Neighbours is a long-running multiple Logie Award-winning Australian soap opera, which first aired in March 1985. The series follows the daily lives of several families who live in the six houses at the end of Ramsay Street, a short cul-de-sac in the fictional middle-class suburb of Erinsborough. Storylines explore the romances, family problems, domestic squabbles and other key life events affecting the various residents. More than most serials, Neighbours features a large proportion of young actors among its ever-rotating cast. Neighbours celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2005 with some special episodes which featured appearances from several former members of the cast.

The series is produced by FremantleMedia Australia, which was formed in January 2007 by the merger of Grundy Television with Crackerjack Productions.

History and popularity

Through its entire run, Neighbours has screened as five 22-minute (excluding advertisement breaks) episodes a week, shown each week night in an early-evening slot. The 1985 season was broadcast on the Seven Network, at 5.30 p.m. in Sydney and at 6.30 p.m. in Melbourne and other regions. The Melbourne-produced programme had underperformed in the crucial Sydney market leading to the Seven Network cancelling the series at the end of that year. Neighbours was immediately picked up by the rival Network Ten. On Ten, it initially attracted low ratings. The Network worked hard to publicise the series; they revamped the show, adding several new, younger cast members including Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan as Scott and Charlene, while a concerted publicity drive largely focused on these new actors in a star-focused campaign recalling that of the Hollywood star system where stars were packaged to feed into a fan culture. This paid off for the series and by the end of 1987 it was attracting high ratings. Australian audiences waned considerably by the early 1990s, although viewing figures had recovered slightly by the end of the decade.

In the 2000s rival soap opera Home and Away emerged as more popular than Neighbours in Australia. Home and Away is broadcast there on the Seven Network at 7.00 p.m. Monday to Friday. As of 2004 Neighbours was regularly attracting just under a million viewers per episode, low for Australian prime time television. In 2007 Home and Away was averaging 1.4 million viewers in Australia to Neighbours' 700,000.

Neighbours is more popular in the UK, where it used to screen on BBC One usually attracting an average of 3 million viewers for its lunchtime showing and 2.6 million viewers for its evening repeat. It is frequently the highest-rating daytime programme in the UK, outside of news bulletins. In 2008 the UK broadcaster changed to rival channel Five from the 5331st episode. The episode received 2.2m (14.2% share) which was a drop of 300,000 on the BBC's average. However it boosted Five's usual share for the 5.30pm slot by 3 and a half times. Home and Away, broadcast directly afterwards on the same channel, received 1.4 m on the same evening.