Promoted

Whether or not she wins, Anna Wilson has the X Factor.

It appears as though before pursuing a music career, Anna had a budding acting career, starring in the 2001 movie Kid’s World alongside Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) and Olivia Tennet (Shortland Street).

Perhaps her outfit from Sunday was inspired by her first scene wardrobe from the movie. (View more photos at ChildStarlets) Continue reading »

Congratulations, you weren’t the first act voted off The X Factor New Zealand. Last week, most of you either ignored my advice or chose to let your nerves get the better of you so let me repeat myself again.  Exude confidence! I cannot emphasize this enough.

You have nothing to fear and the sooner you realise this, the better you will be as performing artists.  The audience that is in front of you at the studios on Sunday nights are there because they want you to entertain them.  They didn’t turn up with a desire to find fault with the way you perform, they turned up because they wanted to be entertained.

Entertain them!  If the audience is being entertained you can be assured that everyone at home will be seeing and hearing the reaction in the studio and will be wishing they were there experiencing the show live rather than on their own couches.  Continue reading »

Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce will be back on TV3 with brand new episodes of Jono and Ben at Ten at the end of this month.

The premiere is locked in for Friday, May 31 at 10pm, according to the announcement on Facebook this evening.

We can’t wait.

Will the Facebook and Twitter follower count be good predictors of the contestants’ vote count? We’ll find out tonight!

The queue:

The stage:

The mosh pit:

Look who we’re sitting next to:

At the end of 2007, after a year of near death experiences, Rachel and I embarked on a five week round the world trip.  We began in Sydney where we attended a filming of Australian Idol.  While NZ Idol, which we had had quite a lot of involvement with, was pre-recorded on Friday nights for a Sunday night broadcast, Australian Idol was filmed entirely live.

While the editors had the ability to cut parts of NZ Idol out if need be, the pressure was on with Australian Idol to ensure the program didn’t extend beyond its allocated time or interrupt the ad break schedule.  Having seen how things were done in New Zealand, Australian Idol was a completely different beast and one heck of a well oiled machine. Continue reading »

On Wednesday we wondered if TVNZ was about to announce Rachel Hunter’s return to the New Zealand’s Got Talent  judging panel.  Today, those questions have been answered.

Rachel Hunter has been named as the third judge for New Zealand’s Got Talent 2013, coming soon to TV ONE.

The international supermodel will join Op Shop frontman Jason Kerrison and choreographer and creative director Cris Judd in the three-person judging panel when filming for the number one New Zealand entertainment show starts in July. Continue reading »

In a bid to reach more people, MediaWorks will have More FM simulcast The X Factor NZ’s live performance and results shows.

The X Factor NZ co-executive producer Andrew Szusterman says: “This isn’t about putting the stereo next to the TV, it’s about all those New Zealanders working nightshift, travelling the country or for any other reason not being able to get to the television – but who want to experience The X Factor at the same time as the rest of the country.

“With the More FM network covering the show live The X Factor has the country’s eyes and ears covered.” Continue reading »

It seems to be something we do in New Zealand.  If you’re a plus size contestant, you become Big Someone-or-other. In the first season of NZ Idol, Dave Houma became Big Dave.  Last season of New Zealand’s Got Talent, Dane Moeke was referred to as Big Dane.  So where does that leave things for The X Factor?

Māka Fiso is another larger contestant and unfortunately for him, while his mentor proudly speaks hori English, plenty of viewers will refer to him as Macca as opposed to the correct pronounciation, Maaka.

I won’t be at all surprised if he starts getting referred to as Big Maka, something that I expect one of the main sponsors of the show may not be too upset about.

Poor Fletcher Mills.