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Next Rafter to unpack?

Hugh Sheridan will soon film his last scenes for Season Five of Packed to the Rafters before heading to Los Angeles.

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Could actor Hugh Sheridan be the next resident cast member to exit Seven’s Packed to the Rafters?

26 year old Sheridan, who plays ‘Ben Rafter’, will film his last scenes for Season Five in February before heading to Los Angeles.

The Sunday Herald Sun reports the network is still in discussion for him to return for Season Six.

Viewers only recently said goodbye to Rachel Rafter (‘Jessica Marais’) and before her, actresses Zoe Ventoura and Jess McNamee. Brooke Satchwell also joins the series this season.

But if Sheridan leaves permanently to pursue US opportunities, it would leave Angus McLaren as ‘Nathan Rafter’ as the sole adult offspring under the roof of ‘Julie and Dave Rafter.’

Packed to the Rafters returns next month.

26 Responses

  2. Well, if Seven showed the whole series with no breaks, it may just get back its mojo and start working again. This on again off again is just a desperate measure to attempt to get control of ratings times, and the australian TV viewer is not stupid, they may have put up with it last year, but most are saying enough is enough and desert the show in droves.

  3. @ JB I agree. Seven screwed over City Homicide with similar arrogance for ratings glory. Rafters may suffer further, as the storylines did decline when Rachel rafter left.
    Networks do not reward loyalty! They make decisions based on ratings and $ and shaft viewers!

  6. It sounds like Seven drama is coming to an end of an era with John Holmes’ departure. Maybe it’s time to drag Seven into the 21century anyway. Their family soaps are totally last century. If Tim Worner recruited Julie McGauran to take drama commissioning forward in a bold new way then he’s smarter than I thought.

  8. Oh please don’t let Winners and Losers continue. If that’s the case, let rafters continue with a whole new cast. You can’t replace rafters with that. Worst show of 2011. Acting and writing is awful, and it’s extremely predictable!

  9. I hear Seven is delighted that Winners & Losers took off. With a surplus of episodes in the can, this may well be Rafters’ final year. W&L is poised to take over the mantle.

  12. This show will end up sucking, just the way McLeod’s Daughters did. After both the McLeod daughters left (and yes I hear you say “Where Are They Now?), that show became stupid and not really a show about ‘McLeod’s Daughters’.

    Seems Packed To The Rafters will go the same way. A show about the Rafters who are no longer Packed and the memories of lots of great characters played by people we will also be asking “Where Are They Now?”

  13. I mean no disrespect, but I don’t see Hugh Sheridan as an international superstar. He’s not particularly handsome nor is he an amazing actor.

    Like so many other Aussie television actors who got a little too cocky & fled to La La land, watch him come crawling back after spending a couple months begging for work in big old Hollywood.

  15. If Ben leaves seven will have to pull the plug, can’t introduce new cast members to fill a void. It a show about a family still living together and house sure is going to be pretty empty, unless the baby morphs into a rebelious 16 year old. He he he he

  16. The quality of the show started rapidly declining the season right after Mel’s death. First few eps were good but it was downhill from there. More and more airtime was given to Carbo and Retta who are terrible characters and have ruined the show imo. Plus boring storylines, and the tone of the show was different. My interest was fast declining but i still watched. Then Seven took it off mid season for Winners & Losers and that made the decision for me. I haven’t watched a single episode since. I may have persisted despite the show not being nearly as good as it used to be, but when Seven screw you over, you lose my trust and me as a viewer. Don’t think the show will last with another departure.

  17. My goodness this cast is made of a bunch of big heads.

    I stopped watching last season as it got so tedious and the revolving door of characters was starting to exceed that of Home and Away.

    Obviously pay packets for actors are not big enough in Australia.

  19. Once the original cast leaves, it’s over. There’s only a certain number of “cousins” that can replace them. Last season stunk, but that could have been due to the stop start nature of the programming.

  20. I agree, Rafters has lost the plot – literally. The few episodes I watched last series barely had a plot. And I find the various hangers-on extremely uninteresting to say the list, e.g. Carbo (the original annoying version), various boyfriends/girlfriends and their families.

  23. yeah I agree marco and craig, shows can avoid original character loss, but when a show is based on a family, where there were a lot of stand out popular stars that pretty much left close together, it time to go with dignity…

  25. I think the Rafter is starting to loose the people that made is special. Just hope Seven doesn’t screw around with it this year, last year was pretty hopeless given the huge break in the middle and not showing the full season only to rip people off by selling half the eps on DVD.

    I can only assume Parenthood will return with the Rafters but that show only has 18 eps in it’s 3rd season so will not run as long as usual, I guess that could mean Seven showing the Rafters and W&L back to back on Tuesday nights in a few months time?

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