Media Insider: TV3 future in spotlight under WBD's big global changes; Sky, NZR and a new TV rights deal; Shortland St eyes life support again; Creative ad agency cuts
TV3 staff face a renewed period of uncertainty; NZR and Sky close to rugby rights deal; Shorty St eyes life support again; Cutbacks at creative advertising agency; Kiwi PR agencies win big on global stage.
The future of TV3 (Three) is once again in the spotlight, with parent company Warner
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The Spinoff
25 minutes ago
- The Spinoff
‘I was a great big doofus': Suzy Cato on the joy of making 90s kids TV
The beloved children's TV presenter takes us through her life in television. Ask a certain generation of New Zealanders about their childhood, and they'll reply with two words: Suzy Cato. Since the early 1990s, Cato has been a warm and colourful presence on our television screens, when she began hosting The Early Bird Show and 3pm on new channel TV3. She went on to entertain preschoolers every afternoon on You and Me (wearing a classic 90s Kosmik sweatshirt and singing the iconic 'see you, see you later' farewell song), and taught us all about how poop gets made in the science discovery series Suzy's World. In more recent years, Cato appeared on reality TV shows like The Masked Singer NZ and Dancing with the Stars NZ, and acted in the film Red, White and Blue. But whether she's reassuring the nation's children through lockdowns or cheering us up with catchy tunes like ' Sprinkle a Little Sunshine ', one thing hasn't changed: Cato loves engaging with New Zealand kids. Her 35 years of dedication was acknowledged in the most recent King's Birthday Honours, where she was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music, education and television. The legacy of Cato's early work lives on, with the original fans of You and Me now bringing their own children to Cato's concerts and old episodes pulling in hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Cato says it's an honour to be remembered so fondly by fans of You and Me, which ran for over 2,000 episodes. 'Everybody involved in that programme just delights in the fact that it is still in the hearts and the minds and the DNA, basically, of so many people throughout New Zealand.' Cato's latest project is Suzy & Friends, a weekly kids' podcast on RNZ where she and co-host Trevor Plant share songs, stories and adventures with listeners across the motu. Cato calls it 'theatre of the mind', encouraging children to think about the world around them while enjoying a healthy dose of silliness and fun. As always, Cato loves connecting with her audience who email her jokes, facts and ideas for the podcast. 'Often their thoughts are quite outlandish and wonderful, but you get to see inside a child's head. It's just marvellous.' What's also marvellous is Cato's long and colourful life in television. It's our time, our special time of day, to ask Cato some outlandish questions of our own about those Dancing with the Stars NZ leather pants, her earliest TV crushes, and why she loved being a great big doofus. My earliest TV memory is… The passing of prime minister Norman Kirk. It was on black and white television, and the whole family was gathered around. I remember it just being such a sombre event. The TV shows I loved as a child were… Nice One – Stu Dennison was so funny and self deprecating, and never put anybody else down. Vision On was made in England, primarily for deaf viewers. It was full of sign language and so calm and engaging. It was all about creativity and had lots of stop frame animation, buttons dancing around the page and forming different patterns. It was fascinating, and pops into my mind quite often. My earliest TV crush was… Probably John and Ponch from Chips, or the guys from The Dukes of Hazzard, or there was something sweet about John Boy from The Waltons. My most pivotal TV moment is… The first time we got a letter asking for assistance with something happening to a child that the child did not like at all. I was 21, I was being paid to have fun, I was linking cartoons together on The Early Bird Show and 3pm. Crikey, the realisation that somebody put that much faith and trust into me – I found it way too overwhelming. I handed in my resignation, and they wouldn't accept it. They said, 'look, stay with us and help us reach these kids'. Then TV3 had a big changeover and the shows that I was a part of were let go. When I came to audition for You and Me, a lot of people said to me, 'what are you doing? It's a preschool programme, it's a backward step.' But for me, the values, honesty and clarity of the programme were just so strong. We would educate by way of osmosis, without kids even realising that they were being taught anything. They were there to have fun. With Suzy's World, it was for me to be a great big doofus and make all the mistakes, while they were learning things. The biggest inspiration for me on children's TV was… Catherine McPherson from What Now. She's the person somebody who could really connect with the viewer. She was so down to earth and so real. When all the other presenters around her were just larger than life, and in all the chaos of the studio, she would almost roll her eyes and then look back at the camera and carry on the conversation with you. You felt like you were there. The TV ad I can't stop thinking about… [Cato begins to sing] 'Hugo said, you go, and I said, No, you go'. It