After an absolute tear-jerker of a finale, Neighbours shocked the world by announcing that it was being revived.
The team behind the iconique soap seemingly pulled out all the stops, inviting fan faves back to the fold, penning bonkers storylines and even summoning Mischa Barton (???) to join the fold to ensure butts would well and truly be in seats.
But has it worked?
According to the ratings, it’s gone down about as well as Karl’s many affairs went down with poor ol’ Susan…
Let’s assess!
Daily Mail Australia reported that the premiere of Neighbours on Monday August 18th September brought in a total national audience of 244,000.
From there, the revamped series has experienced a significant decline in viewership, with a measly 99,000 fans tuning in on Monday, while its 10Peach encore scored just 30,000 viewers.
Said decline has put immense pressure on the network and therefore, the powers that be have caved and will now be shifting Neighbours to the earlier timeslot of 4pm with an encore screening at 6:30pm on 10Peach.
So how does that stack up to the OG Neighbours before the plug was first pulled? Last year, Sydney Morning Herald reported that the show had been pulling in 100,000 just before it was canned.
Comparing that to the current 99k and it’s pretty much just slightly lower than when it was on the first time.
In a statement to TV Blackbox, a spokesperson for Channel 10 confirmed the news:
“We have listened to the demand from our loyal viewers to return The Bold & Beautiful to its original time slot.”
Ouch… imagine getting bumped for The Bold & Beautiful, a series that has been recycling the same old tragic, outlandish storylines for decades.
Hang on a minute, I pretty much just described Neighbours there, too.
I suppose one could argue that The Bold & Beautiful is America’s Neighbours, and therefore it’s been bumped by its U.S. counterpart.
Is that why they recruited Mischa Barton — a titan in American drama television — for the reboot? To bring the American spice?
Whatever the reason, sadly it hasn’t worked… but hopefully there’s some huge, jaw-dropping storyline coming that’ll have viewers tuning in at 4pm.
