long enough, it seemed like he might even say it.” / TW

A new Spelling Bee game caused carnage

In his My Life in TV interview with us earlier this year, Guy Montgomery told us one of the greatest things about returning for a second season of Guy Mont Spelling Bee was having the “luxury” to build upon the twisted wordplay and gameplay of season one. Or, as he put it, to “create more unbearably and unnecessarily circuitous routes towards the spelling of words”. One of those most memorable new additions was a bluffing game called A Decent Proposal, inspired by the prisoner’s dilemma, which set the studio on fire in episode three. 

The episode already had a “toxic energy” before Rose Matafeo and Eli Matthewson embarked on the game of deception, where you could either pick an easy word for your partner, or lie, give them a hard word, and keep the points for yourself. It resulted in “a decade’s worth of boardgame-related enmity” erupting, and this powerful vengeance monologue: “Don’t even look at me, don’t talk to me, don’t talk to my friends, don’t ever come to me ever again for anything ever in your life. You are dirt, you are scum and I can’t look at you any more.” / AC

Leanne died on Shortland Street

It was a dark day in Ferndale in July when beloved character Leanne Miller died from cancer. The mother, friend and notorious hornbag had reigned over the hospital reception desk since 2010, and her death from cancer marked the end of an era not only for payroll and office supplies, but for Shortland Street itself. “Leanne arrived in Ferndale as Nicole’s mother, but once she got behind that reception desk, she stepped into her potency as a complex woman of passion, pride and occasionally, illegal drugs,” we lamented in her obituary. “Leanne’s tongue was as sharp as her instinct, her loyalty as fierce as her skill at changing the photocopier toner. If there was a problem, Leanne probably had something to do with it. She won Lotto twice, and only lost the ticket once.” RIP, queen. / TW

Toothbrush-gate and guinea pig reiki on MAFSNZ

Jeepers, doesn’t Married at First Sight NZ feel like it was 400 years ago already? After a long hiatus, the romance reality juggernaut returned for an extremely pared-back season four, with a small cast who opted to marry a total stranger in a series of intimate (read: cheap) elopements in Vanuatu. It was an odd season which, despite bringing in the big gun himself John Aiken, was hamstrung by an extremely short shoot and a relatively sedate cast, which most notably featured a guinea pig reiki healer and that weirdo from The Apprentice. 

Still, it had its moments of New Zealand pettiness and charm, devoting about four episodes to a strange disagreement between Jesse and CJ about his late night purchasing of a toothbrush. As I recapped in June: “CJ thought it was weird that Jesse bought a toothbrush, Jesse thought it was weird that CJ thought it was weird that he bought a toothbrush, the experts thought it was weird that Jesse thought it was weird that CJ thought it was weird for him to buy a toothbrush.” God defend our free land, and god defend our freshly brushed chompers. / AC

Christian Cullen was the mysterious smooth guy of CTI

Every season of Celebrity Treasure Island has to have an enthralling personality reveal, kind of like The Masked Singer but instead of celebs revealing themselves to have a passable singing voice from under a giant goldfish head, they simply pop on a buff and divulge that they have a weird sense of humour or that they foster surprising alliances. In 2022 that thrill came from Dame Susan Devoy, last year it was the heart-warming friendship between James Mustapic and Tāme Iti, and this year it was Christian Cullen. 

The All Blacks legend was almost immediately labelled the “mysterious smooth guy” of the island by his new bestie Bubbah, and he lived up to the moniker. Perpetually fed up but always with a wry twinkle in his eye, Cullen bemoaned the challenges (“when you see a dog digging a hole, they just love it, but it wasn’t my cup of tea”), the accommodation (“how come there are no windows?”) and people who laugh too loudly (“I laugh within. I could stand there for hours and hours and not laugh”). Rest assured we all laughed – within – alongside you, Cully. / AC

The Warehouse made the worst ad ever

Raise your hand if you have ever felt personally victimised by The Warehouse Group after they took your favourite childhood tune about a philandering German man in a fedora and turned it into a horrible parody song about the joys of overconsumption in a cost of living crisis. The Warehouse’s ‘Mambo No. 5’ parody begins: “One, two, three, four, five / Everybody in the car / Come on crew let’s ride / To the Warehouse around the corner / They’ve got every single thing we need / To get our life back in order.” 

What follows is a cry for help. “Her subsequent purchases feel like that of a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown (a kiddie pool, sheets, barbecue tools, outdoor seats, swimsuits, gardening tools, BIRD FEEDERS),” I wrote in October. “Her trolley overfloweth with random goods, including one of those balls covered in nipples and a book called ‘Natural Care’. Oh, and it bears mentioning again that this is all being SUNG to the tune of MAMBO NO. 5.” The good news: the ad has stopped playing. The bad news: they’ve got a holiday edition. / AC

Sky NZ interviewed the wrong person

The 2024 Paris Olympics were full of unexpected moments, but one in particular stood out among the triumph and tears. During the swimming competition, Sky TV crossed to reporter Tim Evans in Paris as he interviewed someone he believed was New Zealand swimmer Cameron Gray. Still dripping from a fierce 100m heat, Gray gave Evans a breakdown of the race in an accent that Toby Manhire described as “unlikely and enigmatic for a man from the North Shore”.  

Indeed. The man Evans interviewed wasn’t actually Gray, and after a commercial break, Sky TV presenter Laura McGoldrick set things straight. “We’re not sure who that was,” she admitted, before she crossed again to Evans once he had magicked up the real Slim Shady. Turns out the first Cameron Gray was actually Israeli swimmer Tomer Frankel, who’d finished second in the race but first in the Not Cameron Gray event. “It might not have been on the level of Guy Goma – the man who arrived at the BBC in London for a job interview in 2006 only to be mistaken for a technology commentator and quizzed live on air on News 24 – but it’s one for the annals of great New Zealand Olympic interviews,” Manhire wrote. / TW

Chris Warner grew a big old beard

Over the past 32 years, Dr Chris Warner has endured more than most: five divorces, addiction, cancer, being framed for murder, a kidnapping, a shooting, a car crash, and a heart attack. Through all those dark times, Dr Love never once let his grooming slip – until April, when the troubled surgeon returned to Ferndale wearing all his woe upon his face. After discovering his son Harry was a murderer, Shortland Street’s smoothest man grew a long shaggy beard, and the ripples of this shocking event travelled far and wide throughout the land. “If eyes are the window to the soul, then hair must be the front door to the heart, and it seems we finally found Chris Warner’s breaking point,” I wrote. “Never before has the super surgeon looked this dishevelled and unkempt… even when he fell off a flying fox, Dr Love kept it together. Until now. Please tell me that is not your facial hair, Chris Warner.”  / TW