It is one of the highest-rating shows on RTÉ Television in Ireland and TVNZ 2 in New Zealand. In Australia, Home and Away is the most awarded program at the Logie Awards, with a total of forty-eight wins, including Most Popular Drama Program. Some cast members have won several other awards such as the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, and Most Popular Actress. Since 2000, Home and Away has ceased broadcast mid-season for two weeks during the Olympic Games and the episode to screen prior to this is referred to as an 'Olympic cliffhanger'.

The following month, Home and Away filmed scenes in Melbourne for the second time. In November 2014, the show filmed an episode at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra with several cast members, as a tribute to the Anzac Centenary. The episode centered around Alf Stewart , "who becomes upset with the younger generation's perceived lack of respect for Anzac Day, and joins the school trip to Canberra to visit the War Memorial." Outside of Australia, Home and Away has filmed in Hawaii once and in the UK three times. In the United States, Home and Away was first shown briefly on the FX cable network from the channel's launch on 1 June 1994 to February 1995. Over two decades later, the show began streaming on the subscription service Hulu on 2 March 2015, beginning with the 2015 season.
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In Ireland, Home and Away debuted on Monday, 3 October as part of RTÉ's re-launch of RTÉ2 as Network 2 - their secondary channel. Episodes screened at 6.30pm and in September 1997, a daytime episode was added at 1.25pm on RTÉ One with the 6.30pm episode becoming the replay of the daytime broadcast. Viewers in the Republic of Ireland are also able to catch up with episodes on the RTÉ Player. It was the most watched program of 2014 on the RTÉ Player with over four million viewers.
As of 2014, the show is available to view in Northern Ireland on 5STAR daily at 3.30pm and 6.30pm as well as the regular Channel Five airings. The show is however blocked in Northern Ireland via the SKY platform on both RTE1 and RTE2, yet it remains available on Irish platform Saorview for both Irish and Northern Irish viewers. The geo block has been lifted on the Sky platform in Northern Ireland and all airings are available to view.
Top cast
An Olympic cliffhanger episode would usually involve increased drama, with the peak of a storyline, similar to a season finale episode, and the outcome of the cliffhanger to conclude after the Olympics. In addition to this, Home and Away took a transmission break on 3 April 2018 in order to broadcast the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and returned on 16 April 2018. A 2010 episode which featured Martha McKenzie engaging in a sexual scene with Liam Murphy on a kitchen table was deemed "too raunchy" by a television watchdog in New Zealand, where, at the time, the series was aired in a G-rated timeslot. Although it was initially stated that the show would continue filming, the decision was later made to halt production, despite neither the cast or crew testing positive for the virus.
A shorter, 15-second version sung by Dolahenty and Tarryn Stokes debuted in 2009. Locations within the town include the beach, a high school, diner, bait shop, garage and a surf club, which includes a gym, small kiosk and an upstairs restaurant. Characters in the show live at surrounding neighbouring areas such as the Summer Bay House, Summer Bay Caravan Park, Beach House, The Farmhouse, Pier Flat, and Saxon Avenue. Other fictional towns mentioned and sometimes seen in Home and Away are Mangrove River and Yabbie Creek. During the show's first season in 1988, a rape storyline for the character Carly Morris outraged the public and a protest erupted, as viewers deemed it an inappropriate subject to be covering in an early evening time slot.
Opening titles
The various titles mostly featured scenes of bikini-clad women and shirtless men with surfboards at the beach. In 2018, a new series of eight-second titles were introduced along with the return of the show's theme song. The new titles, which currently change during each week, mostly feature two men or two women running down to the ocean for a surf. A 30-second version of the titles, not aired on Australian television, was released on the Home and Away website. Home and Away follows the lives and loves of the residents in Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town in New South Wales.

