Articles | All Saints | Home

All Saints: articles

TV casualty: All Saints axed after 11 years

The long-running medical drama All Saints has been axed after 11 years on air.

Seven's director of programming Tim Worner said the decision was a financial one, blaming increased production costs and tougher competition.

"All Saints is a show which Seven and viewers have loved. However, an audience shift and increased production costs are behind this tough decision," he said.

At the peak of its success it won the 2001, 2002 and 2003 TV Week Logie Awards for most popular program and was nominated for outstanding drama six years in a row.

But in the past two years its audience has declined, and speculation has dogged the series for six months that cancellation was imminent.

Seven has also expanded its drama portfolio to include two new hits, the crime drama City Homicide and the family drama Packed To The Rafters.

In its 11-year history, the show has featured some of Australia's highest profile actors, including Georgie Parker, Erik Thomson, Jolene Anderson, Wil Traval, Belinda Emmett and Josh Quong Tart.

In June, Seven announced that production for the show's 12th season in 2010 would be trimmed from the usual order of 40 episodes to only 24.

Today's decision means the show will now finish at the end of this year.

The final episode, 493, will be filmed at the end of August.

Worner paid tribute to the hard work of the cast and crew, saying they deserved "the highest admiration and respect for what they have achieved".

All Saints has made a significant contribution to the rich history of Australian drama."The series began on air on February 24, 1998, and starred Georgie Parker as nursing unit manager Terri Sullivan.

Her romance with Dr Mitch Stevens (Erik Thomson) was the major driver in its first half-dozen years.

It has since undergone two facelifts, the first in 2004 when the focus was shifted from the fictional "ward 17" to the emergency department, and then in 2009, a title change to All Saints: Medical Response Unit and another focus shift to accident and emergency scenes.

Only one member of the show's original cast still remains: Judith McGrath, who plays patient liason nurse Yvonne "Von" Ryan.

By Michael Idato
July 9, 2009
Sydney Morning Herald