Please point me to the thread if this already has a thread.

Just read that news article saying Neighbours recently has only been pulling it 700,000 viewers in Australia. I was shocked at those figures! There must be way more here that watch it! But I suppose the population over there is much smaller.

Anyone any thoughts on this? Is Neighbours as big a soap over there like EE, Em and Corrie are to us?

Neighbours jumped the shark years ago in Oz. I'm just waiting for the UK to catch up now...

700,000 isn't shockingly low in Australia, but not as high as a well-established show like Neighbours should be.

Home and Away regularly get's around 1 million viewers plus if I'm not mistaken.

Network ten has a smaller share in Oz though than the other networks. It cannot even be picked up in many rural areas.

It's a good thing that 'ten' want it to do well. They must care about the show other wise they would just get rid.

Remember that Neighbours is up against very strong show at the time timeslot, the highest shows on Oz tv,

And plus, Network TEN ( that show Neighbours) is like channel FIVE over here, and Network SEVEN (that shows h&a) is like ITV over here.

I still love neighbours and lets hope revamping it will help the ratings

The only time Neighbours achive over a million is when Gail Robinson returned!

Poor Neighbours!

H&a fans in Oz will be happy to see Neighbours axed!

May i ask, do the excellent ratings in the UK count for anything?

I dont see why, if they dont like it they shoudnt watch it. I dont like Home and Away, but I wouldnt want it to be axed as many people do like it.

Oh I didn't know that network 10 was like our channel 5. It just seems strange because Neighbours is big here, especially among students!

People think that axing Bree and Janelle and replacing them with a new family will work...but personally i think that ratings could go down even more. A recent poll in Inside Soap showed 76% of people think the Neighbours producers are making the wrong decision.

Yeah the Timmens are a good family, some quality moments!

If they just worked on that family...bringing in more members perhaps...they could still bring Neighbours back to its roots.

They were going to bring Dwaine and Brandon in until Dyl and Stinger left!

Correct me if i'm wrong but one of the reasons for axing Jannelle and Bree was because of Dylan and Stingray leaving-wouldn't a good idea be to introduce 2 new brothers to replace them?

I've always thought that the Timminses were at their best when they did family stuff all together-now Dylan and STingray are fighting about Kerry& Janae is off married.

700,000 is not that low for Oz. The country doesn't have a huge population.

It's average. Home and away getting 1 million and Neighbours getting 700,000 is like Corrie getting 10m and Emmerdale getting 7m. Not a huge deal!

isn't there talk that she might be returning again?

In the early 90's Neighbours was going to be axed but the ratings were so high over here they decided against it. Infact many people think that without the UK Neighbours wouldn't even be around!

In Australia, this is considered poor... The previous posts comparing Ten for UK's five and Seven to our ITV is totally correct - and I agree with the contrasting viewing figures post (Corrie 10m & Emmerdale 7m) about it not being a big deal in the UK - but in Australia IT IS!

Here, soaps are quite fashionable to watch and talk about, we recognise their place on TV, but Down Under, it is an entirely different story. Home and Away has large viewing figures because it has gone down a very similar path to US soaps which guarantee stratospheric plots and use extreme cliff-hangers to pull the viewers - "watch and you will be rewarded" - which short-term audiences love. H&A can pull 1.5m viewers by blowing up a Wedding Ceremony and being creative with an exit storyline, but next week, the figures will be down to 1m again.

Neighbours, however, is character led and hasn't seen spectacular viewing figures in Australia for well over a decade. The Timminses have been a mistake, and although Janelle and Janae have milage left as characters (Janelle's Botox face was the funniest thing I've seen on TV for ages) a clean slate is welcome. I got bored of Karl and Izzy, Lynn was like mouldy bread, festering away at the bottom of a bread-bin, and Boyd has become so irritating, I can barely watch his scenes (having a nice body does not a good character make).

Ten, like our five, gets slagged off (often for good reason granted) but I'm glad they've stuck with Neighbours and made it the record breaking series it undoubtedly is... I'm gonna stick with Neighbours too, it's traditional in my house!

Correct the old network ten boss even said so. He stated that a show like nieghbours would have lasted about 4 years and then axed in OZ, but because it gets millions of viewers in UK it is safe!

In other words as long as it does well here it will continue to be made. Without the UK both N & H&A would have been canccelled years ago.

TEN only pay 40% productions costs for it. The BBC pay 60% under a deal they made in the mid nineties. So it is basically a BBC show made in OZ for a British channel.
Last edited by nytramfilms : 18-03-2007 at 21:57

Am I right in thinking that neighbours is shown in something like 30 different countries around the world, and the distribution and export revenues gained from this worldwide saturation make it a financialy viable show to produce, even if the ratings are poor in oz?

I think one concern is that neighbours is seen as australian life to a lot of people, and if it were to be taken off the air in oz, would that mean it would lose some of it's percieved authenticity?

The thing with neighbours is its got very limited good acting
the Timmens family can all act and have kept the show going abit but they go and axe them and keep bad actors such as ned

another thing ifind with neighbours is its childish storylines
iam a viewer of neighbours but ithink it might be time to lay it to rest

ithink home and away is much better its got better acting and seems more like a soap
Last edited by dan2007 : 18-03-2007 at 23:07

Well it was confirmed on the most realable sources, all available on the Neighboursfans forums I think.

(You probally knew though)

I hope the ratings soar once again!!!

If Neighbours didn't have such a strong fanbase here in the UK, it would have been axed several years ago. That's nothing to doubt. Several sources have confirmed this over the years. The fact that Ten only fund 40% of it's production costs (the rest are made up by the BBC) is further evidence of that. It's worth pointing out that Home and Away, although more popular in Australia, probably wouldn't still be on the air either if it weren't for it's strong British following. The truth of the matter is, Australian viewers aren't particularly bothered either way by Neighbours or Home and Away.

It was originally axed by Network Seven (who replaced it with Home and Away), but was picked up by Ten shortly after. It quickly gained a very strong following here in the UK which has continued to this day. It's audience figures have varied greatly in it's home country over the years, peaking in the late 80's and then again in the early-mid 90's.

For the forseable future, the show is in no danger of being axed. The UK audience figures are still very strong and it has become a highly valuable staple of the BBC's schedule. The show's producers are going to be steering the programme through a big re-vamp in the coming months, in hopes that it can once again earn high ratings in Australia. Home and Away's move from ITV to five over here was very damaging to it's UK audience figures. It will probably never attain the audiences on five it could on ITV. I personally think it's a real shame the programme moved to five; it sort of feels like Neighbours wins in the ratings by default, simply because of the channel it's on. IMO, the Producers of Home and Away sold out when they sold it to five, it's quite clear to me that it would have been in the programme's best interests to remain on ITV. But that's another issue.

CJY is completely right about Home and Away. Alot of people bunch both shows together, but they couldn't be more different. Home and Away is much like a sort of Australian-The OC, whereas Neighbours will never seek to be that glossy or trendy (Personally, that's one reason why I prefer it).

I watch both shows, and find Neighbours to be more rewarding overall. Home and Away is great for instant gratification, but stick with Neighbours through the long haul and you'll always be richly rewarded. I prefer both shows to any soap the UK has to offer, too.
Last edited by BeatJunkie : 19-03-2007 at 00:44