[Mike]

Nothing at all to do with the lease being up at Drama Village in January 2025...

[DTV]

I do hope the final episode will be titled ‘The Ties That Bind’.

Could go full Casualty route and have a fire - 'The byes that tind'. (Tind being an archaic word for igniting a fire, though it is unhelpfully pronounced tinned).

[Brekkie]

I'm not surprised its been axed, it just felt this soap was more concerned about being progressive than making good drama.  Its possible to do both but Doctors has been falling at this for some time. 

Better question is what will fill the gap?  Could we see further programmes axed? From January 2025 will BBC One be overhauled?

Reruns of the daytime dramas perhaps - over 100 episodes of Father Brown which they could rerun more than once I suspect, alongside their other daytime drama and new episodes.

That said there does seem to have been less daytime drama this year than previously.

[Mike]

They already had one of these when they moved from Pebble Mill...

[watchingtv]

I thought that was coming in sooner? has that now been pushed back for another 18 months?

Or push Doctors to 2pm from January??

[m_in_m]

Reruns of the daytime dramas perhaps - over 100 episodes of Father Brown which they could rerun more than once I suspect, alongside their other daytime drama and new episodes.

That said there does seem to have been less daytime drama this year than previously.

I fear that what will end up having, especially the long lead time to the end of Doctors, is the slot ceases to be drama and becomes low cost repeats. As you say there has been a reduction this year in drama in that slot and it looks like the second programme to share the old Holby City slot, which was supposed to be an outside London commission, is likely to never materialise.

[DTV]

I fear that what will end up having, especially the long lead time to the end of Doctors, is the slot ceases to be drama and becomes low cost repeats. As you say there has been a reduction this year in drama in that slot and it looks like the second programme to share the old Holby City slot, which was supposed to be an outside London commission, is likely to never materialise.

Fundamentally and bleakly, it's all just accounting. Drama is expensive; continuing drama less so, but still costlier than non-drama replacements. Continuing drama also suffers from having less commercial return potential, so it's not as worth the investment, especially when ratings are no longer standouts. 

Nonetheless, I suspect the cut in new non-continuing drama hours/costs over the last few years is roughly similar, it's just less noticeable as it's not in a permanent slot.

[XIII]

I wonder much Doctors is per episode?

[Brekkie]

A bit less than Doctor Who I imagine. Probably less than each minute of Doctor Who.

[Ash101]

Do they film Doctors longer in advance than most soaps?

Seems like quite the lead time to it ending? Holby didn’t get over a year. Surely would’ve made sense to end Doctors before it’s normal summer break.