Neighbours moved on 10 due to low ratings

Fans of Aussie soap Neighbours last month celebrated the long-awaited return to Ramsay Street, however, it hasn’t reached the kind of audiences Network 10 were hoping for in Australia – so the soap is being moved to a new timeslot.

The latest chapter of the long-running Australian daily saga premiered on Monday, 18th September with the Reg Watson devised production airing on Network 10 in Australia and on Amazon Freevee in the UK following Channel 5 axing the show in 2022.

New episodes are released daily, Monday-Thursday, on Amazon Freevee in the UK, and stateside, while the series also streams on Prime Video in Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. However, less than a month into the third series of the saga Network 10 is moving the residents of Erinsborough to an earlier time slot.

TV Tonight Australia reports that ‘From Monday the soap will screen at 4pm Monday – Thursday (with a 6:30pm replay remaining on 10 Peach)’, adding, ‘The Bold & The Beautiful will return to 4.30pm Monday – Friday.’

Alan Fletcher, Mischa Barton, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Georgie Stone, Tim Kano and Stefan Dennis.

A spokesperson from Network 10 told TV Tonight:

“We have listened to the demand from our loyal viewers to return The Bold & Beautiful to its original time slot.”

Figures published state that on Monday Neighbours drew 99,000 metro viewers at 4:30pm, 10,000 lower than The Bold & the Beautiful at 4pm. A 10 Peach replay drew 31,000 while on Wednesday 76,000 tuned in to Ramsay Street while the American imported soap opera pulled in 106,000. The 10 Peach replay remains steady with 31,000.

There are no figures released for Neighbours’ performance on the streaming services. However, a source at Freevee noted that the programme has performed exceptionally well for the streaming services. Time will tell whether the streaming figures are enough however to sustain the amount of money invested in the show to keep it in production, but at the moment it appears the streaming ratings alone secure it a firm future for the next few years.

The new series stars Alan Fletcher, Annie Jones, Candice Leask, Emerald Chan, Georgie Stone, Jackie Woodburne, Lloyd Will, Lucinda Armstrong Hall, Lucinda Cowden, Marley Williams, Naomi Rukavina, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Riley Bryant, Ryan Moloney, Sara West, Shiv Palekar, Stefan Dennis, Tim Kano, and Xavier Molyneux as series regulars. April Rose Pengilly, Guy Pearce, Ian Smith, Jodi Gordon, Melissa Bell, and Mischa Barton feature as guest stars.

Neighbours, devised by soap opera creative Reg Watson (Crossroads, The Young Doctors, Prisoner: Cell Block H), ran for more than three decades, It’s first series ran on the Seven Network before being axed. Network 10 stepped in taking on the show. Just over a decade ago, it was shunted to digital offering 11 (later rebranded 10 Peach). In the UK its biggest success was when it aired on BBC One in the eighties and nineties.

The show has garnered fans across the globe and launched the careers of many household names, such as Margot Robbie, Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, and Russell Crowe. Neighbours is produced by Fremantle, best known to ‘soapies’ by its original name of Grundy.