Channel 10 has announced after 36 years of Neighbours, the network will be reducing the amount of episodes that air.
TV Tonight revealed that the popular soap opera will be cut back to four nights per week, meaning there will be no more episodes on Friday nights.
Channel 10 said in a statement: “From July 26, Neighbours will air four nights a week, from Monday to Thursday at 6:30 pm on 10 Peach.
“On Fridays, viewers can laugh along with their favourite Friends at 6:30pm.”
TV Tonight has reported that decision had nothing to do with “changes in the Australian drama quotas nor to budgets”.
The new schedule has been finalised so the Australian episodes line up better with the UK release of the TV series.
British TV network Channel 5 began airing just two episodes of Neighbours a week in 2020, due to the pandemic.
This led to spoilers being leaked online as Australian viewers were so far ahead.
It remains unclear whether Neighbours will return to five episodes a week anytime soon but TV Tonight has reported that the production company will continue to film six episodes a week in Melbourne.
Neighbours was one of the first TV shows in the world to resume filming after the COVID-19 pandemic saw a global shutdown of productions.
The show began filming again in April of last year with strict social distancing rules being put in place.
“There will be no more than 100 people a day in any area, we’ll implement the four-square-metre rule and the one-and-a-half-metre social distancing rule,” Chris Oliver-Taylor, the chief executive of Fremantle Australia, said at the time.
“We’ve got a nurse on set, different catering for everyone, males will have no make-up, women’s [make-up] will not be touched up, there are no intimate scenes.
“We’re going to assume if someone does get sick we don’t need to shut the entire shoot – we just close that group and carry on.”
Images: Supplied
This article originally appeared on Over60.