1. Employ Susan Bower as Executive Producer.
2. Retcon the Ramsay/Robinson history (and tarnish Helen in the process) by introducing Kate, Harry and Sophie.
3. Introduce the awful Parker family / the 2007 revamp
4. Kill off the entire Bishop family in the plane crash.
5. Have Harold strangle Paul.
6. Steph killing Ringo, instead of allowing him to leave with Donna, which would not have ruined Steph's character in the process.
7. Not making Lana their first regular lesbian character when they had the opportunity.
8. Axing Sindi and ruining her character with that awful exit story.
9. Axing the Timmins family.
10. Having Boyd randomly cheat on Janea.

Without a doubt, axing Lucas and Vanessa. It made no sense at the time and it still doesn't.


5. Harold strangling Paul was HILARIOUS.
6. It may have ruined Steph's character, but I think Steph had gone as far as she could go.
8. Sindi was horrendous IMO. Not funny, not charming, not likeable - not anything. I cheered when she left.
9. By and large the Timmins family didn't really work for me. Janelle and Janae were the only scorers.

11. Having The Donna marry git face Ringo
12. Not killing Ringo off sooner
13. the recast of Declan Mapier
14. the awful exit given to Zeke Kinski
15. Not having the guts to act on the fantastic chemistry between The Donna and Elle Robinson
16. Retconning Sonya to be Callum's mother. I don't mind the idea that she is his mum, but it's obvious they thought of it after they'd introduced her.
17. Bringing back Sam for a second visit, in the hope that making her nasty would make us forget that her first visit was marred by St Bloody Libby bullying a woman who was suffering from a mental illness.

Yeah, the decision to axe Lucas and Vanessa was a poor one. They said it was b/c their stories in the following year would be weak, and they needed to make room for the two new families. I say that was all complete bull. So much could have been done with L&V at the time, like exploring their relationship, her not-ex-husband, and I think making Vanessa pregnant for a second time was pure laziness.

Harold strangling Paul was completely out of character, and should never have been done.

Steph may have run her course by that point, but it doesn't mean they needed to stick the knife in by ruining her. Sometimes less is more, and by this point Steph should have had a more positive ending.


I understand why they had to recast Declan, but surely they could have found someone better. Erin Mullally was an awful Declan, and really dragged the character down.

I hated that they turned Sam into an evil villain, just so they could prop Libby/Dan. Sam was a sympathetic character who was treated terribly by Libby. Her bipolar story was well written, but they undone all of that the moment they made Sam unlikeable.

Killing of the bishops

Any dream sequence
Any musical montage
Killing off Madge
Axing the Timmins
Anything involving the Parkers
Recasting Libby
The Lim family
Recasting Brad
Mason
The evolution of the Robinson clan into some kind of evil money grabbing empire building villains (slightly redressed with Daniel)

1. Hooking Daniel up with drippy Amber. He was a good character until he hooked up with her, but gradually he is becoming as drippy and dull as her. If the producers are trying to convince us they are another Scott & Charlene they are mistaken. What an insult to the offspring of two of the shows most legendary characters!

2. Have Steph Scully leaving on such a negative note. I thought her last exit was terrible and an awful note to not only end the character on, but also to end the Scully's on. Plus the way they did it gave a very negative impression of mental health and gave out a message of "if you are mentally ill you are a danger to society and shoud be locked away."

3. Replacing the Timmins' with the AWFUL Parker family. Quite possibly one of the worst families to ever be in Neighbours. Nuff said!

4. Some of the garden and interior makeovers. The Willis house and garden looks like someone designed it using The Sims and doesn't look right for the street at all. Not overly keen of the new Waterhole either.

5. Sonya's tranformation from a relatively normal (as you can be in soap) dog trainer to a nose poking, do goodering hippy earth mother.

6. Moving Paul out of the street and into the hotel.

7. The period where they basically wrote Susan and Libby as being a pair of judgemental, stirring bitches during the time Libby was married to Dan.

8. The castings of real life brothers MickeytheShit and BentheShit.

9. The whole storyline of Lolly not really being Lou's daughter. Unnecessary in my opinion.

10. Splitting up Karl and Susan every time they clearly are at a loss where to take them next, only to reunite them months later.

