Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue is an Australian serial drama commissioned by the BBC, and produced by Australia's Southern Star Entertainment. It began screening on BBC One on weekday afternoons on 28 April 2008. The programme attracted lower than desired ratings figures, prompting the broadcaster to shift it to its second channel BBC Two from 19 May 2008. The BBC eventually decided not to commission a second series, and the final episode aired on 29 January 2009. The rights to show the first series in Australia were purchased by Network Ten, while in the UK, Channel 5 has picked up the repeat rights to Out of the Blue, and began airing all 130 episodes on digital sister channel Fiver in February 2009. Premise Set in Sydney beach suburb of Manly, New South Wales, Out of the Blue is a drama shown five days a week about a group of thirty-year-old friends returning home for a high school reunion, which is brought to an end when someone is murdered. An investigation follows as the group attempts to discover which one of them was the killer. Background The BBC announced the commissioning of Out of the Blue on 30 November 2007 as a replacement for Neighbours, another Australian soap opera they had lost to Channel 5. Produced by John Edwards and Julie McGauran of production company Southern Star Entertainment, filming began in early 2008, with the BBC initially ordering 130 episodes. The show launched on 28 April in the UK. International broadcasts On 29 January 2008, Network Ten announced that they had gained the rights to air Out of the Blue in Australia. The show started airing on the network on 17 November 2008 at 10.30pm and ran in this slot from Mondays to Thursdays each week. The network was looking at an early evening slot, but due to being unable to schedule the show in a 5-nights-a-week early primetime slot due to the show's occasional M rating, Network Ten had to run with a later timeslot. From January 2009, due to lower ratings compared to TEN Late News, it was moved to a weekly Sunday slot. It originally aired one episode on Sunday evening at 5:30pm, though for several weeks Ten aired two episodes from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, however, it was quickly reverted to one episode a week, and sometimes skipping a week due to other circumstances. Early on in 2009, Ten would air episodes that were classified as M on a late Sunday night slot.