Despite cancelling long-running soap Neighbours, Channel 5 plans to produce more Australian dramas.
Neighbours was officially cancelled in March after production company Fremantle Media was unable to find a new home for the drama, with the final episode airing in August.
As fans prepare to live without their Erinsborough favourites, Channel 5 is in the process of negotiating an agreement to air additional Australian dramas on television.
More details were disclosed to TV Tonight by Daniel Monaghan, Senior Vice President of Programming and Content at Network 10:
‘We did Lie with Me [with Charlie Brooks] last year, but there are three more in the pipeline, all of which are being shot in Australia,’ he revealed.
Daniel went on to say that Channel 5 is looking to screen more Australian dramas with British characters, and that Lie with Me was a success because it was “more of a hybrid.”
Beverley McGarvey, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer of Paramount ANZ, also clarified the difference between a channel that airs a soap opera on a regular basis and a channel that airs a small number of new drama series:
‘The investment they’d make in a few of series is tiny compared to the 260 episodes of Neighbours they’d have to make.’
A number of returnees have already been confirmed ahead of the last episode of Neighbours.
Guy Pearce will return to the serial as Mike Young, as we exclusively revealed last week.
Kyle Minogue (Charlene Robinson), Jason Donovan (Scott Robinson), Ian Smith (Harold Bishop), Paul Keane (Des Clarke), Peter O’Brien (Shane Ramsay), Natalie Bassingthwaighte (Izzy Hoyland), Daniel MacPherson (Joel Samuel), Melissa Bell (Lucy Robinson), Mark Little (Joe Mangel), Olympia Valance (Paige Smith), and many more will join a prestigious list of the show’s most