It's years since I watched it but killing Julie Martin was a blunder for me, she was hilarious. Allegedly the actress used to get lunatics chasing after her in supermarkets because 'she' was an awful person....
Pam sleeping with Jim, and then her, Jim and Doug pretending it never happened.
Cheryl Stark. Awful character, miserably performed.
Having Helen take in her mugger ah her lodger....just bizarre.
Lou having an affair with schoolgirl Annalise was, um, weird....

I'd add getting rid of Jan Russ as their casting director to the list.

1. Employ Susan Bower.
2. Kill off Madge Bishop.
3. The recast of Declan Napier.
4. Let Lucas, Vanessa, Elle, Andrew, Donna and Ringo leave.
5. Appear to have forgotten Imogen's eating disorder so quickly.
6. Let Libby leave.
7. Let Dan leave.
8. Not have ONE cast member still there from day one without them leaving and coming back after years away.
9. Not give blank cheques to and grovel endlessly to Kylie and Jason to come back. Yes, I know, it, they're mentioned enough. Just once , even in a video message somehow would've been enough.
10. Cast the ENTIRE Parker family.

There was that time when Paul and Elle were scheming to get their hands on Oliver's money and they were acting like a couple of villains from the 60s Batman. You were just waiting for the screen to tilt on one side.

I think Steve Parker could have been a good 'ordinary bloke' type character if it hadn't been for the tremendous drag factor of the rest of his awful family.

Completely agree. When I heard Steve Bastoni was joining Neighbours I was pleased because I remembered him as being a decent actor in Police Rescue years before. What a bitter disappointment he was in Neighbours, but as you say the rest of the family were responsible for that.

1.Keeping Paul Robinson on the show for ten years after he murdered a man.
2.Bringing Mark Brennan back from the dead.
3.Bringing Libby back in 2007.She was never really the same.
4.Killing Ringo after building up him and Donna as a perfect young couple
5.Having Bridget and Declan get married and have a baby while still at school/at all. One of many couples that were completely wrong for each other.
6.Splitting up Boyd and Sky
7.Splitting up Boyd and Janae
8.The plane crash
9.Writing out Adelaide Kane's Louise after such a short space of time
10.Writing out Mason just as he and Imogen got together. I haven't liked Imogen since.

And probably several others I could think of if I had the time

11.Not bothering to explain the Ramsay kids at all. It was literally just "Max Ramsay and Anna Robinson had a daughter together, somehow. Here are her kids." If you're going to retcon something that much, it would help if it actually made sense in context, let alone out of it. At least they'd learnt a few things before they did the Sonya/Callum retcon, which almost made sense.

1. Izzy and Karl's affair/Izzy in general - i hated this storyline. My love and respect for Karl nosedived and he's never really been forgiven in my eyes, i still think Susan can do better. I hated the way Susan was treated while this was going on. Lifelong friends like Harold and Lou took the side of the nasty newcomer because she flashed a smile and a bit of cleavage and treated Susan like a jealous, petty woman intimidated by a younger rival. Even when Izzy's nasty streak was exposed Harold and Lou still defended her as if she was their friend, even when she happily screwed up the lives of their actual friends/family. I lost a lot of the warmth that Neighbours provided and its never been able to recapture that magic.

2. Steph's two exits - i hated Steph so i dread to think what her fans thought of her exits. I was expecting them to be high profile and dramatic after ten years on the show (which admittedly they were) but she left under such a cloud both times it was really unsatisfying even for viewers who didn't like her. Accidently killing Ringo and going to prison was a bit of a slap in the face but her return and stealing a baby and being sectioned was just as bad. They could at least have rectifyed their first mistake on her second stint and had her reunited with her children and then leave.

3. The Parkers mk2 - not counting Stuart or Ned as i actually really liked them but the dreadful Miranda, Steve, Bridget and Riley (although him slightly less as he wasn't there long enough to be that annoying). This was during their 'back to basics' revamp which meant introducing a very bland family and painiting everything in sight grey! The family were annoying (not so much Steve but Miranda was quite snooty and hard to warm to and Bridget was just whiney). Miranda's treatment of Susan after the accident with Bridget really confounded my hatred of her and i cared so little about Bridget i wasn't bothered what happened to her. The only interesting member of the family was Miranda's sister Nicola and they wrote her out abruptly 9probably for being a bit too interesting!).

