Neighbours 2025: “Nobody knows whether they’ve got a job”
Outgoing Neighbours star Lucinda Cowden says not knowing about the show's future is proving difficult for writers, cast and crew.
- Published by David Knox
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Neighbours recently screened Lucinda Cowden’s final scenes as Melanie Pearson as she headed out of Erinsborough for a fresh start.
Cowden, who will appear briefly in 40th anniversary episodes, told Digital Spy, “It’s always a possibility once the contract’s up – I think all actors are aware of that – but I was not expecting it and it was a bit of a shock. It was hard to not tell anyone about it, because you can’t really say anything.
“The weirdest thing was that I knew about Ryan [Moloney] leaving as well, and that was a much more important secret to keep! That was hard, because not a lot of people knew that. I was quite open about what had happened, but everyone deals with these things in their own way and their own time.
“I found out in December last year, so I’ve known for a long time. But this is the industry that we live in and that’s the way these things work. It’s all part of the rich tapestry of being an actor.”
She also confirmed cast and crew are still awaiting a renewal despite often being #1 on Prime Video in the UK.
“It’s amazing that it’s done so well. So you think: ‘Why is everyone still in this area of not knowing what’s going on?’ That’s really difficult, as you can imagine, for writers, all of our actors, all of the crew and everyone working on the show,” she said.
“So it’s tricky – nobody knows whether they’ve got a job, so hopefully somebody confirms something soon in the positive direction!
“We always say at work that Neighbours is like Hotel California – you can check out any time you like, but you can’t ever leave.”
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12 Responses
The article hasn’t stated such. It’s just actors don’t have permanent jobs. Don’t mean show has been cancelled. Home & away r going through the same aswell.
Not true, Home and Away has been renewed for 2025. Plus, Seven owns and broadcasts Home and Away, and it’s consistently a top performer so it’s almost a safe bet that actors have jobs next year.
Neighbours is a different story. It relies on funding from Amazon and 10, one of whom has been in financial dire straits for some time now. And the other is a streaming platform whose decisions about renewal or cancellation of content are notoriously opaque. There’s genuine anxiety here.
If not at #1, it’s always in the top 3 in the UK Mondays to Thursdays. It’s a consistent performer and has shown it’s still in the mix at awards time in the UK, and now US with Daytime Emmy nominations. It was Prime UK that pushed for the original (re)commission and I’d be surprised if they wouldn’t be doing so again. I wonder though if they’re waiting on their US bosses to make the final call? I’m hoping for a long, multi year, series renewal!
I’m hoping for the sake of everyone employed that it does get a renewal. I had personally hoped for a bit more of a revamp when it came back, but it’s doing pretty well.
I wouldn’t mind seeing characters like Paul and Terese exit, though. I feel like they’re pretty exhausted.
I hope Andrew and Wendy aren’t gone for good, you can never tell with the revolving door there at the moment.
Veteran characters are the bread and butter of long-running soaps, so I’m quite baffled that they’re Game of Thrones-ing them so indiscriminately of late.
And they are random with their returns too… Why not have Lucas there when Toadie was suffering, not randomly so he could sign the garage over to a new character. I didn’t even realise he still owned it.
Now we have that set back but we seem to have lost the vineyard set which was great!
Scott Major works on the show so it’s easy to get him back for brief returns. Probably not as easy for extended returns because he’d still have a day job to do.
Even as a viewer, you definitely get the sense of behind-the-scenes struggles. I used to be quite good at picking up on story patterns, and predicting the ebb and flow of character relationships… but ever since the reboot everything has been slightly off-kilter. I’m glad it’s back, and while it’s sad seeing old favourites go, I’m also really enjoying the new characters they’ve introduced.
Neighbours is in a weird place at the moment.
A lot of the storylines are clunky and do not play out well.
They keep recycling the villain of the week, that spans a few weeks, this week it is Sebastian.
I can’t help but feel Max has been miscast, Sebastian would have been a better Max.
The one highlight of late has been great scenes with Shane and Jane.
I hope it doesn’t get the axe, but if it does I’m not sure people will be as devastated as the first time round…
Given UK success I would be optimistic, but no it won’t get the same level of sentimental farewell.
Can imagine the final ads being like Jackie Woodburne saying “We’re cancelled again”, (like the ads for the second finale… but then she said “It’s time to say goodbye”)
One big show that was cancelled, went out with a bang, got revived and cancelled again, but too little fanfare (it wasn’t on the news like the original time), Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
They might have mentioned them not being renewed during the finale, but I stopped watching halfway through the revived season… because they wouldn’t give me an audition for Red Faces.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, UK performance suggests room for optimism.