was for KFC, with the family bumping along in a car. My favourite moment from my own career is… There's so many, but most of them are off screen when you're meeting real-life friends of the show. Back in the day with You and Me, you'd do a live show and then a photograph opportunity, and you would have mum and dad in the queue, with a child. The child would come up and give you just the biggest hug, because you are a part of their family. Now viewers that used to watch You and Me and Suzy's World are having children of their own. My enduring memory of The Masked Singer is… My goodness, it was like being a spy. Your face was covered. You weren't allowed to speak outside of the trailer that you were in, you had to whisper, and then you snuck in, fully masked. Nobody could know who you were. You had to drop your car off and then be picked up in an unmarked vehicle and driven across the city. It was so cool. You had to try not to wear clothing that would be recognisable as you, so I dug into my daughter's wardrobe and managed to find clothes to get me in there. My favourite TV project was… You and Me. I got to fly down to Dunedin for two weeks every month and focus on nothing but You and Me. That was so special, because it really deserved that focus. The writers and directors were all preschool trained, so they had such awareness of what was required. It was so much fun. Dancing with the Stars NZ was life-changing because… It scared me from the moment I stepped into that black leather outfit to do the dance off in the opening titles. To allow myself that opportunity to be seen like that, and the hair and the makeup and the glitz – I just loved every minute of it. To be a woman heading into her 50s, who actually had to start walking before she could start her dance training because she had no fitness whatsoever, I felt like I was representing real New Zealand. My controversial TV opinion is… There should be a dedicated channel for kids. New Zealand on Air is doing some great mahi, but we need a dedicated channel like Kidzone, which wasn't connected to YouTube. It was destination viewing, with quality programming and within hours that kids should be up and viewing. We need as much Kiwi content as possible, that reflects them and their peers, as opposed to all the attitudes and the behaviours that we see from international programming. The show I'll never watch, no matter how many people tell me to is… I attempted to watch Game of Thrones, but every time I walked into the room while my husband was watching it, I was like 'ugh, that's gross'. The last thing I watched on television was… Endangered Species Aotearoa. It's that wonderful documentary with the comedian Pax Assadi and the fabulous Nicola Toki from Forest and Bird. It's brilliant. It's not sugar coating it, but it is giving you hope, and it's so beautifully shot as well.
Otago Daily Times
an hour ago
- Otago Daily Times
Hard call to say which Fox greater star
The Fox ... Ohhhhh, Foxy. Foxy, Foxy, Foxy. We knew Ryan Fox was good. We knew he could beat anyone on his day. We knew he had all sorts of Kiwi muscle and composure and class and brilliance. But winning two PGA Tour titles in the space of a month is pretty special. So was the way he claimed his most recent victory at the Canadian Open, when he showed unbelievable mental strength to triumph on the fourth playoff hole. That 3-wood he played with his second shot on that final hole was some kind of thrilling. Golf is a difficult sport. Golf can be a cruel sport. But golf can also deliver the best type of drama, and can reveal the deepest levels of character. Our boy Foxy is up to No 32 in the world and remains box-office gold. The annual Otago Daily Times sport power rankings are out in a few weeks and you can be sure the big man will be rising up the list. ... and the old man There is, of course, one extremely important question left to address in the wake of our star golfer's victory in Canada. Who is the supreme sportsman in the Fox family? Is it the son, the brawny, big-hitting, magnificent golfer who is on a winning tear? Or is it the father, who was the much smaller (but hardly tiny for his time) rugby player and super boot? This is a tough one. Ryan is the flavour of the month, for sure. He is shining in a (relatively) global sport, mixing it up each week with genuine superstars. And he's just darn cool. Grant, to be fair, was a heck of an All Black, who might have been ranked our greatest first five before that chap Carter and that lad Barrett came along. He also won a Rugby World Cup. Hmm. Tough one. But I wonder if Ryan needs to win a couple more professional tournaments before he slips into top spot. A major would catapult him into the distance. Vale, Stu Speaking of rankings, where would you have the late Stu Wilson on the list of All Blacks wingers? Wilson, who died on Sunday, was a huge crowd favourite and a marvellous attacking player. The great David Campese told Planet Rugby his All Blacks rival was the "benchmark in world wing play" and had "a swerve to beat anyone, extreme pace, intellect and power, making him a try-scoring machine". Any greatest All Blacks XV has to start with Jonah Lomu on the left wing. But there is no unanimous choice for the other wing. Wilson, who played 34 tests and 85 All Blacks matches in total, is in or near the conversation with the likes of John Kirwan, Bryan Williams, Jeff Wilson, Will Jordan, Doug Howlett, Julian Savea, Joe Rokocoko and