4. AndrewNatasha/Summer - these three dominated everything for a time. There was no escaping them. Andrew's business ideas, Summer's journalism portfolio, Natasha just being a general nuisance featured in almost every episode for months. Plus i never quite believed after all the build up to Summer/Andrew and her staying in Ramsay Street to be with him she'd be so ok with breaking up with him and him living happily ever after with Tash.

5. Recasting Brad - i thought out of all the recasts i'd hate Lauren's more as i remember the original Lauren and really liked her but Brad's is more annoying. Not only is it Scott Hunter from Home and Away but the character has morphed into an extension of Scott Hunter from Home and Away. Basically he is bland and annoying and always on his high horse. Nothing like the original character, in fact the original character would have found this Brad annoying as well.

6. Stonie and Annalise's affair - Sam and Annalise were perfect together, so why they threw in this tacky affair just to write Annalise out under a cloud was very annoying and shouldn't have happened. I'm kind of pacified that Sam and Annalise reunited off screen and are still going strong but it was just a rubbish way to write such an iconic character out.

7. Hannah Martin's friend Teabag - seriously Teabag? Hannah was annoying on her own without giving her stupid friends stupid names.

8. Stingray and Sky - after ruining the perfectly good Sky/Boyd to make way for Sky/Dylan i'd finally accepted she probably loved him only to split them up and have her sleep with Stingray and produce a boring 'who's the daddy' storyline. When it resulted in Stingray and Sky getting together i was bored to tears and never really believed they were in love with each other. When he died her grief was hard to take seriously and i kept thinking Stingray in death had finally been reunited with his true love (Serena).

9. Harold erasing his first wife in favour of Madge - Harold had kids, a home and life with this woman yet we constantly get the 'Madge is the love of my life' spiel while glossing over his life with his first wife who he must have loved at some point. Alf Stewart in Home and Away is the same. Because we never met these wives (only their kids who also rarely mention themits as if they neverexisted (which technically they didn't but even so).

10. Cameron/Robert - the storyline was really good but the whole they are so identical that the third triplet, mother and father can't tell them apart was a bit too much. Plus it'd be quite nice to know how Robert's getting on these days.

1. Giving Madge, one of the shows most important characters such a rushed exit storyline. A bit more time and planning could have made it so much better. Carol's breast cancer portrayal on EE for example.
2. Having no mention as to why Charlene and Henry didn't return for their mum's funeral. Sloppy writing.
3. Allowing Harold to remarry Boooooo 😣
4. Why haven't they let Lucy return as a full time character? I'd have loved to have seen her bring up the baby alongside Chris and Nate. We need more Robinsons!
Hilary should come back too and some occasional visits from Rosemary.
5. Harold's Store is SO boring to look at. I know it's his legacy but the set looked dated when it was first onscreen. 😴😴😴😴 and the pool in the middle of Lassiters. I loved that bridge!
6. The Plane Crash. Harold losing Kerry was emotional and more believable than the ridiculous storyline that wiped out the rest of his family. 🔥✈️🔥
7. The recent storm! It's Neighbours not Home and Away!! When the car span it was laughable. Was hoping Amber may have been taken but no such luck!
8. Recasting Declan. So different from the original actor/character. They should have just written the character out. Declan had a personality transplant over night.
9. Axing Lucas's and Vanessa. I love the Turners and the Willis families but Vanessa had so much potential as a character.
10. Love that the Robinson house is practically the same set as when the show began, its a shame the old Ramsay house is so different.

Made it to air in 1985. 😃😜

The move to 11.

Though the other side of that argument is that TEN thought seriously hard about bringing the axe down on it if they didn't.

Most of what Ten executives say is just spin. Ten's refusal to intervene with Neighbours was made in 2009/10 was not coincidental. Neighbours was not actually moved from Ten to Eleven due to poor ratings on Ten. That was just the official line taken by Ten and then echoed by the media.

At the end of 2008, following commissioning show MasterChef, Ten were implementing a strategy to raise the median age of their audience. This meant shows which skewed heavily towards younger audiences were gradually phased out over the following 2-3 years. Neighbours fitted that description perfectly, and needed to be dropped from Ten's main channel in order to make way for news bulletins in that slot. This decision was in late 08, prior to Neighbours hitting extremely low ratings. But for Neighbours to be profitable on a digital channel, Ten needed to negotiate a new del with Fremantle, but the only way Ten could get a cheaper was if the show was tanking and facing the axe. Ten needed Neighbours to lose viewers to give them valid justification in removing it from their channel, and also allow them to negotiate a cheaper deal with FMedia. A show with less viewers = a less valuable show = a show that is cheaper to buy.

