One of Australia’s most loved Children’s programs Bananas in Pyjamas is about to leave our screens.
The last of 156 episodes of the animated version of the original 1992 live-action series will air on ABC2 at the end of the month, one month before the Bananas turn 21.
Despite being the public network’s biggest-selling children’s product on the international market, screening in 130 countries, Bananas in Pyjamas does not generate enough revenue to justify a fourth season.ABC’s head of children’s content, Tim Brooke-Hunt said
He said international merchandise sales, rather than screening rights, were key to the program’s longevity, and that overseas sales of toys, books and DVDs connected with the current series were disappointing compared with the “millions of dollars a year” in merchandise profits generated by the live action version.
The series will continue to be repeated on ABC2 however the network would not consider commissioning another season for at least two years, and that overseas merchandise figures would be a deciding factor in any future decisions to renew the program
Four hundred episodes of the original series were produced from 1992 until 2001, and repeated over the following nine years. It was revived in 2011 in a CGI format
