Neighbours AXED after 37 years (now saved and returning to screens in 2023)

[pete lashmar]

Isn't BBC Three meant to be attracting teens, not older people. The main demo for all soaps is older people. That's fine because they need to be catered for.

But it's going to future proof a channel, especially one that needs to attract advertisers.

I think we need to accept that the days of weekly or daily long running series are coming to a close. Maybe the current soaps will need to change their output.

Maybe they will become more like a series with 30 episodes a year and a cliffhanger.

I must be getting old. When Neighbours launched all those 37 years ago it was firmly aimed at a younger audience and reached them, but whether it's kept on attracting younger viewers I have no idea.

But I think you're right - all the soaps are now in danger over the next few years. EastEnders didn't even get into the BBC's 20 most influential shows poll results a few weeks ago.

 

[Walford Boy]

If the UK's Channel 5 pull Neighbours from the schedules then I'm afraid expect the worst.

The UK deal with Neighbours is what keeps the show going. If Channel 5 stop showing it then I'm afraid that's probably it for Neighbours, unless of course the BBC might be interested in buying the show back.

Not a chance, the BBC would not want it back, too expensive and they have moved on. Doctors cost a fraction to make and pulls in a bigger audience. Channel 5 are saying the price is too high and Freemantle won't drop the price? Ironic Freemantle got greedy and put the price up and the BBC pulled out and now 5 are doing the same. Joy Chambers (Mrs Grundy) said if Reg Grundy had not sold the company Neighbours would still have been on the BBC.

 

[AndyB2008]

As we've seen here now and in the past, international market counts for zilch.

Santa Barbara, Sunset Beach, Central Park West and Taggart were gangbusters overseas, even Baywatch. Yet all got the axe in the end due to poor ratings.

I wonder if The Bold and The Beautiful will go at some point what with the current ratings- given ViacomCBS don't exactly own the show, and get nothing off the international sales (which go to BBL Distribution, owned by the Bells). Also, it's a half hour, which may work overseas, but it means less commercials sold in the US compared to an hour long soap or something along those lines.

 

[AndyB2008]

Not a chance, the BBC would not want it back, too expensive and they have moved on. Doctors cost a fraction to make and pulls in a bigger audience. Channel 5 are saying the price is too high and Freemantle won't drop the price? Ironic Freemantle got greedy and put the price up and the BBC pulled out and now 5 are doing the same. Joy Chambers (Mrs Grundy) said if Reg Grundy had not sold the company Neighbours would still have been on the BBC.

Pointless (made by Banjay, which bought out Endemol Shine), which has replaced Neighbours at teatime, costs less too. Ditto Weakest Link, which is BBC owned.

Both got similar figures to what Neighbours was attracting then on BBC1 at less cost.

 

[Pamela_E]

Not a chance, the BBC would not want it back, too expensive and they have moved on. Doctors cost a fraction to make and pulls in a bigger audience. Channel 5 are saying the price is too high and Freemantle won't drop the price? Ironic Freemantle got greedy and put the price up and the BBC pulled out and now 5 are doing the same. Joy Chambers (Mrs Grundy) said if Reg Grundy had not sold the company Neighbours would still have been on the BBC.

And unfortunatly those young people 37 years ago are now older people. And young people are just not watching soaps anymore.

I love classic Eastenders and the ads are depressing. It's like "you will die soon if you are old enough to like this"

37 years is good for a TV show but once an episode has airred it has a life span of maybe 7 days, unlike a drama which lasts for years in reruns or on Netflix.

We are seeing in our soaps what happened in the US to daytime soaps. The remaining ones seem to live on a knives edge but a mass cull of others.

I think in the next 15 years they will all be gone.

 

[AndyB2008]

And unfortunatly those young people 37 years ago are now older people. And young people are just not watching soaps anymore.

I love classic Eastenders and the ads are depressing. It's like "you will die soon if you are old enough to like this"

37 years is good for a TV show but once an episode has airred it has a life span of maybe 7 days, unlike a drama which lasts for years in reruns or on Netflix.

We are seeing in our soaps what happened in the US to daytime soaps. The remaining ones seem to live on a knives edge but a mass cull of others.

I think in the next 15 years they will all be gone.

Agreed.

