Packed To The Rafters ended in 2013 because Gibney and Thomson wanted to move on

NOT many shows get cancelled when they pull in more than 1.3 million viewers a week. Channel 7 reveals why it put an end to Packed to the Rafters.

Actors Erik Thomson and Rebecca Gibney outside 8 Riverview Street in Concord, Sydney where the Channel Seven (7) TV program ...

CHANNEL 7 has revealed the real reason Packed to the Rafters ended last year — and it wasn’t due to young cast members leaving or poor ratings.

Instead, it seems that key cast members Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson wanted out to pursue other projects.

The revelation, from Seven’s head of production Brad Lyons, comes as the network gets set to roll out Gibney’s Winter and Thomson’s 800 Words in 2015.

Rafters ended in July 2013 after six seasons and 122 episodes.

Australian favourite ... Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson wanted to stretch their legs after years of ratings bliss on Rafters.

In its heyday, the famed Aussie family drama averaged about 2 million viewers an episode across the five capital cities.

The death of Mel Rafter, played by Zoe Ventoura, was watched by a whopping 2.337 million, according to OzTam.

Rafters was cruelled by the loss of popular younger cast members Jessica Marais (Rachel Rafter), Hugh Sheridan (Ben Rafter) and Jessica McNamee (Sammy Rafter) as well as Ventoura.

Eyes on greener pastures ... Packed to the Rafters’ young cast kept leaving. (L-R)- George Houvardas, Jessica Marais, Jessica McNamee, Angus McLaren, Zoe Ventoura, Hugh Sheridan.

Despite that, Rafters’ sixth season averaged 1.381 million viewers — well down on early years but still no slouch.

The general feeling among critics was that Rafters was running out of puff as well as family members in season six, and so the end was no surprise.

Gibney seemed to confirm that view in an interview with TV Week.

“The cast, writers and producers have always said that we wanted to keep Rafters as one of the most-watched shows on TV,” Gibney said.

“If we ever felt like we were losing too many cast members, we needed to end on a high.”

Turns out Seven would love to still be making Rafters right now.

“We would never have wanted not to do Rafters continually but as actors they (Gibney and Thomson) want to grow,” Lyons says.

“It (finishing Rafters) was really more a creative thing for both those guys. They wanted to do separate projects.”

Winter is a slight reworking of Gibney’s crime telemovie The Killing Field which screened earlier this year.

Gritty ... A scene from The Killing Field, starring Rebecca Gibney and Peter O'Brien. Image supplied by Channel 7

Gibney, who also co-produced, plays Detective Sergeant Eve Winter.

Seven has already described Thomson’s 800 Words as unashamedly like Rafters in tone.

“If you think this show has a bit of the same feel and vibe as Packed to the Rafters, you’re dead right — and we make no apologies for that,” Seven programmer Angus Ross said at Seven’s upfront event last week.

Thomson plays a widowed father who decides to move overseas with his two teenage children.

“We waited a fair amount of time to find the right project for Erik,” Lyons says. “This one came along and the first person that came into our heads was Erik.”

The finale of Packed to the Rafters wrapped up all the major character storylines.

The show ended with Dave and Julie Rafter (Thomson and Gibney) and baby Ruby heading off for a trip around Australia.

“It is not a deliberate thing to separate them,” Lyons says. “We would love them to work again together and they probably would love to too.”

You can bet that Seven CEO Tim Worner would be the first to applaud a show that reunited Gibney with Thomson.

“You don’t cancel many dramas when they’re doing 1.3 million,” Worner says.