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Speaker 1: Chatted today that at Shorten Street there might be some

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Speaker 1: jobs speaking of chopping blocks up on the chopping block.

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Speaker 1: This is at South Pacific Pictures, the production company that

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Speaker 1: produces Shortened Street TV and Z cut the show from

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Speaker 1: five down to three nights a week. If you watch it,

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Speaker 1: you might have noticed that cost them about twenty million

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Speaker 1: a year to make.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: One of the actors kee we actor Will Hall played

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Speaker 1: doctor Kip Denton on Shortened Street for three years and

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Speaker 1: he's with me, good ay.

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Speaker 2: Will Well, gooday, Ryan? How are you good?

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Speaker 1: Thank you good to have you on the show. What

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Speaker 1: are you hearing about these job cuts?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I just heard you a monologue there about

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Speaker 2: the meat lever in the and as well. It rings through,

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Speaker 2: doesn't it in the kitchinging of the entertainment industry and

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Speaker 2: like everything else. I guess I guess it's found its

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Speaker 2: way onto the chopping block, and something I never thought

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Speaker 2: i'd see in my lifetime. I don't remember a time

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Speaker 2: before Shortland Street, so I pray it survives.

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Speaker 1: People talk about the ratings, so apparently at a peak

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Speaker 1: they were three hundred and fifty thousand. They're now third

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Speaker 1: of that. I mean, that's still as far as Kiwi

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Speaker 1: TV show shows goes, it's not bad.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, But I've always wondered about those ratings. I mean,

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Speaker 2: does anyone ever knowing anyone that's had one of those

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Speaker 2: rating box on their TV? I know for hand on

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Speaker 2: Hard I've never met anyone, and I'm sure when I

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Speaker 2: was on the show, which was a long time ago,

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Speaker 2: we were talking about numbers of five hundred to six

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand. So the goalpost seem to always be moving

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Speaker 2: with what an acceptable number is. And even on post

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Speaker 2: Shalton Street, another SPP job I did on Nothing Trivial,

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Speaker 2: we were getting three hundred and something a week and

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Speaker 2: that was deemed unsuccessful, and you know, a year later,

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Speaker 2: two hundred was acceptable. So I don't know about all

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Speaker 2: these numbers and whether they're even that relevant.

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Speaker 1: You sort of know they don't you, You know if

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Speaker 1: you're on a good show, because when you go down

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Speaker 1: the street or you go through an airport, people come

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Speaker 1: up to you and tell you about it, right, you

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Speaker 1: kind of get the vote.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, look absolutely like I was lucky with Shortened Street.

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Speaker 2: It was very popular. We were in the grip. The

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Speaker 2: nation was in a grip with a serial killer. Go

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Speaker 2: ground killing everyone. But that was just another way that

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Speaker 2: the actors are on the chopping block because you need

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Speaker 2: of a new week to week if you were going

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Speaker 2: to survive. If it wasn't on the casting, it could

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Speaker 2: be any one of the doctors or nurses or going

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Speaker 2: So Look, I mean, I think the arts is always

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Speaker 2: fraught with you know, trepidation and there's no security. But look,

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Speaker 2: I hope that we see the light and keep shortened

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Speaker 2: Street for what it is because it is a great foundation,

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Speaker 2: and I'd like to think there's still a place for

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Speaker 2: the soaps even in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask, is it the end

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Speaker 1: of the world if it disappears? I mean, something organically

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Speaker 1: crops up, doesn't I mean there are people doing things

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Speaker 1: on TikTok and Facebook all sorts of different stuff these days.

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Speaker 1: Do we necessarily need a shortened street anymore?

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Speaker 2: Look? I don't, I don't know, But you know, if

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Speaker 2: you're doing your tiktoks and you and you what have you,

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Speaker 2: and I might at risk of sounding like a dinosaur,

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Speaker 2: is that going to put you in great stead to

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Speaker 2: work on bigger projects when they come to our shores,

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Speaker 2: Like you know, Brad Pitt cruising around in Queenstown or

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Speaker 2: Jason Momoa every second week he seems to be making

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Speaker 2: a new movie here. So we need those industry professionals

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Speaker 2: who get their start on a shortened street to be

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Speaker 2: coming through the ranks and being able to step up

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Speaker 2: to those big jobs. Why when they arrive here? And

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Speaker 2: maybe maybe we do need to look at a different

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Speaker 2: way of presenting our quality work and look at those

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Speaker 2: streamer models and be pitching up and doing things for

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Speaker 2: Netflix and streamer services, because you know, Free to Wear

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Speaker 2: TV is struggling. But I'd like to think they're still

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Speaker 2: a place for shortened street. I mean, the numbers for

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Speaker 2: their online viewing still look good. I think it's just

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Speaker 2: got to remain simple, though, don't try to over complicate it.

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Speaker 2: There should be a place soap so I mean, I

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Speaker 2: don't know, but I probably sound a bit old, and

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Speaker 2: I just don't want to be watching TikTok I know

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Speaker 2: that much.

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Speaker 1: What do you mean done over complicated it? What are

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Speaker 1: what are they doing? That's quite that's complicating it?

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Speaker 2: Well, just in terms of I don't know whose idea

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Speaker 2: it was to cut it back to three nights a week,

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Speaker 2: but that instantly changes kind of the format for a

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Speaker 2: soap opera. A soap opera. When I was doing it,

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Speaker 2: it's always designed to you're kind of repeating the same

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Speaker 2: scenes three or four times a week. You'd be doing them,

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Speaker 2: but that's because you don't expect every viewer to be

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Speaker 2: watching it every night. And it's it's a bit of escapism,

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Speaker 2: and it's it's just simple. It's it's about families, it's

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Speaker 2: about relationships. It's well, someone told me that the idea

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Speaker 2: of the show was it was a show about women

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Speaker 2: for women and the men that flitter in and out

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Speaker 2: of their lives, and kept it as simple as that,

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Speaker 2: and it's all, yeah, it was. It was easy to

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Speaker 2: kind of formulate and make it. Well, you know, I'm

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Speaker 2: probably not the target audience for short story anymore, but

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Speaker 2: I don't, you know, I think that it should still

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Speaker 2: be There should still be a place for it, all right, Okay,

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Speaker 2: I would hope we're interesting. And there was a time

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Speaker 2: where it made all the money. I think, I believe it,

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Speaker 2: but it was making a lot of money.

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Speaker 1: It did, and now it's costing twenty million a year

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Speaker 1: to make, but how much revenue, we're not actually sure. Well,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much. For coming on the show. It

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Speaker 1: sounds like you're sort of quite happily post Shortened Street.

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Speaker 1: Weill Hall, who's actor formerly on Shorten Street, is doctor

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Speaker 1: kept Denton for I think two or three years during

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Speaker 1: the serial killer days.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.