There is little repeat value in soaps. Hence why Sony and other channels have dropped soaps in favour of Hart to Hart on a loop, because the latter is easier.

People used to moan at ITV with their James Bond repeats, but looking at it now, the Bond films are standalone compared to Corrie\an imported soap. They can repeat Bond and get their money's worth because of that, they could not with Shortland Street or Prisoner or Corrie.

 

[AndyB2008]

And unfortunatly those young people 37 years ago are now older people. And young people are just not watching soaps anymore.

I love classic Eastenders and the ads are depressing. It's like "you will die soon if you are old enough to like this"

37 years is good for a TV show but once an episode has airred it has a life span of maybe 7 days, unlike a drama which lasts for years in reruns or on Netflix.

We are seeing in our soaps what happened in the US to daytime soaps. The remaining ones seem to live on a knives edge but a mass cull of others.

I think in the next 15 years they will all be gone.

The first bit of Pamela's post is why Channel Seven had Lorrae Desmond, Gordon Piper and Syd Heylen fired from A Country Practice in 1991.

The audience for ACP by this point was worrying Seven - younger viewers were switching off and long time viewers were skewing older. Hence the decisions to fire Lorrae, Gordon and Syd and bring in younger characters to get the audience back.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Sad to see it axed though.

It's the only soap I watch these days but 37 years on screen is a good life for a soap. Look at Coronation Street it's still going strong, EastEnders too although I don't watch either of them. It'll be sad saying goodbye to it later in the year.

The show could still be saved but Ten Peach needs a production partner.

Now that Channel Five have pulled out on their deal with Fremantle, Ten Peach needs another UK Broadcaster in order for Neighbours to continue.

If another production partner cannot be found then that will be it for the show.

 

[Monzo]

By the way, is Home and Away safe?

Does Home and Away also depend on British money or is the soap produced solely by the Aussies?

 

[Rove]

Here is a point of interest. ViacomCBS owns both Channel 5 (U.K.) and 10 Network Holdings in Australia which Neighbours appears. Interesting.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

By the way, is Home and Away safe?

Does Home and Away also depend on British money or is the soap produced solely by the Aussies?

I'm open to being corrected but while a deal is there, I don't think H&A are as reliant on Channel 5's money as Neighbours was. So if Channel 5 pulled out, H&A could survive on it's own. It still airs in a prime evening slot in Australia and keeping it on the air is useful for Seven's local drama quota. As it is, Channel 5 only use H&A as lunchtime filler now, with the evening episode being relegated to it's digital channel 5Star, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was phased out of 5's schedule over time.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I've just seen on my Facebook feed that the Irish broadcaster RTE is in talks with Ten Peach about a possible co-production deal.

This would mean that after it leaves Channel Five in August it would only be shown on one of the RTE channels.

Fingers crossed that RTE saves Neighbours from being axed.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I've just seen on my Facebook feed that the Irish broadcaster RTE is in talks with Ten Peach about a possible co-production deal.

This would mean that after it leaves Channel Five in August it would only be shown on one of the RTE channels.

Fingers crossed that RTE saves Neighbours from being axed.

Neighbours is popular here but RTE are eternally broke and trying (usually unsuccessfully) to find ways to save money, so this is a surprising turn of events. Even if they do scrape some money together to join forces with Ten, I can see there being pushback from the public over the licence fee being spent in this way.

 

[AndyB2008]

Neighbours is popular here but RTE are eternally broke and trying (usually unsuccessfully) to find ways to save money, so this is a surprising turn of events. Even if they do scrape some money together to join forces with Ten, I can see there being pushback from the public over the licence fee being spent in this way.

They took their DAB radio services off I believe to save money (although those are on the Internet and digital TV) , so I don't think the likes of say, Lorcan Murray at Lyric FM would be pleased at this either, let alone the public.

So RTE can cut off half his audience (the ones listening on DAB) in cries of money saving but can happily fund Neighbours to appease the hardcore fans? Well that's what he will argue.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

About halfway down this article, there's a brief clip of Jackie Woodburne (Susan) talking about the events of the last few days. She talks about the cast wanting to "bring the show home" which sounds like they've resigned themselves that it's coming to a close but who knows.

