Neighbours axed again, just two years after Amazon resurrection

Friends, Australians, countrymen, lend me your ears: we come to bury Neighbours, and not for the first time. In an attempt to break the record for most cancellations of a primetime TV drama, Neighbours is once again bracing itself for the end of an era.

The series was cancelled two years ago, but saved by the streaming platform Amazon in a deal that put it on another Amazon-owned platform, Freevee, around the world, and on Ten and Amazon’s Prime Video in Australia.

The cast of Neighbours attend the Logie Awards in 2022.Credit: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

But Freevee has fallen, one of the many casualties of television’s hyper-competitive streaming space, and a new deal to save the series could not be hammered out in time to save it. It is, as they say in the soaps, curtains.

That means the show will wrap production mid-year, with the final episodes airing in December. Because of its financing deal, it is essentially dependent on a new international sale – or a new global streaming deal – to remain in production.

In 2022, the deal that kept the 40-year-old series alive collapsed after its key investor – the UK’s Channel 5 – abandoned it. The decision was purely financial; at the time Neighbours was still performing well against the UK’s local soaps.

The series then took a final bow, in a blaze of publicity that included final episode cameos by Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, and an appearance by Guy Pearce, which tied up the show’s decades-old romance between his character, Mike, and Jane, played by Annie Jones.

But as any soap fan will tell you, death in melodrama is never final, and Neighbours was pulled out of the ashes by Amazon, in a deal that put the show on the path to redemption, with a Daytime Emmy nomination thrown in for good measure.

Changing television economics means that without a new investor, Neighbours is somewhere between an uncertain future and the end of the road for a cultural institution that not only gave us Scott and Charlene, Bouncer the dog, Mrs Mangel, Karl and Susan, and Harold Bishop, but also served as an incubator for successive generations of Australian actors, writers and directors.

The show’s main rival, Home and Away, has endured rough weather in the television production economy with a different funding model: local broadcaster Seven underwrites the cost of the series, and it delivers the network a substantial return in overseas sales.

Neighbours is instead produced by Fremantle for the Ten Network. Historically, Fremantle and Ten split the cost, but it has increasingly been placed on the shoulders of a single overseas client, initially the BBC, then Channel 5 and, finally, Amazon. News that Amazon had ended its investment was first reported by the London Sun.

The series has aired in Australia since March 1985. It was commissioned initially by Seven, then axed, and resurrected by Ten – enduring as a soap opera with more lives than most.

The show’s executive producer Jason Herbison acknowledged the end was coming, but as with any soap, did not rule out a future twist in the tale.

“As this chapter closes, we appreciate and thank Amazon MGM Studios for all that they have done for Neighbours, bringing this iconic and much-loved series to new audiences globally,” Herbison said.

“We value how much the fans love Neighbours, and we believe there are more stories of the residents of Ramsay Street to tell in the future.”

A spokesperson for the Ten Network thanked the cast, crew and production team for their contribution to the series, and extended its thanks “to the Australian fans and audiences for their continued support of the series”.

“It is a mighty achievement that the series will reach the 40-year milestone next month,” the statement from Ten said. “The program will be missed by the fans and the people who have been part of this amazing journey. We wish them well.”

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance said the cancellation highlighted an urgent need for local content rules for streamers.

“Australian stories shouldn’t be left to the whim of huge multinational corporations like Amazon, Netflix or Apple,” MEAA acting chief executive Adam Portelli said.

Fremantle has confirmed production on the series will end in July. Ten has confirmed the final episode will air in Australia in December.

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