Home and Away and Neighbours to increase to 3 episodes per week in the UK

Channel 5 have announced that Home and Away and Neighbours will begin airing three times a week in the UK.

The shows have only been airing twice a week since 30th March, with episodes on Mondays and Fridays.

The decision to reduce the number of airings also affected the evening showing of Home and Away, with it stripped from the schedule, leaving just the afternoon showing at 13:15.

Now, one extra episode is being added to the schedules, meaning Home and Away will air on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:15pm starting from next Monday, 20th April.

Meanwhile, Neighbours will now air on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:45pm and 5:30pm.

The news comes just 2 days after Home and Away returned to Australian screens. It took a 2 week break to make way for The Latest, an hour long 7NEWS programme airing from 7-8pm.

The moves have been necessary to ensure the channels don’t eventually run out of episodes, and to ensure that the UK broadcasts of Home and Away don’t get too close to Australian broadcasts.

Although episodes of H&A are filmed around six months in advance of their Australian airings, production was postponed on 22nd March as a result of COVID-19, and there’s currently no news on when it will resume.

At the time, a Seven spokesperson released a statement saying:

Seven Studios advised today that it would halt filming of Home and Away immediately. It confirmed that no cast or crew had tested positive for COVID-19, but that the decision was made due to the increasing logistical hurdles related to the COVID-19 situation.

Back to the Bay will bring you the latest updates on the show’s schedule as soon as we receive it.

For a rundown of upcoming Home and Away episodes in the UK, see this page or our in-depth preview articles here.