''Holmes'' is a 30-minute news and current affairs show presented by Paul Holmes on Television One in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

that aired between 1989 and 2004. The show moved to

Prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

in 2005 after failed contract negotiations between Paul Holmes and

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

, however the show's run on Prime was short-lived due to low ratings.

Show history

The Holmes show first screened on Television One at 6:30pm following the 6pm news. The 6pm news slot was actually changed to make way for the Holmes show, previously the 6pm news show was 1 hour long with a 20-minute break between the sports news and weather to screen a regional news show for each of the four main centres. The regional news shows were moved to before the 6pm news and later axed. The only competing show at the time was

Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons an ...

, screened on the only other channel Channel 2. At the end of 1989 Holmes also competed against 3 National News on the newly launched TV3. Holmes' first TV segment featured guest

Dennis Conner Dennis Walter Conner (born September 16, 1942) is an American yachtsman. He is noted for winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and three wins in the America's Cup. Sailing career Conner was born September ...

, the

America’s Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one fr ...

skipper. After being provoked, Conner walked off the set, providing Holmes with headlines the next day. In 1995, Television One extended their 6pm news to a one-hour show following a move made by TV3 in 1991. From 1995 to 2004 the Holmes shows main competing show was

Shortland Street ''Shortland Street'' is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital, first broadcast on TVNZ 2 on 25 May 1992. It is New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously ...

on TV2. TV3 typically screened repeats of popular shows such as

Home Improvement The concept of home improvement, home renovation, or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electrical and plumbing), ...

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

in this time shot.

Move to Prime

On 2 November 2004, Paul Holmes resigned from TVNZ after failed contract negotiations with TVNZ. TVNZ would not renew Holmes' contract for more than six months; instead Holmes accepted an offer to present a similar show on

screening at the same time slot. TVNZ immediately took Holmes off the air and replaced his nightly show with ''

Close Up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long ...

'', originally presented by Susan Wood. Close Up followed a similar format to the Holmes show. The move to Prime also sparked a current affairs war between the networks with TV3 announcing their new current affairs show ''

Campbell Live ''Campbell Live'' is a half-hour-long New Zealand current affairs programme that aired at 7pm (following 3 News) on TV3 and was hosted by John Campbell. ''Campbell Live'' conducted interviews of various notable personalities, including Al Go ...

'', presented by John Campbell due to start in March 2005. Holmes began his first show on Prime on 7 February 2005; the new show was originally titled ''Paul Holmes''. In February 2005, the show rated 7.1 percent for its timeslot, compared with his former programme on TV One (renamed Close Up) at 31 percent share. In March 2005, following the launch of rival show ''Campbell Live'' on TV3, Nielsen Media Ratings listed Holmes' show at 4 percent. Holmes now had to compete with Close Up on TV One, Shortland Street on TV2 and Campbell Live on TV3. Four months after the show moved to Prime a decision was made to move Holmes to 6pm following the 5:30pm news on Prime. This change proved fatal as the show could simply not compete with the 6:00pm news on both TV One and TV3. On 8 August 2005, almost six months to the day after the show launched, it was axed by Prime Television, with Prime chief executive Chris Taylor citing poor ratings and inability to attract viewers from the traditional primetime news strongholds of TV One and TV3. The show returned in a weekly format in late 2005 and in 2006 was revamped into an hour long chat show similar to the popular UK show hosted by Michael Parkinson. Paul Holmes returned to TVNZ in 2009 to present political talk show Q+A on TV One. Holmes died in 2013.

References

External links

Holmes
at NZOnScreen {{New Zealand television news 1980s New Zealand television series 1990s New Zealand television series 2000s New Zealand television series 1989 New Zealand television series debuts 2004 New Zealand television series endings New Zealand television news shows TVNZ 1 original programming