RTÉ 'in talks' with Neighbours about show's future after it is axed

Is there still hope for the long-running Aussie soap?

metro.co.uk

If Neighbours is axed, it'll be the longest running "former" Aussie soap. The casts and viewers have dealt with cancellations before but none of them had the longevity when it happened that Neighbours and H&A have now (A Country Practice being the current longest running axed soap, clocking in at 13 years).

 

[AndyB2008]

About halfway down this article, there's a brief clip of Jackie Woodburne (Susan) talking about the events of the last few days. She talks about the cast wanting to "bring the show home" which sounds like they've resigned themselves that it's coming to a close but who knows.

RTÉ 'in talks' with Neighbours about show's future after it is axed

Is there still hope for the long-running Aussie soap?

metro.co.uk

If Neighbours is axed, it'll be the longest running "former" Aussie soap. The casts and viewers have dealt with cancellations before but none of them had the longevity when it happened that Neighbours and H&A have now (A Country Practice being the current longest running axed soap, clocking in at 13 years).

To add, before it ended, A Country Practice suffered from poor demographics (the position Neighbours is in now), which is why Seven fired Lorrae Desmond, Gordon Piper and Syd Heylen and replaced them with younger characters in a bid to get that young audience back.

Seven were originally going to kill off Shirley Gilroy like Anne Tenney's character, but Lorrae put her foot down. Hence the exit Shirley had, where she died off screen.

 

[AndyB2008]

A UK broadcaster would never buy Neighours now. Soaps are dying, binge watchable drama is where they want to invest.

All the soaps will eventually end and tragically not too far away either.
It's mostly older people watching them now. They mostly skew a 60 plus demographic.

It's weird to think a world without the soaps but in the same way we it was probably unthinkable not to have Crossroads, Brookside or Dallas in our lives.

I was thinking on another factor too.

It was fan demand (similar to Neighbours) too that got C5 to spend a fortune on getting Sunset Beach back on (since the rights from CBSParamount Television, as it was back then, were expensive I believe), only for them to not watch the repeats.

C5 had to burn off the rest in the early hours of the weekend.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I was thinking on another factor too.

It was fan demand (similar to Neighbours) too that got C5 to spend a fortune on getting Sunset Beach back on (since the rights from CBSParamount Television, as it was back then, were expensive I believe), only for them to not watch the repeats.

C5 had to burn off the rest in the early hours of the weekend.

As sad as it is to see a show that you love end, I think fans have to accept when a show is coming to it's natural end. Similar to your rerun example, look at all the hoops they jumped through to keep All My Children and One Life to Live going, only for the revived versions to peter out within a few months. Ditto with the A Country Practice continuation on Ten. Even, if by some miracle, RTE step in, I can only see it being a short term fix that's only postponing the inevitable.

 

[AndyB2008]

As sad as it is to see a show that you love end, I think fans have to accept when a show is coming to it's natural end. Similar to your rerun example, look at all the hoops they jumped through to keep All My Children and One Life to Live going, only for the revived versions to peter out within a few months. Ditto with the A Country Practice continuation on Ten. Even, if by some miracle, RTE step in, I can only see it being a short term fix that's only postponing the inevitable.

I forget something else - Chances was offered by Beyond International to the ABC after Nine dropped it, as some of the ABC management there were fans of the soap. And they almost bought it.

But given the ABC is funded by the Australian taxpayer like the BBC, the ABC didn't want the bad publicity by spending taxpayer's money on a soap that was a bit of a joke by then.

 

[AndyB2008]

As sad as it is to see a show that you love end, I think fans have to accept when a show is coming to it's natural end. Similar to your rerun example, look at all the hoops they jumped through to keep All My Children and One Life to Live going, only for the revived versions to peter out within a few months. Ditto with the A Country Practice continuation on Ten. Even, if by some miracle, RTE step in, I can only see it being a short term fix that's only postponing the inevitable.

With A Country Practice, I don't think the fans wanted it back, given it had come to a conclusion.

It was Ten trying to stick it to Seven for axing it, thinking they could repeat the success of Neighbours, which Seven also axed.

James Davern, whose JNP Productions made it, actually didn't even want to do it at all, but Ten actually begged him. And when they got their hands on it, they turned it into some trashy soap opera with love affairs.