Out of the Blue gets a lifeline
EXCLUSIVE: Australian soap Out of the Blue is getting a second shot on UK television, despite slumping on the BBC earlier this year.
The Manly-based serial, commissioned by the British broadcaster, will move to Five in the UK alongside other Aussie soaps, Neighbours and Home and Away.
The lifeline for the 130-episode drama will see the show re-aired from Episode One in a bid to find a new UK audience. With an ensemble cast including Sophie Katinis, Zoe Carides, Diane Craig and John Atkinson, the plot kicks off with a murder amongst a group of 30-something friends gathered for a school reunion. Like all good Aussie soaps, it is a drips in sun, sand and surf, with a dash of mystery.
Five currently screens Neighbours and Home and Away at 1:45 / 2:15pm and 5:30 / 6:00pm.
TV Tonight understands Out of the Blue will accompany the other Aussie soaps in the later screenings, although a timeslot is not confirmed.
The Southern Star-produced drama started out well in an afternoon slot on the BBC, replacing Neighbours‘ when it moved to Five, but began losing viewers, and significantly, lost a key ally when a key television executive also left the network. It was moved to BBC Two in May where it still airs at 1pm.
TV Tonight also hears Network TEN is about to make an announcement on an Australian airing soon, once it resolves classification and local quota questions.
The Southern Star series has finished production of its commissioned series, but if it works on Five and TEN, it could pick up where it left off.
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five are doing WHAT now?
ok after that over reaction, ive read the whole article.
So they plan to repeat the show, I guess that means it will air on fiver, I could see it airing on five, but giving the awful awful ratings this show has produced I can not see it getting anymore new episodes.
So TEN’s going to air it after all? I wonder if this could be a solution to their early evening ratings problems?
(Probably doubtful, considering how badly it flopped in the UK!)
According to Wikipedia, there were 95 episodes aired so far and Ten suddenly decided to finally show this?
Glenn, the pick-up by TEN was referenced back in June.
its funny this is the only website I have seen this news on, so far none of the UK websites seems to care (which I think says alot)
It’s not that they don’t care, it’s that they don’t know yet. I did say it was an exclusive…
Us wonks over at Mediaspy have been saying for some time that ten should strike with this show @ 7pm once Home and Away goes on break and try to build an Audience over summer, can’t do much worse than the sitcom reruns they have currently!
well, good for you David, a world exclusive, Shows changing networks like this is very uncommon in the UK so it will be quite big news over there once they learn of it….be interesting to see how it goes on 5 over there..good on them for giving it a shot, if TEN are smart they will start it in the 7pm timeslot the Monday after H&A finishes for the year and promote the shit out of it ove summer to try and get some of the H&A audience hooked before it returns in January!
In New Zealand it is on at 5:30pm Mon-Fri on TV2. Home and Away is on TV3 at the same time.
I reckon this would work well at 7PM as well over the summer. TEN should (like others have said) advertise the hell out of it and if it begins to rate over 1 million, they should consider swapping it around with Neighbours, so that Neighbours will get a much better lead in.
RTE in Ireland currently have the WORLD PREMIERE for Out of the Blue. The final episode (130) airs on Nov 12. BBC still have the 35 eps to go before completing the series.
This is fantastic news. As I live in Ireland, I have now seen the first 120 eps and this is the one show I can’t ever tape and leave to the next day, I have never enjoyed a show so much in over twenty years.
It’s thoroughly addictive, excellently made, with a vibrant and talented cast. This news has made my week - any chance to keep Out of the Blue going is OK with me!
This show certainly has something special - the intelligent writing and twist after twist keep you interested all the time. I would recommend anyone to give this show a chance, you’ll be paid back in spades.
I’m wondering if this will replace our beloved Simpsons repeats at 6pm…
Soaps always need some protection, a few months to settle-in and hopefully build. OOTB was treated badly by the Beeb who should know better. If the soap builds an audience now and gets back on its feet then the BBC will feel very foolish, as they should. Let’s not forget that 7 once gave away Neighbours to Ten in a similar blunder and it took them some years to launch Home and Away and put things right again.
Further down the track Ten also made the huge mistake of moving Neighbours away from 7 p.m. to make way for their rival - a mistake from which they’ve still not recovered and probably never will.
This is great that 5 are going to reshow the whole series.
Hopefully in a later timeslot alongside the other 2 Aussie shows it will gain a heap of new fans. It’s a brilliant show and i think the timeslot it was given on the BBC was the main problem for it’s ratings figures, a later slot when people aren’t at school or work might work wonders for the ratings.
Wahey - looks like us Brits can enjoy more of Manly for some time to come, although we’ll have to wait a long time for the 130 episodes to re-run again before watching (unless anyone wants to watch them all over again!) FIVE is a much better channel for the show, as it can go with Neighbours and Home and Away in a nice little ‘Aussie slot’!
Thanks FIVE
If they put it on at 6.30 on Five the night will go as follows;
5.30PM- Neighbours
6PM- Home and Away
6.30PM- Out of the Blue
Out of the blue would however be against Hollyoaks in the ratings which is a British soap aimed at teens. Personally I think Out of the Blue is a far better show therfore I will be watching that in any caise i just hope the majority agree with me.
hey everyone im looking forward to seeing out of the blue get a fair showing on channel five or fiver i dont think it was given enough time to grown on people on bbc1 or 2 timing has to be spot on maybe they chould swap neighbours to 5.30 and put it on at 6.30 after home and away sounds fair to me as a soap group owner i heard the news last weekend and let my members know straight away .
How ironic! The BBC commissioned this show to replace the hole left by Neighbours when it moved to Five, now it’s following and moving there as well…
i am prepared to give ‘out of the blue’ a chance and when it starts its re-run on channel 5, (whenever it does) i’ll be prepared and determined to watch it. it seems interesting for a soap opera and who knows? it might still be on our screen this time in 10 years!!!!
Hi, I live in the UK and I love Out of the Blue, I’ve watch nearly every episode and when I heard the BBC were scrapping it, I was outrage! The characters are great, the actors are just perfect and charming and the plotlines just keep you on edge! Thank you Five for buying the rights to this, can’t wait to watch it over again! BBC, you should be shamed. You never gave Out of the Blue a good enough chance to make its mark.