The Australian soap will reportedly be cancelled after 31 years on air
Home and Away star Lynne McGranger has played down reports that the beloved Aussie soap is “facing the axe” after 31 years on air.
The actress, who's played Irene Roberts for over 25 years, responded to fans who begged her for an answer on the future of the soap.
“First I’ve heard of it,” she responded with a shrugging emoji after one fan shared reports about the reported cancellation.
“I'm seeing all this stuff but I honestly have heard nothing. It may be true.... but then again I apparently was definitely leaving the Bay 18 months or so ago," she added in another tweet.
When another fan questioned the lack of response from Seven – the channel it airs on in Australia – Lynne simply responded: “Give me strength”, before telling another fan to “talk to the suits”.
Reports surfaced earlier this week that claimed Seven is under pressure to reboot its programming - and Home and Away is reportedly bringing viewing figures down.
The network is expected to undergo a shake-up this year – meaning the future of the soap could be hanging in the balance.
According to figures, Seven attracts a whopping 1.115 million viewers for the news show at 6.30pm. But, this drops to 661K come 7pm when Home and Away starts – meaning 454K viewers switch channels when the iconic theme tune plays.
After a successful 30 years on the channel, audience figures have dropped significantly since 2017 – causing bosses to consider moving to a later time slot to enable the show to embrace more “adult” story lines.
Or, the soap – which currently airs on Channel 5 in the UK – could become the centre of Seven’s digital future and be streamed on their separate platform, 7PLUS, on a Friday. These five episodes would then be broadcast the following week on 7TWO.
Channel 5 and Seven aren't responding to the rumours for now, but as Lynne said earlier this year when fans worried that the show’s return following the Christmas break had been delayed: “Don’t believe everything you read people. I doubt much or even any of this is true.”