The ratings for the triple bill episodes continued to fall from 524,000 to 414,000 viewers, and on 28 March 2019, the triple bill pulled in a series low of 383,000 viewers and ranked 14th for the night. April 2019 saw a slight rise in the viewing figures; the first episode of the month drew in 740,000 viewers and ranked 9th for that night. The triple bill episodes continued to receive low ratings until the Thursday, 9 May episodes, which improved with 617,000 viewers.
Their version was released as a single in the UK in 1989 and peaked at number 73 on the UK Singles Chart. A new version performed by Doug Williams and Erana Clark debuted in 1995 and the opening theme was shortened in 1996; this version remained until 1999. From 2000 to 2003, the theme song to Home and Away was sung by The Robertson Brothers and it was the first version to use only male vocals.

During the first season alone, it featured several adult-themed storylines such as teen pregnancy, rape, drug and alcohol addiction, drug overdose and attempted suicide. The series has dealt with similar storylines over the years which have often exceeded its restricted time slot. Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches district has been used as the location for Summer Bay since 1988. The exterior scenes are filmed mainly at Palm Beach, while the interior scenes are filmed at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern.
The following week's triple bill saw a further rise with 627,000 viewers, while the episodes broadcast on 30 May received 638,000 viewers and ranked at 7th place for the evening. The 2020 season return saw a series low for a premiere with only 548,000 tuning in. The 2021 season has seen an increase in ratings with most episodes attracting over 600,000.
Home and Away is consistently RTÉ's most-watched soap opera, and in 2021, the series was streamed by 4.9 million viewers. In 2019, Home and Away returned at the later date of 18 February, after the summer series of cricket concluded. Pippa Doyle of 96FM reported that declining ratings in 2018 and Seven's decision to push the show back had created doubt about its future on the network, and whether or not a timeslot change or a move to a multichannel was likely. The season returned to a series low of 620,000 viewers and ranked 13th for the night. The following night, the viewing figure fell to 581,000 and the show ranked 10th for the night. The first triple bill on 21 February pulled in 577,000 viewers and ranked 8th for the evening.
The service no longer receives new episodes, although the complete twenty-eighth season is currently available. There have been nine different versions of the theme song used throughout the years. The lyrics remained the same since the show's inception, but a number of verses were gradually cut back over the years due to time restrictions. The original version was sung by Karen Boddington and Mark Williams, and was used from 1988 until mid-1995.
After the Seven Network cancelled their soap opera Neighbours on 12 July 1985 due to low ratings, rival Network 10 picked it up and turned it into a success. A couple of years later, Seven's head of drama, Alan Bateman, became desperate to get back into the soap market and began to work out how to launch another soap that was not a copy of Neighbours. While on a trip to Kangaroo Point, New South Wales with his family, Bateman began talking to locals who were "up in arms" over the construction of a foster home for children from the city. Seeing the degree of conflict the "influx of parentless children on a tight-knit community" was having, Bateman came away with the idea for a new serial.
The caravan park set moved back to the estate after the house was rebuilt, and both exterior sets made their on-screen returns in 2015. The Summer Bay House is the only house to still be seen on screen since the pilot episode. S official Australian Facebook page reached one million likes, becoming the first Australian television show to reach this milestone. The Facebook page was established in November 2009 and is followed by fans mostly in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. In 2013, Home and Away celebrated its 25th anniversary and former cast member Kate Ritchie returned for a special storyline to coincide with the celebrations. For the first time in the show's history, Home and Away aired a two-hander episode, featuring only the characters Ricky Sharpe and Darryl "Brax" Braxton , on 14 February 2016.

Meagher along with Lynne McGranger , Ada Nicodemou (Leah Patterson-Baker) and Emily Symons are the longest-serving cast members currently in Home and Away. In 2010, Georgie Parker joined the cast of Home and Away as Alf's daughter Roo Stewart, originally played by Justine Clarke in 1988–89. Home and Away has been sold to over eighty countries around the world, making it one of Australia's most successful media exports. In the UK, it and Neighbours, another Australian soap opera, are the most popular of the genre that are filmed internationally, with them both airing on Channel 5.
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