Neighbours’ future is in doubt when Channel 5 in the United Kingdom decided to stop sponsoring the show.
And bookmakers are already accepting wagers on who of the soap’s many famous alums will return for the show’s possible final season this year.
According to betting markets, Kylie Minogue’s character Charlene Mitchell is the most likely to return, with a 50% chance.
Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan), her on-screen love interest, is also at 11/10 odds, according to OLBG.
Susan and Karl Kennedy are the next best bets at 5/2, but Russell Crowe, Liam Hemsworth, and Delta Goodrem appear unlikely to return to the program that made them famous.
Margot Robbie, the Hollywood celebrity, has a one percent chance of returning to Ramsay Street.
Other former cast members have publicly reminisced about their time on the renowned TV show in the wake of the revelation.
On Studio 10 on Tuesday, Ian Smith and Anne Charleston, who played Harold and Madge Bishop, said it would be sad to see the program end after it had given them so much.
‘It made me well looked after in my senior years,’ Smith, 83, said, while Charleston, 79, added: ‘Me too… It opened doors that never would have been opened.’
The veteran Australian performers delighted in taking viewers behind the scenes of some of the show’s most memorable scenes.
The producers refused not let Madge ‘die’ with her eyes open for her heartbreaking deathbed scene, according to Charleston: ‘They thought it was too scary.’
Harold’s disappearance amid rough seas was also an example of ‘TV magic,’ according to Smith because the ocean was calm on the day of filming.
Smith, who worked as a writer on the show, later denied being the creator of one of the Neighbours’ most famous moments, Bouncer the Dog’s ‘dream sequence.’
Charleston continued, ‘That’s where we struck rock bottom.’ ‘He was a lovely dog, and he didn’t deserve such a spectacle.’
The announcement that the long-running soap is likely to be canceled after 37 years on the air left fans saddened earlier this month.
Its future is uncertain as UK broadcaster Channel 5, which has supported the project for years, announced that it will not extend its contract with producers Fremantle Australia.
Even after its record-breaking run, Charleston believes Neighbours has a few more excellent years ahead of it.
