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Sun fades from Hi-5 role

Another Hi-5 member is to depart, foreshadowing quite a send-off at Carols by Candelight this week.

It will surely be a new-look Hi-5 in 2009 with news that performer Sun Park is now leaving the show.

She is the third cast member to recently announce her departure following the resignation of original members Nathan Foley and Kellie Crawford.

“I didn’t really see myself doing Hi-5 into my 30s,” Park, who has been with the troupe for three years, told The Sunday Telegraph.

“I’m getting married next year and some time in the future I’d like to have kids and settle down.”

2008 has been a year of change for Hi-5, including the sale of the brand from Kids Like Us to Southern Star / Nine. There has been speculation that Foley and Crawford’s exits are part of a cost-cutting by the new owners. Park denied there had been any pressure for any of the members to leave and that it was entirely her decision.

The trio will perform with the group for the last time at Carols by Candelight on Wednesday night.

Source: Sunday Telegraph

9 Responses

  1. Why did she join in the 1st place?

    I mean, she’s only been there for 3 years. She shouldn’t have been so selfish when she first auditioned for the role. She should have let the producers know and they could have given the role to someone who was going to be more long term

  2. That’s the benefit of putting kids show hosts in character costumes – You can change the humans underneath and no one notices/complains! Bananas in Pajamas anyone? 😉

  3. This is no surprise that Sun has now decided to join Nathan and Kellie in making plans to leave what is clearly a “sinking ship” – living evidence that Hi-5 is now looking increasingly like the Titanic of pre-school shows. Good luck Sun with your future plans and 3 cheers to you (and Nathan, Kellie, Charli, Tim and Kathleen over the last 2 years) for finally having some courage (and sense) to see this pop-scam called Hi-5 for what it really is – a pop-scam! (and a joke)

  4. This is terrible news – what is happening to Hi-5? I got to admit that whatever said, the Australian version of Hi-5 is much better than the U.S. version. I saw the U.S. version once and they suck. None of them can sing. It’s also sad to see Nathan and Kelly leave the group, it would have been so nice to see them get married and everything. It would have been like a children’s fairytale. I doubt the new Hi-5 will less popular though cos none of the younger kids will know any of these new people anyway, and won’t know about the old ones. Still, it’s sad to see the original group and Sun leave the show. Channel Nine however does have the best Australian children’s programming in the country. With both Hi-5, Humphrey, Macdonald’s Farm and the Parimithi. Apparently they are buying the Saddle Club next year as well.

  5. i am a strong believer in the cost cutting thoery.

    the fact that 9 have cut captions for hearing impaired, dumped ed philips, lower pay for trevor marmelade, couldn’t afford TGYH, selling 4 shows to foxtel, axing sunday for cheaper shows, james packer selling out, sea patrol budget cuts and generally airing the cheapest of shows. would show that 9 are in a very tricky financial situation.

    they are obviously cutting costs where the general public will not notice as much. it is sad that the kids and hearing impared are the ones that are being targeted just because they make up for a small margin of the networks profit and the kids don’t fully understand what is going on.

  6. The fact that Hi-5 is a “brand” and can get traded around between owners that hire and fire the group members as “employees”… surely I’m not the only one who’s a teeensy bit cynical about this whole endeavour?

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