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TEN denies Offspring axing -or is it all just a Nina fantasy?

With producers busy on other projects, the future of Offspring may yet be nothing more than a dream sequence.

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2014-08-02_2343Officially, Offspring is not yet cancelled, according to Network TEN.

Nor is it renewed.

But according to a report in Guardian Australia producer John Edwards indicated the show would not return.

“We’re very busy with Gallipoli and another secret project,” he told Guardian. “We’re developing scripts for Party Tricks and we’re well under way with the second series.”

It has since been re-reported by other media and fuelling social media. Even Beamly (formerly known as Zeebox) which is part-owned by TEN, is reporting the news.

TEN, which is already dealing with its own Bachelor fallout today, has denied the story.

“The story is wrong. John Edwards did not say Offspring would not be coming back. He was asked if it was returning, and he said to the reporter ‘Never say never,'” a TEN spokesperson said.

It also reissued Beverley McGarvey’s previous statement: “We want Offspring to return in 2015. We are in discussions with the producers and they are, in turn, in discussions with the key creatives and cast.”

In promoting next week’s Party Tricks Asher Keddie has tactfully said, “All I know is there is a massive conversation going on and I’m open to that.”

However Puberty Blues, also produced by Endemol, remains in the same limbo.

Industry chatter has been rife with speculation that producers are focussed on new projects, that production costs for Offspring have risen, that some cast are pursuing other projects and that Party Tricks has been primed as likely replacement. Significantly, it features stars from both dramas.

So is the state of play all about semantics or just a Nina-like fantasy?

In 2011 TEN confirmed Rush, produced by John Edwards and Mimi Rogers, would end “with a bang” but drama fans with long memories know that in worst-case scenarios, sometime shows are never axed. Seven never confirmed the axe for City Homicide yet it never managed to return. The end of Packed of Rafters was also finally confirmed by Rebecca Gibney in a media interview after months of the network refusing to confirm.

Offspring and MasterChef are TEN’s most popular brands and confirming the demise of one when the network is struggling would hardly be ideal.

TEN’s 2015 Upfronts are due in coming weeks at which observers will be looking to see if those lengthy discussions have indeed produced anything concrete.

All eyes on Party Tricks to see if that helps deliver any clarity.

15 Responses

  1. Ten pretending it’s not finished just makes it looks desperate – just admit it had it’s run and actually ended due to decisions of those who make it, not due to ratings.

  3. “Offspring” went from being a silly and overtly childish series that found its feet in season two and went on to be among the best family dramas on mainstream TV. I do agree,however, that its final episode did draw everything to a close and TV has a habit of draining the orange and for the series to return it would need to jump a couple of years and find some new drama ideas that hadn’t been used.If that was the last episode, it went out well as few series ever do- and kept a tradition set by overseas masterpieces such as “Six Feet Under”, “Breaking Bad’ and “The Big C”.

  8. Australian networks don’t usually cancel shows, they just don’t order another series and hope that few people remember it in 12 months time. A Place To Call Home was a fairly rare example of a network making a decision and announcing it promptly (and for their trouble Seven have got a large social media campaign attacking them).

    The fact remains that Offspring is out of tax subsidies so Southern Star will want more money from Ten to fund it. Ten wants to spend less on it because its had 5 seasons and is probably on the decline. They are invested in Party Tricks, secret project and have episodes of Neighbours and Wonderland.

    But who knows. The ABC didn’t fund a series of Miss Fisher for 2014 so they could fund The Code and Secret River. Then it sold well overseas and they managed to put the production back together.

  9. “do the same with puberty Blues we have been waiting months to find out about that”

    Agree with @dan.
    Why the secrecy/uncertainty around Puberty Blues?
    So hope it returns for one more season as it stil has so much to give and I feel the characters’ stories are not yet complete.
    But I’m not optimistic about this one.

  10. As much as I love Offspring.. if it’s a choice between it and Puberty Blues, then PB surely has more ‘legs’ in terms of future story lines. Offspring’s story was pretty much all tied up in a neat bow with its last ep.

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