Neighbours is now shown on the same day as Australia (who for the first time now screen it all year round; probably for the benefit of the UK viewers). Home and Away is still shown some four or five weeks behind Australia - I’m not sure why Channel Five don’t make any attempt to catch up a little - even showing episodes a week or fortnight behind Seven.
There are issues with showing it in sync, as Seven often drop episodes in some markets and then schedules several in one night to catch up - due mainly to AFL coverage in some states - so not even the five Aussie state capitals are always in sync with H&A. However, Five seem to take it off the air earlier each year now to maintain a long gap - yet in 2009 they were only a week behind. Surely there’s no contractual reason they can’t allow the UK to catch up a bit again?
Neighbours is now shown on the same day as Australia (who for the first time now screen it all year round; probably for the benefit of the UK viewers). Home and Away is still shown some four or five weeks behind Australia - I’m not sure why Channel Five don’t make any attempt to catch up a little - even showing episodes a week or fortnight behind Seven.
There are issues with showing it in sync, as Seven often drop episodes in some markets and then schedules several in one night to catch up - due mainly to AFL coverage in some states - so not even the five Aussie state capitals are always in sync with H&A. However, Five seem to take it off the air earlier each year now to maintain a long gap - yet in 2009 they were only a week behind. Surely there’s no contractual reason they can’t allow the UK to catch up a bit again?
I think they will still catch up by a week or two despite the long gap.
One reason I think is Five prefer to take home and away off in December and bring back in January but in Australia the show's break is mid December to end of January/February.
Yes, C5 claim they keep further behind on Home and Away due to Seven not consistently airing it 5 times a week, but I do think there is no reason why they couldn't keep it on air in December until they get to the season finale or at least get just 1-2 weeks behind. Neighbours airing the same day kind of makes it more of an issue.
Not sure when H&A is due back in Australia now Seven has the cricket rather than the tennis. It always used to return either after the Aussie Open or during the second week, so basically aired February to November. I don't think that'll change much but likely will be some early episodes pre-empted for some cricket coverage, though most of that takes place December/January anyway.
I'm not sure I see the benefit to C5 of Neighbours airing year round either - it's been a bit of a pain for them to reschedule in their Christmas line up and although it has a loyal audience I don't think it's significant enough to bring an audience in to watch their Christmas films. I get not wanting it off air for two months like Home and Away but Neighbours hasn't had that long a break in recent years anyway - and always felt the season finale cliffhangers were a huge asset to the Aussie soaps, though Home and Away more so than Neighbours perhaps.
And bringing it back to Christmas TV just having the same thing as is on every other day of the year just makes it all a bit less special - I suspect both The Chase and Pointless will air on the non-bank holidays over Christmas as well.
Yes, C5 claim they keep further behind on Home and Away due to Seven not consistently airing it 5 times a week, but I do think there is no reason why they couldn't keep it on air in December until they get to the season finale or at least get just 1-2 weeks behind. Neighbours airing the same day kind of makes it more of an issue.
Not sure when H&A is due back in Australia now Seven has the cricket rather than the tennis. It always used to return either after the Aussie Open or during the second week, so basically aired February to November. I don't think that'll change much but likely will be some early episodes pre-empted for some cricket coverage, though most of that takes place December/January anyway.
I'm not sure I see the benefit to C5 of Neighbours airing year round either - it's been a bit of a pain for them to reschedule in their Christmas line up and although it has a loyal audience I don't think it's significant enough to bring an audience in to watch their Christmas films. I get not wanting it off air for two months like Home and Away but Neighbours hasn't had that long a break in recent years anyway - and always felt the season finale cliffhangers were a huge asset to the Aussie soaps, though Home and Away more so than Neighbours perhaps.
And bringing it back to Christmas TV just having the same thing as is on every other day of the year just makes it all a bit less special - I suspect both The Chase and Pointless will air on the non-bank holidays over Christmas as well.
Going by the spoilers and rumors, New Year's Eve is a de facto season finale and New Year Day a de facto season return anyway.
JM
JamesM0984
Neighbours has always put the UK market first so I imagine that's why it's gone year-round.
The erratic scheduling of Home and Away down under is causing major headaches over here. A couple of years back Seven front-loaded a load of episodes, going way ahead of their scheduled airdates and then dropped back, going massively behind.
This year there's several triple episodes being shown to finish the season before Christmas!
Part of the issue is they've dropped down to 4 nights a week in Oz, but are still ordering 230 episodes a year. Usually this means a double episode on Thursday nights, but clearly with the marathon sessions at the moment this isn't happening.
Consequently of course the weekend cliffhangers are all over the place.
I notice RTE in Ireland are exactly one episode behind C5 - they came off air on Monday night with the same episode C5 aired on Friday.
C5 could go down to four days a week, which would get in 208 episodes a year - but again it messes the cliffhangers up, and every year you'd fall another six weeks behind. ITV did this when they got dangerously close at the back end of their run.
Torvill & Dean seemingly getting alot of promo on ITV - a candidate for 9pm on Christmas Day perhaps?
Yes, as ITV have the 9pm slot on Christmas night for big drama as we have seen in past years, and they would like this to be a draw for people who do not want to watch Eastenders, Mrs Brown etc on BBC One.