Fans of the soap were worried that Home and Away would be axed after Channel 5 cut funding for Neighbours this year
Home and Away is an Australian soap that found popularity with UK viewers, much like Neighbours.
The show was broadcast on ITV from 1989 until 2000 and was one of the channel’s most viewed programs.
After being taken off the air in the UK for a year, the programme made a triumphant return on Channel 5 after winning the rights in a £40 million auction.
Since 2001, Channel 5 has continued to air Home and Away. However, with Neighbours’ final episode airing on the network on July 29, viewers are worried about what will happen to the other Australian serial.
What’s the storyline behind Home and Away, how can you watch it in the UK, and was it cancelled? Here is all the information you require:
What is Home and Away about?
The Australian television series Home and Away follows the lives, loves, and heartbreaks of people who live in Summer Bay, a tiny seaside town west of Sydney.
Because it is a soap opera, there is unavoidably melodrama, murder, mayhem, and marital problems.
Like Neighbours, the show served as a launching pad for a number of well-known Hollywood actors; Chris Hemsworth, who played Thor, appeared in 192 episodes from 2004 to 2007; his brother Liam also made an appearance in one episode.
The actors Guy Pearce (Memento, Iron Man 3), Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, The Impossible), Isla Fisher (Arrested Development, Nocturnal Animals), and Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain) have all made appearances in the show over the years.
Has Home and Away been cancelled?
Fans will be glad to hear that Home and Away has not been cancelled.
Neighbours’ funding was curtailed by Channel 5 earlier this year with the purpose of using that money to produce unique UK programming.
Neighbours will stop producing new episodes after the soap’s creators were unable to find new funding.
Channel 5’s head of programming, Ben Frow, responded in the negative when asked if Home and Away would suffer the same fate. However, I think it will be intriguing to observe how we use it as we advance. There may be another location on the 5 spectrum where it belongs.
However, because of the life-of-series agreement, nothing will change until the producers decide to halt production.
Home and Away has been airing on Station 5 since 2000, and the channel has been the show’s longtime and permanent home.
Channel 5 made a lower offer than ITV while competing for the rights to the soap opera, but they sweetened the deal by promising to air the programme for as long as a decision was reached.
Home and Away will always be on the channel, but it might be moved to a less watched time slot if the programmers decide to give other series more priority.
How can you watch Home and Away in the UK?
Home and Away is being replayed on 5STAR at 6 p.m. on weekdays at 1:15 p.m. on Channel 5.
New episodes premiere the next day on Channel 5 and are broadcast at 6.30 p.m. on 5STAR.
Home and Away will take Neighbours’ position in the broadcast time, broadcasting at 1:45 PM, according to Channel 5.
The initial look at 6.30 p.m. on 5STAR and the rerun at 6 p.m. will not change.
The modification will be effective as of August 1st, Monday. As usual, My 5 will offer catch-up viewing of the episodes.
As Channel 5 places more of an emphasis on creating original British programming, these broadcast times could alter once more.
