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Stefan Dennis fears for the future of soap genre

"It is very sad that such an iconic piece of television history is being lost all over the world because of the abandonment of its home country."

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Actor Stefan Dennis, who last week wrapped nearly 4 decades playing TV villain Paul Robinson on Neighbours has penned an article for The Age.

In it he writes with great affection for the role and the series, describing it as “one of the greatest privileges in my life.”

But he also writes pragmatically about the economics of the business which has led to the show’s demise, following Channel 5’s decision to invest in local drama rather than underpin the annual Neighbours budget.

“The boom has swung towards streaming and catch-up viewing, and hence sponsorship revenue is directed at these avenues rather than the traditional free-to-air TV,” he writes.

“Though I would have loved Neighbours to set another trend and be the first recognised commercial soap to make the switch to a streaming channel, sadly there were no takers. My concern is that if a soap does not soon make that transition, we will start to see the demise of these beloved programs around the world.”

Indeed, streaming platforms are not known for producing long-form content, but generally 10 episode binge dramas.

Dennis adds, “On a final note, it is very sad that such an iconic piece of television history is being lost all over the world because of the abandonment of its home country, not understanding what it truly offers other than very watchable entertainment.”

You can read more here.

11 Responses

  1. The sad case is that with streaming young people get their fix of serial dramas, so there is no longer a need for them to have daily soaps. Us oldies will still watch soaps if they are available on regular tv, but as we get older, they will be less commercially viable. It will be interesting to see which world long running soap will go next. I hope its not another of my favourites. The US daytime soaps already had that purge a decade ago with only 1 or 1 and a half (in CBS case) soap on each of the original 3 networks.

  2. Neighbours hasn’t moved from a 6:30 timeslot in decades. I doubt they’ll do it now. Everyone who watches it knows it’s 6:30 weeknights. Changing it to 7:30 on Ten (and presumably also Peach) risks losing viewers.

  3. Soaps do well when they are socially relevant. They need to reflect contemporary culture in some way that gives them some kind of currency, otherwise they are just mindless melodrama. In Australia peak soap was Number 96, but shows from Bellbird to Country Practice served the brief reasonably well. In the UK the big soaps like Coronation Street and Eastenders were at their most successful when they were topical and/or had an undercurrent of social satire. As they have increasingly degenerated into melodrama – chasing ratings with serial killers and big events – their audiences have steadily dwindled. I’d argue that Neighbours early popularity with a wider audience was due to an inadvertent edge of social satire resulting from its collection of broad caricatures (Mrs Mangel, etc), but it quickly lost that and settled into melodrama too. In recent years they tried desperately to regain an edge with issue-based stories, but it was too little too late.

  4. Neigbours and Home And Away gained a large audience in the UK because the BBC changed up it’s afternoon line-up to include cheap Australian soap operas. When the BBC changed tack again and went with afternoon quiz shows like Pointless and murder mysteries like Father Brown, Miss Fisher and its replacement Frankie Drake from Canada and The Coroner and it’s replacement The Mallorca Files, Channel 5 picked up Neighbour and H&A. Ten moved Neigbours to 11 and renegotiated the contract to reduce what it paid. That left Neigbours’ fate in the hands of Channel 5. And once they decided to change things up to cope with streaming, Viacom decided that Neigbours wasn’t worth making for the UK and Australian market anymore. It ran for 37 years across 7, 10, BBC and 5. Streaming favours old favourites, short run premium dramas and true crime. The longest show I have streamed was 101 eps of Fringe in 12 months, and that was tough going.

  5. It wasn’t local abandonment mainly international abandonment, Ten would have continued with its international partners. Ratings were low locally and interest was elsewhere in the UK obviously taking into account the production costs and return of investment. Never understood the argument it should have remained on the primary channel, 10Peach wasn’t hard to find and it’s audience should have followed but didn’t. The idea a soap would work on a streaming service is interesting thought however takes regular daily commitment, not jumping in and out of binge watching over 250 odd eps over a year, not sure the streaming audience are ready for that. It’s a sad day when any good series ends mainly for the production crews and the industry, however 37 years is a good run.

    1. Don’t forget though, in 2011 when Neighbours moved to the then-Eleven, that channel wasn’t available everywhere yet. For example, it wasn’t available in the Mount Gambier/Riverland areas until November 2011. That’s a long time in terms of TV shows and many people just won’t pick it up again after that amount of time. The fact that the show rated (according to reports at the time) only half the usual amount on it’s Eleven debut tells me that access was at least part of the issue. The ratings certainly did fluctuate after that, but I’ll always believe the move to Eleven really damaged the show long-term.

        1. Local ratings definitely had an impact. 10 moved Neighbours to Eleven in the hope that the 600k+ audience it held at the time would follow. Moving to a multi-channel also meant they could reduce their fee knowing that Channel 5 had offered substantially more to secure the show away from the BBC. In 10’s eyes – this was a win/win – same show, big audience for a new channel, less funding needed. Unfortunately, the local audience didn’t follow, ratings slumped perversely justifying 10’s reduced fee. C5 didn’t dump the show because of poor ratings; they still screen Neighbours on the main channel whilst H&A has been relegated to a multi-channel. Neighbours still outrates Channel 4’s Hollyoaks more often than not. In the end it was a business decision on where C5 could get more bang for its buck. Seven’s success with H&A shows that local audience matters. Maybe if 10 had left Neighbours on the primary channel and funded it accordingly, it’d still be in production. I guess we’ll…

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