Digital Spy is able to confirm that later this month, Channel 5 will suspend Home and Away for its yearly vacation.
The long-running soap typically leaves UK television in the middle of November to make room for Channel 5’s midday Christmas movies.
The final Home and Away episode of the year will run on Channel 5 on Friday, November 18, according to updated schedules that were just made public.
The programme will air at its customary time of 1.45 pm on Channel 5 and again at 6 pm on 5STAR.
Fans will have to wait a few weeks for the next episode since there won’t be a 6.30pm first-look screening on 5STAR that evening.
As the final UK show of the year concludes on a dramatic cliffhanger, Channel 5 executives appear to have collaborated closely with the Home and Away team in Australia.
This also happened the year before, when the Salt gas poisoning tragedy was covered in the year’s last Channel 5 episode.
The strategy is a rip-off of how Channel 5 formerly handled Neighbours prior to the era of same-day broadcasts. Despite the time difference between broadcasts in the UK and Australia, Neighbours fans were frequently treated to a major cliffhanger towards the end of the year.
Home and Away has not yet been given a specific return date, but it typically returns to UK television in early January.
The Australian season finale and year-end break on Channel 7 have not yet been made public.
Due to the fact that Home and Away is typically only commissioned for a set number of episodes per year, typically around 230, the show still takes a break in both countries.
If the show airs five episodes a week, this translates to 46 weeks’ worth of Summer Bay drama.
Channel 5 decides to take a break around Christmas so that the void may be filled with holiday movies because there aren’t enough episodes to air Home and Away all year.
The network has never attempted to keep up with Australia, where Channel 7 frequently rearranges the airtime of Home and Away episodes.
