Anyone could have figured out that would never had worked. The old fans had already gotten used to not watching. Some probably now too old or even dead. Then skipping years so remaining fans were completely lost and topping it off with all characters sounding different. And on a small pay-TV channel no less. Come on! Not even a miracle could have fixed that mess.
Sorry to go off topic a bit, but this is one of the concerns that I have about the revival of
Neighbours. Now that the habit has been broken and it’s only going to be available in most territories on a smaller streaming service (I’m talking Freevee as opposed to Prime), will anyone but the hardcore fans be watching. Even the announcement that Channel 10 will be broadcasting it again seems shortsighted. They dumped it onto their smaller digital channel over a decade ago because ratings weren’t great but because of the (understandable) buzz that the finale generated, they’re bringing it back to the main channel, presumably in the hope that the buzz will translate to better ratings but I’ll be surprised if it happens. There’ll have been too long of a disconnect between the nostalgia fest of the finale and the revival starting.
It has always fascinated me how a soap can be a massive hit in some countries, but a failure in others. It can't just be time slot-dependent, or just the network that picks it up. I think a lot of it has to be how the show uniquely appeals to that country's viewers. B&B tries to hold true to the old-fashioned storytelling formulas more than the average soap; perhaps German viewers have fallen out of love with that kind of presentation. I would argue that US soaps (not just B&B) have had their budgets cut to a degree that they can no longer present themselves with that expensive look and feel that so many associate with American TV productions.
This intrigues me too. In the case of
B&B, looking at three TV markets that share similar schedules - Ireland, the UK, Australia - it only ever became a hit in Australia. I think this is down to a few factors. One being that Australian TV had a history of airing US daytime soaps, going back to the 60’s, so viewers were used to that type of programming. And two, they picked it up from the beginning (premiering in late 1987) so viewers got to know characters from the very start. In Ireland and the UK, the American daytime soaps rarely made it on to the schedules of the main terrestrial channels (they were usually tucked away on satellite TV channels from the 80’s onwards), so there was no real tradition of viewers watching them.
Ryan’s Hope aired briefly on the main network RTE in Ireland in either that late 70’s or early 80’s, presumably bought because of the Irish connection and
Return to Peyton Place aired on ITV in the UK for a while on Saturday mornings. In the 80’s,
Santa Barbara ran on RTE and ITV, presumably because the likes of
Dallas and
Dynasty were hot and they wanted more of the same for their daytime schedules. It only lasted a couple of years on ITV and while it ran into the 90’s in Ireland, it was never really a hit. It was just kind of there. Ironically, I think the Australian soaps actually filled the daytime soap quota for Irish and UK audiences because while they were glamorous and could be a bit OTT like the US soaps, they were a bit closer to our own soaps in terms of pace and location shooting. US soaps were seen as slow, set bound and often too OTT.
Bringing us back to
B&B. While it had been available sporadically to Irish and British viewers via Sky and cable since the late 80’s (where it aired on Sky One and Wire TV), it wasn’t until the late 90’s when Channel 5 launched in the UK and TV3 launched in Ireland, that it would make it’s debut on a main terrestrial channel in both countries. By this point, they were picking up mid story, roughly a decade into the series, so viewers were learning who was who and what was going on, on the hoof (when TV3 later aired
Y&R, they provided a specially recorded intro summarising who was who & the main storylines to date). I think they just tried to launch it too late.
Sunset Beach premiered around the same time on both channels and it became a cult hit as it felt like a parody and viewers were joining it from the very beginning.
B&B was too established and too deadly serious when it came to soap tropes like amnesia and returns from the grave. We bought into it when
Sons and Daughters did it but the investment just wasn’t there with
B&B. And even had it launched in the late 80’s from the very beginning, I think it still would’ve been lost in the tidal wave of better produced Aussie soaps that were airing around the same time.
