Home and Away will be put on hold by Channel 5 later this month so that it can take its yearly holiday, according to Digital Spy.
In order to make place for Channel 5’s lunchtime Christmas movies, the long-running serial generally departs UK television in the middle of November.
According to recently updated schedules, the final Home and Away episode of the year will air on Channel 5 on Friday, November 18.
The show will be broadcast on Channel 5 at its regular hour of 1.45 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. on 5STAR.
Since there won’t be a 6.30pm first-look screening on 5STAR that evening, fans will have to wait a few weeks for the next episode.
Channel 5 officials appear to have worked closely with the Home and Away team in Australia as the final UK episode of the year ends on a dramatic cliffhanger.
When the Salt gas poisoning catastrophe was reported in the final Channel 5 show of the previous year, the same thing occurred.
The approach is a copy of Channel 5’s past management of Neighbours in the days before same-day broadcasting. Fans of Neighbours were typically treated to a dramatic cliffhanger around the end of the year, despite the time difference between broadcasts in the UK and Australia.
Although a precise return date for Home and Away has not yet been announced, it usually airs again in early January in the UK.
There has been no announcement of the Australian season finale or year-end break on Channel 7.
Home and Away still has a break in both countries because it is normally only commissioned for a predetermined amount of episodes per year, usually about 230.
Summer Bay drama will last 46 weeks if the show airs five episodes per week.
Because there aren’t enough episodes to air Home and Away all year, Channel 5 chooses to take a hiatus around Christmas so that the hole may be filled with holiday films.
Channel 7 in Australia routinely changes the schedule of Home and Away programmes, and the network has never made an effort to keep up.
