Seven announced one new local drama, real crime drama Claremont, which will premiere later this year, but no hint of a return for the well-received RFDS in their 2022 Upfronts.
Seven, on the other hand, insists that Home & Away is their most important drama commitment.
While Neighbours airs its final episode on multichannel 10 Peach, Seven broadcasts its original drama to the largest potential audience.
If the show’s consistency merits more attention, Seven scheduler Brook Hall is ready to remind its detractors.
“I realise it’s not a sexy statement, but Home & Away is our big drama that we broadcast for the majority of the year.” “It’s an expensive drama, a high-quality drama that airs in primetime on our major channel,” he tells TV Tonight.
“It’s not something we utilise to score drama points on the multi.” It’s our most expensive content investment. And all of that is lost.
“No other network would put such a high price tag on a show.” It’s our year’s largest production.”
Despite the removal of drama sub-quotas, networks must still meet 250 points in commissioned drama, documentary, and children’s programming, with documentary (including reality) limited to 50 points. Seven would have to find other means to meet its duties if they didn’t have Home & Away, such as series, miniseries, movies, and more.
Hall, on the other hand, is dissatisfied that the serial is routinely disregarded in discussions about local drama productions.
“There’s always a hashtag… ‘# except for Home & Away.'” That appears to be both unjust and unreasonable. I’m quite proud of Home & Away, which is undoubtedly our most important show and our most significant financial investment. We are not obligated to do so. We have faith in it.
“Unlike us, our competitors satisfy their drama requirement by spending nothing on Home & Away.” We don’t do it to fulfil a drama quota; we do it because it’s an incredibly popular show.”
The Summer Bay serial has been a source of acting talent for decades, even though some actors have chosen to ignore their time on the show.
“Over the previous 20 years, our greatest successful actor exports have come from the show that no one wants to count as premium drama.” “It looks wonderful on actor’s resumes since LA has such good training,” Hall insists.
“Even if some of the performers don’t want to talk about it when they get over there,” says the director.
Home & Away, which has been a solid lead-in for some of the network’s biggest franchises, drew an average of 513,000 metro viewers last week under Drama boss Julie McGauran, but it rises to around 1.00 million in Total TV numbers and has been the solid lead-in for some of the network’s biggest franchises.
It’s no surprise that the network is singing its glories after 35 years.