Neighbours' bleeding viewership through 2009 and 2010 was exactly what Ten wanted to happen. That is why they stopped marketing it in 09 (hence the introduction of the Next Time on Neighbours credits) and why they did nothing to stop Bower from destroying the show.

I see people are listing Madge's death as something that should never have been done (despite Anne Charleston wanting to leave), but I think a bigger crime was committed when they dumbed Madge down to the point AC felt the need to quit. It happened to be at a time when the show was moving away from strong female characters, which had AC labeling them as sexist.


Word to all of that H.M.

Don't forget Ten also needed a show with an already existing brand to launch Eleven with, and Neighbours fitted the bill perfectly. I remember reading that when CBS invested in Ten, one of their stipulations was that Eleven launch with a show that could bring over an existing audience. If Neighbours had not been moved to Eleven, then Eleven would have launched to little or no publicity, and they certainly wouldn't have had the audience share they have now (as no-one watches Eleven outside of Neighbours it would seem).

I think it's a shame how people bought into the media spin of Neighbours bleeding viewers and how the move to Eleven was seen as a noble act by Ten, when really it was all manipulated by Ten to begin with.

Yes I was going to post in that the one of biggest mistakes was diluting Madge from fiery to meek, leading to Anne Charleston's decision to quit.

Susan Bower was a disaster. But I especially was annoyed by her ridiculous quotes to the press. Number 1, we shouldn't be hearing endless quotes from the producer. They should be producing the show, not posing for press pics and giving endless quotes. Also she was very defensive. People would criticise something and she'd fire back with "Oh we wanted to do that, but couldn't because there would be complaints..."

To a UK forum, when complaints were aired, it would be "Well I'm making the show for Australia". That was just her way of blocking the question: Australia didn't much like her approach to the show either, as the ratings indicated.

Neighbours does have an image problem in Australia. It is likely considered the daggiest show ever by Australians, though most Australians assume it must have been cancelled years ago.

I'm enjoying Neighbours at the moment but my viewing has been very sporadic since I started in 1996. It's generally a good show but at times it's twee and childish and there just isn't enough going on to keep viewers hooked. I wouldn't want it going all Home And Away, don't get me wrong, but a dull episode is REALLY boring. I think the cast should be a little bigger and they need to be more 'A' storylines. They also make some terrible casting decisions.

Oh, yes, Susan Bower loved talking to the press. I've never known a producer be so hands on with the media like she was. In modern times, it's a good idea for producers to engage with their audience a bit, like through interviews, but she took it to a whole new level with her endless quotes. And they were always divisive quotes.

I remember when she was fending off complaints about the show not honouring its history after the Ramsay retcon, and she said it's only the UK fans who care about that sort of thing, whereas the Aussies don't. So, why were the Aussie fans complaining, then?

OT, but I dread to think what she will do to A Place To Call Home, now that she wants to make season 3 "edgier".

Most of Bower's comments were self-serving. She was simply desperate to protect herself from any criticism. She treated her role as EP of the show as some type of personal promotional platform.

I'd say Neighbours' image problem was that it was perceived by a lot of people as a squeaky clean, watered down show, which is not the type of image you want. I don't think Neighbours has much of an image anymore. It's just completely obscure.

Most people don't watch the digital channels in general. The digital channels have a reputation for being filled with repeats (which is mostly correct) or shows that had low ratings on the main network. So a lot of people simply won't watch a show because it airs on a digital channel. Neighbours on Eleven will never get more than 400,000 on a consistent basis, no matter the storylines or how good the show. Mainly because it's on Eleven, so people expect it to be bad.

When Simpsons and Neighbours moved from Ten to Eleven, they lost nearly half their audience. Glee also lost half its audience by mobbing from Ten to Eleven.

Simpsons reruns were getting 120,000-130,000 viewers on Eleven at 6pm. When it moved to Ten in the same timeslot, the ratings increased to 280,000.

When Nine aired Big Brother episodes on Nine, it had 600,000 in 2014. When they screened episodes on the GO channel, they get 300,000 viewers.

Being on a digital channel restricts your ratings potential by around half of what it could be on the main network.