From Monday Choice, the reliable introvert of New Zealand television, will be no more.

For the past decade, free-to-air channel Choice has been home to countless renovation and cooking shows. It’s taken us around the world, shown us a thousand different ways to cook dinner, and taught us more about tiny houses than we ever wanted to know. Who knew there were so many mysteries in the museum? Big brain, little channel, that’s who.

But Choice is no more. On Monday, Discovery will replace Choice with two new free-to-air channels, Rush and Eden. Rush promises “high adventure, high octane, high adrenaline reality”, while Eden builds on the light entertainment vibe already established by Choice. Eden will keep screening some of Choice’s shows, while introducing a broader mix of lifestyle, reality, drama and film content. Selected programmes from both channels will be available on ThreeNow.

Choice launched in 2012 as a privately owned, independent channel, before being bought by Discovery in 2019. A Discovery spokesperson said Choice ratings peaked in 2020, and that the channel was known for “selecting the best of factual content available in the international market, and for finding hidden gems and curating a schedule with local audiences in mind”.

Those hidden gems were what made Choice different. In a world where the other free-to-air networks try to impress viewers with the latest blockbuster series, Choice never pretended to be something it wasn’t. Yes, the shows were often years old, but in a world saturated with drama and decisions, Choice made watching television easy.

Choice wasn’t about appointment viewing. It was about finding quiet comfort in the simple charms of Location Location Location, or discovering quirky reality series Forged in Fire, or escaping into random documentaries like 10 Secrets that Sunk the Titanic (spoiler: it was the iceberg). Before Choice sinks from sight forever, let’s relive some of its memorable moments from the past decade.

Brunch

Choice launched in 2012 with its own morning TV show, starring the curious duo of Josh Kronfeld and April Ieremia. The hour-long show ran for three months from September until December that year, and was never heard of again. Footage of Brunch has been hidden on YouTube, and this Stuff article is all we have to persuade us that it wasn’t just a fever dream.

Days of Our Lives

The epic American daytime soap began its short run on Choice in 2013, much to the joy of sick high school students everywhere, only to be dropped a year later. Roman Brady was said to be fuming about the decision, but he could have also been talking about his feud with Victor Kiriakis, so what would we know. Days of Our Lives is still running in America, so the ball’s in your court, Eden.

Cook the Books

This primetime cooking show featured host Carly Flynn chatting with famous New Zealand chefs including Simon Gault, Chelsea Winter and Kasey and Karena. They’d whip up some iconic dishes from their recipe books, we’d learn more about their style of cooking. The show ran for two seasons in 2014 and 2015.

My Dream Room: Kids Edition

Mel Homer (later co-host of Three’s The Cafe) and everyone’s favourite builder Cocksy fronted this renovation show that let kids makeover their own bedroom by creating a diorama of dreams. You don’t see dioramas on TV much these days, and we’re all the poorer for it.

All the comfort television

Most of all, Choice was a place for comfort television. Whether it was 2pm or 2am, you could rely on Choice for a reassuring, informative watch. If you were lucky, you’d stumble on an old episode of Ugly House to Lovely House or Escape to the Chateau, or Deadliest Catch followed by a documentary about life on a remote Scottish island. All your old mates were on Choice, from Nigella baking a velvety chocolate cake to Fiona Bruce nattering on about antiques, or Richard Ayoade taking one of his celebrity pals to a dodgy bar in Eastern Europe.

They were shows you didn’t know you needed until you found them, and stumbling over them provided a blessed escape for an hour or two. Choice TV was neither flashy nor trashy. It was simply soothing television, and I’ll miss it.