Neighbours

Very sad day for BBC One, to lose that audience share will dent their overall performance and with EastEnders at 4m viewers last night, surely they should do all they can to shore up their figures. I'm sure over 8 years Doctors would cost more than £300m to produce and that an aquisition like Neighbours maybe isn't such a bad move in comparison.

It's the policy for the BBC to use independent producers but then if the price goes up, they just lose the successful programmes? The Simpsons harmed the demographics on BBC Two - that channel never recovered, nor did itv at tea-time when Home and Away defected. Not a wise move on the BBC's behalf nor FreemantleMedia - I wonder what Reg Grundy thinks about today's deal.

Hopefully the churn won't be too high, especially as so many have digital thesedays and receive Five no problem. Either way though, Home and Away actors saw their profiles plunge in the UK since the move so I'm sure the Neighbours cast will be livid at the knock-on effect for their panto fees and music deals.

Here's hoping that five start showing Neighbours on the Monday immediately after BBC One shows it for the last time.

Imagine how the continuity announcer and all the trailers would have to handle it, pretending that Friday's episode was the last ever and to tune in on Monday for BBC1's new show

That said, I don't think it'll be long after that when the BBC scrap soaps altogether...

That said, I don't think it'll be long after that when the BBC scrap soaps altogether... [/q]

Yeah... of course they will.

Long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours will move to Five after the BBC pulled out of bidding for the show.
The channel will begin showing the soap, which launched the careers of Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce, in 2008.

"Neighbours will be a greatly prized part of our schedule and suitably cherished by us," said Lisa Opie, Five's managing editor of content.

The BBC withdrew from talks to keep the show, saying it had been asked to pay three times the show's current price.

BBC One controller Peter Fincham said he had been asked for £300m over eight years by Fremantle Media, which owns the rights to the show.

"We would have loved to have kept it, but not at any price," he said.
"Sad though this is, we think this we're doing the right thing with our licence-payers' money."

The show has aired twice a day since 1986, with a combined current audience of about five million.

'Never promoted'

It will end on BBC One next spring. Mr Fincham said it was too early to discuss what would replace the soap on the BBC.

"It's a big thing," said Stephen Murphy, editor of Inside Soap magazine. "Families plan their evening meal around the show."

"But one of the big criticisms of Neighbours' fans is that the BBC never promoted the show," said Murphy.

"Five might make a bit more of a fanfare about it, so it might even be for the benefit of the show in the end."

Both Fremantle and Five are owned by the RTL Group media company.

Five poached rival Australian soap Home and Away from ITV in 2000. It is widely expected that it will show both series together as part of an "Aussie hour".
'Not performing'

Set in the fictional suburb of Erinsborough, Neighbours focuses on the residents of Ramsay Street - who over the years have included pop singer Natalie Imbruglia and Gladiator star Russell Crowe.

The drama reached its peak in 1990, when it drew a combined audience of 19 million every day.

In recent years, viewing figures have fallen with landmark episodes like last year's plane crash only attracting six million.

But it is regularly the most-watched daytime television programme in the UK other than the news.
In Australia, however, the show has struggled for some years, and currently averages less than 700,000 viewers for TV network Ten.

Home and Away, which airs on the rival Seven Network, regularly attracts more than a million people.

In March, Ten's drama executive Dan Bennett told Australia's Sunday Telegraph the programme was not performing as well as the network would like.

"The figures we're getting now aren't a great basis for our night-time schedule", he said.

"We'll be saying goodbye to quite a few characters."

But executive producer Ric Pellizzeri played down talk of a crisis.

"Coronation Street's been going 40 years, and we're looking at Neighbours as a show that will run for 40 years and even longer.''

Well I think Doctors is frontrunner to replace Neighbours followed by Diagnosis Murder (or a film)