Top ten rejected sport / TV crossover pilots

Sport Review #154

‘Mate!’ - just Kim Hill and The Mad Butcher talking for three hours every week

‘The Block, But Also All The Ways You’re Wrong’ - Teams of athletes compete to renovate inner city villas, before getting absolutely roasted by hosting duo Sam and Gareth Morgan

The Masked Loser - Every All Blacks coach that’s lost a world cup runs through the reasons they failed while judges try to pick who’s who

‘Issues! Politicians! Unbelievable!’ - Joey Wheeler and Israel Dagg drive for 18 hours from Dunedin to Wellington, including a brutal Cook Strait crossing, in a pre-election special

‘Leave This Dickweed To Me’ - Brent Todd rides along with police patrols

‘Really Enjoying My Library’ - arts with Sir Richard Hadlee, focusing exclusively on books he wrote himself

‘Ruckin' Eat That!’ - Stu Wilson cookery vehicle with a special guest every week. Kiri te Kanawa walks off the set in disgust in season finale

‘The Apprentice, Future Of Rugby Edition’ - Teams of players and administrators pitch their revenue generation ideas to head judge Grizz Wylie

‘All the ways the Israel / Palestine conflict is like what happened in my scarfie flat one time’ - Current affairs with Marc Ellis

‘Oh Lord Not Again’ - the guys from Funny Business are tested to their limits physically and mentally on a pre-season camp with the Canterbury rugby team on Richard Loe’s farm

Thanks for reading - Richard

The week's best NZ sport content

All Whites coach Danny Hay joins the Between Two Beers podcast to talk playing in Leeds United’s house of cards era, through to coaching the All Whites in a pandemic [Between Two Beers]

The time Bruno Mars almost played the Super Rugby final [TVNZ]

What would happen if a sports reporter was hit by Ngani Laumape? Robert van Royen looks at the science [Stuff]

From the Guardian 1912 archive - How to become a champion tennis player with New Zealand’s only Wimbledon winner Anthony Wilding [Guardian]

Video nasty

‘That is a couple of ponces mincing around talking rubbish.’

Long read

How tech and Silicon Valley coverage went from cheerleading to actual journalism, and how the relationships are badly broken now [NY Mag]

Recommendation 

The Mosquito Coast, adapted by Luther creator Neil Cross, is on Apple TV and is very, very tense and good.

Bring back the gif 

When you need to organise a meal that’s romantic but also tasty.

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