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More on that 6:30 change

It is now quite clear that the “6:30 change” we have been teased with is not a new show for Channel TEN, but the rumoured makeover of Neighbours.

Producer Ric Pellizzeri has told News Ltd. that renovated sets and storylines were not ‘a last-ditch attempt’ to save the show.

“I certainly don’t think the original template for Neighbours has worn itself out. Every show has ups and downs but we’re trying to get it back on track,” he said.

This is despite other key sets being introduced in the last 3 years.

Neighbours ratings have languished between 700,000 – 800,000, which are well behind the two current affairs shows between 1.2m and 1.4m. Home and Away also attracts around 1.1 – 1.3m. In truth, Neighbours figures are not too far out of step with TEN as the third-tier network anyway. It remains competitive in its youthful demographic. The show would still be produced if it were pulled off air in Australia tomorrow. It recently won a huge license increase when it signed from the BBC to Channel Five.

Pellizzeri says the show will return to suburban tales and avoid shock-stories of bombings and kidnappings.”We’re calling it ‘Heartland Neighbours’” he said. “We want to get back to telling the stories we think we’re good at, which is strong emotional stories, involving multi-generational families living on a street. We had shifted away from that. I agree our stories were becoming a little too extraordinary.”

Neighbours’ best storyline in the last ten years was a fairly simple but devastating split between Karl (Alan Fletcher) and Susan (Jackie Woodburne), twice visited, once with Izzy (Natalie Bassingthwaite). There wasn’t a special effect in sight, just emotional jeopardy and darn good performances.

One of the other challenges for the show is in being landlocked by the houses of Pin Oak Court (Ramsay St) itself. Those exteriors were aspirational McMansions twenty years ago. Now they are the domain of lower-middle class, student and renters market (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But it does change the tone of the show over time.

Neighbours casting director Jan Russ will talk to TV Tonight this Tuesday between 5 – 6pm on JOY 94.9

3 Responses

  1. Hopefully it’s not going to be too plain. I adored the old school neighbours back when the younger Scully daughter was there and Harold’s wife was still alive, but I also enjoy the new dramas and characters. Perhaps they could find a common ground with which to link both instead of one extreme to another.

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