A programme that began as a farm bulletin is now officially a legend. Country Calendar, first broadcast on 6 March 1966 and still the longest-running programme on New Zealand television, has been named the 2026 Screen Legend by the New Zealand Screen Awards, and it will be honoured at the ceremony in Auckland on Thursday 19 November.
It is a rare kind of recognition. The award has gone to people for almost its entire history, and Country Calendar is only the second programme to receive it, after Shortland Street in 2019.
Sixty years of rural Aotearoa
The show started life as a short rural news and information programme for farmers. Over six decades it has widened its brief to fishing, forestry, food production and rural innovation, while keeping the dry, distinctly Kiwi humour that has carried it well beyond the farm gate.
New Zealand Screen Awards
Producer Dan Henry put the anniversary plainly. “Country Calendar isn’t simply a television programme that has survived; it has thrived for 60 years,” he said.
The series is made by TVNZ with funding from NZ On Air, which has backed it since 1991, and Hyundai New Zealand has been its naming sponsor since 2011. The current season, which began on 8 February, airs on TVNZ 1 on Sundays at 7pm, and episodes stream on TVNZ+, where five seasons are currently available.
The Screen Legends so far
The honour began as the Television Legend in 2017. Previous recipients:
- 2017: John Barnett
- 2018: Tini Molyneux
- 2019: Shortland Street
- 2020: Andrew Shaw
- 2021: Sir Ian Mune
- 2022: Janine Morrell-Gunn
- 2023: Oscar Kightley
- 2024: Dame Julie Christie
- 2025: Sir Sam Neill
The night itself
The New Zealand Screen Awards are on Thursday 19 November at the Viaduct Events Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, with tickets on sale through the awards website. The Screen Legend is not a competitive category: the awards committee chooses the recipient, and no entries are sought, which is why the list above reads as a short history of the people and programmes that built local television.
One category on the night does belong to viewers. Screen Personality of the Year is decided by public vote, through a form on the awards website, and the winner is revealed at the ceremony.
For what else is landing locally this month, see New on Streaming in Aotearoa, November, and for more on how public funding shapes local screens, NZ On Air Goes Trans-Tasman for Kids.
Where to watch
- Country Calendar: TVNZ 1, Sundays at 7pm; episodes on TVNZ+ (New Zealand).
- Screen Personality of the Year voting: New Zealand Screen Awards website.
- New Zealand Screen Awards: Thursday 19 November, Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland. Weekly local listings are in Your Week on Screen, Down Under.
Sources
Titles in this story.
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