Blue Heelers - Broadcasting

Broadcasting

Blue Heelers had a strong following not only in Australia, but also worldwide; it has been sold to 108 territories and is shown in over 70 countries.

Australia

Blue Heelers originally aired on Tuesday nights at 7:30pm on the Seven Network, thus it was limited to a PG content level restriction. When the series was hailed as a success it began the transition from this timeslot to the 8:30pm timeslot on the same day. After the move, writers could explore more diverse storylines, as the show was restricted to an M rating. The third and fourth season premiers aired on Monday nights during the 8:30pm timeslot, but the show moved back to its original slot before the next episode. In its fifth season, Blue Heelers moved to the Wednesday night 8:30pm timeslot, which it occupied for most of its run, until the end of its twelfth season. This move was made to make way for hospital drama All Saints.

Starting in 2004, the Seven Network aired Blue Heelers weekdays at 2:00pm. All episodes aired with the final episode airing in 2007. This made way for the broadcast of early episodes of All Saints.

Blue Heelers has also screened on Foxtel The Hallmark Channel in Australia in various timeslots.

New Zealand

In New Zealand Blue Heelers screened on TV One in a popular timeslot. However, following the on-screen death of Maggie Doyle, ratings fell, and the show was moved to a 9:30pm slot on Friday. Following that, the show moved to a late night Thursday slot where the rest of the episodes played out, with the show beginning anywhere between 11:30pm and midnight. It aired its final episode on TV One on 20 March 2008.

Ireland

Irish broadcaster RTÉ originally began airing Blue Heelers on Friday afternoons at 4:30pm. Episodes were only a few months behind the Australian broadcast. The series took a two year break in 2000, before re-commencing in a five-day-a-week timeslot at 10:30am in early 2002. The show quickly caught up with the Australian broadcast; resulting in the show being scaled back to the original one episode a week in 2004, and moved to a late night Thursday timeslot typically around 1:00am. RTÉ commenced broadcasting the final season on 30 May 2008 in a late night Saturday timeslot. RTÉ screened the final episode on 30 November 2008. RTÉ began re-airing Blue Heelers weekly from episode one, commencing on 24 June 2009, usually around 4:00am Sunday mornings. RTÉ screened all episodes in their original unedited state. The drama proved very popular in Ireland and rated very well.

United States

Blue Heelers aired briefly in the United States of America in the early 2000s on the short-lived cable channel Trio (carried primarily by DirecTV). No episode after number 76 was ever shown in the United States, and when Trio changed their programming in 2004, Blue Heelers was dropped from the schedule.

Canada

Blue Heelers was broadcast on Showcase in Canada, last airing on 15 May 1998.

Iran

Blue Heelers is broadcasting on IRIB. All episodes were dubbed in Persian.

Italy

In Italy Blue Heelers was broadcast on Italia 7 Gold (now called 7 Gold), from the 1st to the 6th season. All episodes were dubbed in Italian.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom the series was broadcast on most stations on the ITV Network. Many companies tended to screen the show as hour-long episodes in the afternoon (occasionally with necessary edits to suit the time slot, usually regarding profanity), however Central Television started with a late night 22.40 slot on Mondays before following other regions with a typically 14.20 slot. Central were the most consistent region to broadcast Blue Heelers, and 252 episodes aired, stopping at the end of series 6 in 2002.

The majority of ITV regions that ran the series broadcast the series on Monday afternoons, typically in a 14.20 timeslot (13.50 in some regions; and, as was common with many such imported programmes of the era, each region was at a different point in the show's run). Later on in the UK run, some ITV compaines such as Westcountry Television, and Carlton Television (who had showed much of the series in the Monday afternoon slot) showed the episodes in two halves, as had been the case with other hour-long Australian soap operas, such as A Country Practice and E Street.

Blue Heelers also aired on Meridian Television and Channel Television, typically Mondays at 2:20 pm, but some episodes also aired in a morning slot during school holidays. Scottish Television (STV) aired hour-long episodes, airing on Fridays, and then later on Tuesdays, before being dropping the series after episode 106.

Ulster Television (UTV) began airing Blue Heelers in early 1995. The show initially screened 3 times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons at 1:50 pm. They then moved it to the 2:20 pm slot later in the series. A few episodes also ran at 11:40 pm on Thursday nights, as they were considered unsuitable for daytime viewing. UTV cancelled Blue Heelers in 1998

HTV, Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television all chose not to import the show. When the English ITV contractors reformatted as one company in 2002, regionally-run programmes such as Blue Heelers (which were at different points of the series in each region) disappeared from screens. No ITV region ever screened the series in full. The show also aired on UK cable channel Carlton Select in the late 1990s, first screening the early episodes daily and then in a weekly slot Fridays at 20.00 as episodes became more recent. Episodes to the later part of the 1997 season were shown before the series was dropped.