Last night (July 28), Neighbours said goodbye to its Australian audience, garnering the program’s greatest ratings in 13 years.
The Australian soap opera’s conclusion has already aired on Channel 10, and the same programme will be shown in the UK tonight, July 29, at 9 p.m. on Channel 5.
The series was anticipated to end on a high note in terms of viewership due to the appearance on screen of numerous returning stars for a farewell appearance.
The finale, however, outperformed predictions with 873,000 “five-city metro” viewers (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth) and 1.2 million overall viewers, peaking at 1.4 million, and becoming the most-watched episode since 2009 (via TV Tonight).
In Australia, the programme typically draws 100,000 viewers per episode.
The fact that the finale eventually aired on a major station was beneficial. The soap would have ended on digital channel 10 Peach in accordance with the initial intentions, but it was finally relocated to Channel 10 for its last episode.
Neighbours will end after 37 years on the air, as was announced earlier this year. Fans launched a petition to save the serial after Channel 5 said it will stop airing it after the summer, but sadly, the search for new financing sources was unsuccessful.
The last episodes of Ramsay Street received all of the production’s attention, giving the characters and their viewers the satisfying conclusion they deserved.
This indicates that the production put a lot of effort into getting a number of cameo appearances, including the comeback of former Neighbours actors Guy Pearce, Margot Robbie, and Kylie Minogue, as well as Jesse Spencer, Delta Goodrem, Kym Valentine, and Carla Bonner, among many others.
