Inside story on the the slow death of Australian TV icon, Neighbours

Iconic Australian soap Neighbours has been dying a painfully slow death for more than a decade so news the show is in trouble is not really surprising, writes Jonathon Moran.

TV soap Neighbours has been dying a painfully slow death for more than a decade so news the show is in trouble after losing its British broadcast partner is not surprising.

The writing was on the wall when Channel 10 executives made the puzzling decision to relegate the long-running weekday drama to its side channel, Peach (formerly Eleven), in January 2011.

From then, loyal fans had to work hard to watch their favourite show and the ratings have reflected that.

Dr Karl (Alan Fletcher) and Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne) are still in the mix, as is Toadfish (Ryan Moloney) but most people would be hard pressed to name anyone else in the cast. They simply aren’t visible.

Margot Robbie on set of Neighbours.

Bumping Neighbours to a side channel was a bewildering choice for a legacy show with so much love and goodwill still here and abroad for the goings on in fictional suburban Erinsborough that introduced the world to the likes of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie.

It is a shame too given Neighbours has highlighted important commentary on societal issues like marriage equality, although that work has largely been overshadowed over recent years by allegations of racism by actors working on the show.

The sad thing is Neighbours is a good quality show with great actors that should have received much more attention here in Australia.

You don’t have to look far to see what the alternative could have been.

Over on rival Seven’s main channel, its soap Home And Away is held up as a hero of the network.

Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan as Scott and Charlene.

Neighbours cast members Alan Fletcher and Jackie Woodburne. Picture: Steve Tanner

Seven treats Home And Away as a tentpole program, celebrating its stars and cross promoting them across other shows on the network. Internationally too it is seen as a breeding ground for talent thanks to Hollywood hunk Chris Hemsworth.

Ten has by contrast treated Neighbours as a poor cousin, and by default has disrespected its diehard audience and also what will be the memory of Neighbours when it does finally get the chop.

Of course it is not entirely up to Ten, which simply pays production company Fremantle Media for the program. The real risk now is that the show will be axed altogether after British broadcaster Channel 5 cancelled its deal to screen the show in the UK. It will be sooner rather than later.

Neighbours is expensive to produce with estimates between $20 million and $25 million per year, which Ten simply would not be able to afford without a British broadcaster buying into that cost.

Delta Goodrem on the Neighbours set.

Stefan Dennis on the set of Neighbours. Picture: Tony Gough

The big question for Ten will come when the show is axed, in what that will mean for the network’s local content obligations. Ten, like the other networks, must meet a minimum annual transmission quota of 55 per cent Australian programming with TV drama a large part of that.

Back in 2011 the decision to punt Neighbours to its then Eleven channel was based on bolstering the network’s news division.

Ironically, Ten’s news offerings sit well behind any of its competition at the other networks as money has been poured into big reality productions.

Channel 10 has said it would like to keep the program running. The fact is though that won’t be financially viable if a British partner doesn’t come on board.

Local TV ratings paint a grim picture for Neighbours. On Thursday night, just 168,000 Australians watched the show nationally compared to 789,000 tuning in to watch Home And Away.

Another irony in the sorry saga is that Ten’s parent company, Viacom CBS in the US, also owns Channel 5 in the UK. Ultimately then, it is Viacom that has put the nail in the coffin so to speak on this iconic show. So in the famous words of William Shakespeare, et tu, Brutus?