SYDNEY – Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel have commenced the second season of their travel series Off The Grid With Colin And Manu, while simultaneously filming a new season of the competitive cooking program My Kitchen Rules.
The dual production cycle highlights the continued demand for personality-driven culinary content in the Australasian market, utilizing high-production-value location filming to distinguish travel-based narratives from traditional studio-based competitions.
Production Content and Regional Integration
The second season of Off The Grid focuses on remote New Zealand locations, including Fiordland, Ninety Mile Beach, and the Whanganui River, positioning the series as both food television and a soft-power showcase for regional tourism.
A significant portion of the production involves environmental conservation efforts, filmed under New Zealand’s biosecurity and conservation rules, which treat some introduced species as pests under the Wild Animal Control Act. Fassnidge noted that a sequence involving the hunting of wild pigs is intended as “great TV,” while acknowledging it may be confronting for viewers.
“One way to conserve the environment is to kill these wild pigs because they root out the kiwi nests,” Fassnidge said. “They’re a problem and they must be gotten rid of, but there’s going to be blowback because it’s pretty full on!”
Fassnidge described the process, stating, “They hunt them with dogs. In the end, we got one and you can’t shoot it because it’s in the forest with the dog, so you do it with a knife. Then we carried the boar out of the forest.” The sequence underscores how entertainment formats are increasingly being asked to navigate on-screen depictions of animal management and align with evolving audience expectations around welfare and conservation.
The production also integrates cultural elements, including a visit to a settlement near Ohakune where the presenters were gifted pounamu. Fassnidge, who was born in Ireland, described a personal connection to the experience after being gifted a stone with Celtic weaving, highlighting the way mainstream food television now routinely incorporates tikanga Māori and Indigenous storytelling rather than limiting itself to recipe-driven segments.
Market Positioning and Ratings Competition
Against a crowded slate of cooking competitions and lifestyle formats, Feildel distinguished the entertainment-focused approach of their current projects from other established franchises like MasterChef, which are generally commissioned under broader content quotas applied by public and commercial broadcasters.
“What’s MasterChef?” Feildel asked. “That’s the one where they all cry? They’re two different shows. They can be competitive, but one is very focused on the food and one’s focused on entertaining.”
Feildel further stated that their programs have consistently outperformed competitors in viewership. “Both shows have got a place on the screen and we’ve never compared ourselves, but we’ve been rating much better than them for years, so the proof is in the pudding!” While formal overnight ratings remain the benchmark for commercial decision-making, the duo’s continued recommissions signal that broadcasters still see return on investment in familiar culinary personalities even as streaming platforms chase younger audiences.
Talent Management and Production Demands
The intensity of simultaneous filming schedules for two major series has led both presenters to adopt specific wellness practices to manage professional stress, a theme increasingly visible across screen industries as employers grapple with burnout and duty-of-care expectations.
Feildel identified morning ocean swimming as a necessary routine. “When you’re busy, you forget about yourself a little bit, but the ocean is one of the things that remind us that we’re alive and it’s beautiful,” he said.
Fassnidge echoed the importance of mental health management given their career stage. “We’re big into mental health because we’re at that age where we’ve just been working and working, then we stop and we’re like, ‘I need to look after myself.’ We talk and are very open about everything.” Their comments land at a time when broadcasters and producers are under pressure to show they are meeting workplace health obligations in high-stress, short-deadline environments.
Regarding interpersonal conflict during production, Fassnidge noted that while communication is the primary tool for resolving stress, they also maintain necessary boundaries. “Doing two shows together, we need a break,” Fassnidge stated, adding that enforced days off are now built into their schedules.
Feildel indicated that he is considering establishing a permanent residence in New Zealand upon his retirement, citing the appeal of lower population density. “My wife and I are talking about the New Zealand path,” he said. “You can buy something beautiful, not be crowded and not have people jumping on you, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.” Any such move would add another high-profile hospitality figure to a sector that New Zealand’s tourism and regional development agencies routinely rely on to front campaigns and destination marketing.
Off The Grid With Colin And Manu screens 7:30 p.m. Sundays on TVNZ 1 and is available via TVNZ+, which, like other public media platforms, operates under a formal charter that sets expectations around cultural representation, local storytelling, and audience reach.