I did think Neighbours might be safer at 4.30pm than had they given it the 6pm slot but now it’s moved to 4pm I suspect the Ten afternoon airing will be gone by Christmas - though it might be beneficial to focus the audience on watching in one slot.
I do think with long running shows and the desire by some in the industry to try and save them they often focus too much on how popular they were in the past and not on the reality of the circumstances that ultimately got them axed. People usually aren’t watching in sufficient numbers for a reason.
A fair bit of it comes from brand loyalty and a consistent timeslot. How many soaps have lasted aired pre 6pm news in metro regions and succeeded in the long term?
The only one I can think of is Home And Away, which has aired on most Seven metro channels at 6pm, 6:30pm and 7pm, (regionals mostly 5:30pm, 6:30pm and 7pm)
Also note what happened to it when it was on Seven - it didn’t last the year and it was taken up by Ten.
Which supports what I said. It commenced on 18 March 1985 and axed on 12 July 1985, due to performing poorly across Sydney and Melbourne markets. It was immediately picked up by Ten. At this time Brisbane had around 1 million people, the only market it was on at 7pm (1,037,815 according to 1986 census). I believe at the time, most regional QLD markets that aired it set a timeslot around 5pm.
Ten helped it succeed by setting a 7pm timeslot across the capital cities.
True but what I am getting at is for a long time, stations struggled with pre 6pm programming. If you don’t get the 5pm-6pm slot right, it can lead to rating disasters. Most likely why Ten didn’t schedule Neighbours in that hour. I think Ten held little hope but had to show some faith in the resurrection (perhaps hoping like the 1986 reset that it would create ratings success).
But now with so many options it’s harder to keep viewers
I think the desperation of the networks is why so many programs never run on time. Network execs, surprise us, actually list a schedule that is accurate and keep to the schedule.
I dont think neighbours will be axed becos in britain its rating really highly and really the last 20 years it hasnt done well in australia. Neighbours has just started and we dont have any action storylines and most of the storylines have just begun so give it time
Anyone remember when this happened? (Information taken from Perfect Blend)
Eleven’s first Australian broadcast of episode 6157 was interrupted by a technical error which froze the program part way through. The episode was first shown in its entirety on the following morning at 8:30am (the usual repeat time of the previous day’s show), and it was again shown at 6:00pm; directly before the screening of episode 6158.
I just read an article where a Channel Ten spokesperson claims that they “listened to the demand from our loyal viewers to return Bold and Beautiful to its original timeslot”. Well I can tell you one thing. This “spokesperson” obviously has no idea on the broadcast history of The Bold And The Beautiful on Australian television - it debuted on 23 November 1987 at 1pm - not the 4:30pm timeslot it has occupied since 12 February 1996.
It getting axed in Britian was what got it axed in the first place - it’s a complete myth it rated highly, and people aren’t bothered enough to make the effort to watch it on Freevee every day. Indeed I think it’s a huge mistake Freevee aren’t uploading the weeks episodes each Monday - that might have got those intrigued enough by the revival to at least watch the first week rather than just the first episode before abandoning it.
And it’s had a lot of other timeslots in between. I can recall it once aired at 3.30pm so it didnt clash with Days of Our Lives & The Young and the Restless over on 9 and also at 2.30pm after they were dtopped.
And also different timeslots in different markets across Australia. As an example initially NRTV (WIN TEN NNSW) had it at 3:15pm in the year prior to aggregation in 1991 before moving to 1pm once Midday Show finished for the year. Other regional stations had a different timeslot for Bold And The Beautiful prior to aggregation.
I did find some June 1989 metro schedules (Perth and Melbourne I think) had it listed at 3pm after a midday movie and Donahue (I think it might have moved to 3:30 around that time because of the timeslot clash with Y&R).