In June 2022, Jason Herbison was on set shooting what was to be the 8,903 rd — and final — episode of “ Neighbours ,” an experience he admits was “very, very emotional.” The cult Australian soap opera — a show he first starting writing for after leaving high school in 1990 and came to oversee as its top exec producer — was coming to a tearful end. Two years on, almost to the day, and Herbison is now on a short trip to L.
A. to see if “Neighbours” — which recently announced that “Selling Sunset” favorite Chrishell Stause is joining the cast — wins a daytime Emmy on Friday from its first-ever nomination. While the producer describes the remarkable turn of events as “really unexpected and amazing,” the story of how “Neighbours” was effectively brought back from the dead parodies the sort of wild plotline generally only conceived in a daytime drama writers’ room.
Usually, it’s soap characters who are killed off only to miraculously return years later. This time, it’s the show itself, and in a far more dramatic timeframe. When news broke in February 2022 that Channel 5 — the Paramount-owned U.
K. network that had been the primary funder of “Neighbours” since 2008 (the show has long had it biggest fanbase in the U.K.
) — wouldn’t be renewing it contract to focus instead on local originals, producers Fremantle were already in the process of trying to find another partner. But with the clock ticking and nothing formalized in time — d.