Ron Jarden. Honours and Hall Hat tip to one of the opposition, Stuff and former ODT sports reporter Tony Smith, for a thought-provoking column following the annual King's Birthday Honours. Smith wrote of his desire to see honours spread a bit more widely among the sports following another year in which rugby, cricket and Olympic codes featured prominently. They have always been a bit weird anyway, these honours. For every genuine community stalwart honoured, there is a millionaire rewarded for being wealthy, or a sportsperson rewarded for playing sport. And, as Smith highlighted, why do All Blacks and Silver Ferns coaches get knighthoods/damehoods for winning world cups but coaches in other sports do not? I am still probably more interested in the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. There were no inductions this year, and it remains scandalous that some sports have a swag of inductees while two football greats, Ryan Nelsen and the 1982 All Whites, remain in the cold. Level playing field? These facts are all you really need to know about the World Test Championship and why the supposed pinnacle of long-form cricket is kinda weird. South African qualified for the final without having to play Australia or England. Australia are scheduled to play 22 tests and England 21 in the 2025-27 cycle. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will play only 12. Semi stuff-up Super Rugby Pacific got a lot right this year. But this is one thing they got badly wrong. The Chiefs should not be hosting a semifinal tonight. They lost their qualifying final, the Brumbies won theirs, yet the Chiefs get home advantage. Eh? It should have been the Crusaders-Chiefs last night, and the Brumbies-Blues tonight. The Chiefs got a reward — a life — for being the top qualifiers. They did not need to get home advantage for a semifinal as well. Birthday of the week Steffi Graf is 56 today. The German tennis star was so great to watch. And it is hard to see anyone matching her "Golden Slam", when she won all four grand slam singles titles and Olympic gold in 1988. Graf and fellow tennis great Andre Agassi had two kids, Jaden and Jaz. Google tells me Jaden played baseball at college, and Jaz is a dancer and horse rider.
1News
8 hours ago
- 1News
McLaughlin on Indy 500 crash: 'I still am a little bit perplexed'
Scott McLaughlin doesn't mince words about the moment that derailed his Indianapolis 500 dream. The Kiwi IndyCar driver crashed out before the race had even started, spinning on the warm-up lap and slamming into the wall in a rare, rattling mistake. "I still am a little bit perplexed about what happened in that scenario and how it did," he told 1News. "Never sort of done that before in my career." It capped off a nightmare month that began with promise and ended with wrecked cars, lost opportunity, and questions he was still attempting to answer. ADVERTISEMENT "That whole month was pretty tough. It started really well and then obviously ended in a couple of bad ways with my crash before that, and then crashing another brand new car. "Yeah, look, it was definitely one of, if not the lowest point of my career, but there's something that I'll learn from. McLaughlin's response was immediate: get back behind the wheel. Kiwi IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin. (Source: 1News) "The best thing for me, after a week after that, was getting back in the race car. And, you know, felt really good even if it wasn't the most ideal result either.' While Indy was the most public blow, it had been a turbulent season all round. His team, Penske, was hit with a cheating scandal for illegal use of engine software. He's also been at the centre of social media run-ins, including one with former IndyCar champ Tony Kanaan. Still, McLaughlin's belief hasn't wavered. ADVERTISEMENT "We've had the pace to win races we just haven't put it together. A little bit of luck, little bit of making mistakes, bits and pieces." He opened the year with a pole position in St. Petersburg, grabbed a podium at Barber, and now turns his focus to this weekend's Bommarito 500 in St. Louis a track where he won pole and finished second last year. "I truly believe we have a fast car. I feel really strong on ovals. Do I enjoy ovals more? And I have to say, I do now. It's such a refreshing change for me in my career. Every time I go on an oval, I feel really confident and definitely feel like that's my kettle of fish." Scott McLaughlin opened up about his horror run at the Indy 500. (Source: 1News) He would enter the race sitting eighth in the standings, with championship leader Alex Palou well ahead but not out of reach. "I've been in this sport long enough not just IndyCar but Supercars as well. Sometimes you can have a fast car and you just don't put it together. It's not your year. I don't believe it's not my year yet." "I certainly need to get on the train and start winning races or, you know, getting some consistency back." ADVERTISEMENT There's added pride behind the wheel, too. McLaughlin's long-time sponsor, Gallagher Insurance, has partnered with the All Blacks — a team he had supported since childhood. "It's full circle. They've sponsored me here in America and now they're an associate of the All Blacks. I'd love to try get some of the boys out to a race vice versa." After a month of setbacks, McLaughlin was focused on the one thing that matters now — turning pace into results. Watch the full interview on TVNZ+
