Kath and Kim quit ABC for 7

Kath and Kim is leaving the ABC for the Seven Network.

Gina Riley and Jane Turner have sewn up a deal that will pocket the producers $3m for the fourth series -not the highest network bid. But the girls apparently wanted “the biggest audience” for the show.

The characters started life during a sketch on Big Girl’s Blouse on the Seven Network, but the Network also dropped the girls series Something Stupid. At the time Riley and Turner were critical of the male-dominated atmosphere run by network executives (around the same time Seven had aired a failed new sitcom featuring Kingswood Country’s Ted Bullpitt!)

Eventually RIley and Turner developed the characters into a full series via ABC Drama, after it was rejected by ABC Comedy. The rest is history.

Screening as an eight episode series, Kath and Kim 4 will enjoy a bigger budget with higher production values and more diverse locations. Hope it doesn’t diminish the daggy charm of the show!

Series Four has been in production without a network and includes the return of all major characters, plus guests including Shane Warne and Little Britain’s Matt Lucas.

This is not an April Fool’s story, with an official Press Release from Seven:

Channel Seven today proudly announced KATH & KIM are coming home. The much-loved characters were first born on Seven in 1994. Since then Australia’s favourite foxy ladies have taken the world by storm. And now the pair will return to the network where it all began.

The fourth series of the hugely successful comedy series will screen on Seven soon. It’s a welcome return home for the show’s creators, Jane Turner and Gina Riley, who began their commercial television careers on Seven on the ground-breaking Fast Forward .

Filming is currently underway in Melbourne for series four – some of the high-profile guest stars will include Little Britain’s Matt Lucas and cricket great Shane Warne.

KATH & KIM , which stars Riley, Turner, Glenn Robbins , Magda Szubanski and Peter Rowsthorn, is presently seen in eleven countries around the world and is celebrated as one of the best comedies of its generation.

Kath and Kim said today: “We were enjoying a flute of bubbly in the Belvedere spa with David Leckie when the deal was clinched, amongst other things. It was a win win situation all round.
“Needless to say, David left with a smile on his face, and we are over the moon.”

Seven’s Director of Programming and Production, Tim Worner said: ”Everyone at Channel Seven is thrilled with this news. Our plan has always been to build hit shows. This move fits with that strategy. We have the ‘ cardonnay ‘ on ice, ready to celebrate their return.”