Neighbours to end - Summer 2022 :-(

[Olly]

Well, I posted last week about Neighbours facing the axe in the UK from
Channel 5, but now it has been confirmed that it will be finishing for
good this summer (2022). Seems Channel 5 pulling the plug on it didn't
help either.

Here is the article from the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60599579

Text pasted below in case it vanishes/moves in the future.

Olly.

-----------------------------

Neighbours: TV soap will end this summer, producers confirm


Jason Donavan and Kylie MinogueImage source, Getty Images Image caption,
The show launched the careers of pop stars Jason Donavan and Kylie
Minogue

Long-running Australian TV soap opera Neighbours will come to an end
this summer after 37 years.

The announcement follows the news that UK broadcaster Channel 5 was
dropping the show from its schedules.

That decision left producers with a funding gap, as the British network
was a key broadcast partner in the series.

Writing on the programme's official Twitter account, producers said they
were "so sorry" but had "no option but to rest the show".

We are so sorry to say that after nearly 37 years and almost 9000
episodes broadcast we have to confirm that Neighbours will cease
production in the summer. pic.twitter.com/k3QV5J66qM — Neighbours
(@NeighboursTV) March 3, 2022


"We are so sorry to say that after nearly 37 years and almost 9,000
episodes broadcast we have to confirm that Neighbours will cease
production in the summer," they said.

"Following the loss of our key broadcast partner in the UK and despite
an extensive search for alternative funding, we simply have no option
but to rest the show.

"To our amazing, loyal fans, we know this is a huge disappointment, as
it is to all of us on the team. We thank you for all your messages and
support and promise to end the show on an incredible high."

Neighbours aired on Channel 5 for more than a decade, and was previously
broadcast on the BBC.

When it was announced earlier this year that the show's future was under
threat, singer and former Neighbours star Jason Donovan said the soap
had "changed the Australian television landscape".


His on-screen partner, Kylie Minogue, reminisced about her time on the
programme in a tweet mourning the cancellation.

"I'll be forever grateful for the experience and the friends I made on
Neighbours," she wrote.

"We had no idea how big the show would become and how passionately
viewers would take it to heart. Pure love!

"I can still hear Madge calling… CHARLENE!"

I’ll be forever grateful for the experience & the friends I made on
@neighbours. We had no idea how big the show would become and how
passionately viewers would take it to heart. Pure love! I can
still hear Madge calling … CHARLENE!!!! — Kylie Minogue
(@kylieminogue) March 3, 2022


Viewers were quick to voice their disappointment about the show's
cancellation on Twitter.

"Noooo, Neighbours has been a constant in my life since from the
beginning when I was five years old," wrote one. "Can't believe it's the
end! It's an escapism from all the [bad] stuff that goes on in the world
and unlike every other soap it's not all doom and gloom."

Another said the show was her "30-minute decompression at the end of the
workday for over 30 years… often ridiculous but always watchable".

But one fan noted: "I don't think the recent storylines have helped. The
new breed of script writer lost their way in my opinion, and forgot what
the essence was that made Neighbours great." Alan Fletcher and Jackie
Woodburne as Carl and Susan Kennedy in NeighboursImage source, PA Image
caption, Alan Fletcher and Jackie Woodburne as Carl and Susan Kennedy,
two of the soap's longest-serving characters

Set and filmed in Melbourne, Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia
in 1985 and launched on BBC One a year later.

It became a huge hit in the UK and in Australia, and helped launch the
career of numerous stars, including Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce
and later Margot Robbie.

Channel 5 previously said it knew its decision to axe the show - which
attracts more than one million viewers per day in the UK - would
disappoint many.

But it added its "current focus is on increasing our investment in
original UK drama, which has strong appeal for our UK viewers".

At the time, Donovan, who played Scott Robinson from 1986 to 1989, wrote
on Twitter: "It launched many careers over decades including mine.

"Engaged and entertained audiences for generations. Hoping that it will
find a new home with another UK broadcaster and continue to provide
opportunity and entertainment."

Neighbours stars over the years

The soap has featured many notable Australian actors, actresses and
performers over the years, many of whom have gone on to have glittering
careers.

Perhaps the most high profile of these stars to make her name on
Neighbours is singer Kylie Minogue, who acted in the early years of the
soap, playing Charlene between 1986 and 1988. Russell Crowe

Oscar winner and Gladiator star Russell Crowe also had a brief spell on
the Ramsay Street set, while more recently the show featured Suicide
Squad star Margot Robbie from 2008 to 2011 and Liam Hemsworth between
2007 and 2008.

Other people to have made their names on the show over the years include
the singers Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Vallance and Delta Goodrem.