Shortland Street
Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera, a medical drama, centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital. The show is broadcast on TVNZ 2 and produced originally by South Pacific Pictures and subsequently by Grundy Television and its takeover company Fremantle Australia, airing from the 25 May 1992 it is New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 8,000 episodes and 32 years. It is one of the most watched television programmes in New Zealand and is broadcast internationally in numerous countries including Canada and several European and African countries.
The show was originally screened as five half-hour episodes each week, and received mixed reviews on its premiere. After its launch, the show suffered a drop in ratings and would have been cancelled if TVNZ had not ordered a year's worth of episodes in advance. TVNZ renewed the production in early 1993 after the show's ratings picked up, and the show has since garnered "long-term public enthusiasm". Today, it is one of New Zealand's highest-rated shows, frequently making AGB Nielsen Media Research's top 5 programmes of the week, achieving an average linear daily reach of 345,000 viewers and is TVNZ's "most streamed show".
As of 2025, the soap airs 3 episodes a week at 7pm on TVNZ 2, with a repeat at 11pm on TVNZ 1, followed by another repeat the following day at 11am on TVNZ 2.
Development
After the cancellation of Gloss, Television New Zealand noticed the lack of New Zealand content on their channels and, in 1990, set about creating a local equivalent of the Australian soap Neighbours. Greg McGee at South Pacific Pictures wanted to base a series on the new private clinics emerging under New Zealand's Labour government and suggested the idea to scriptwriter Dean Parker, who declined due to a dislike of private medicine, so TV2 and South Pacific Pictures purchased a formula from Grundy Television, who receive a royalty cheque for every subsequent broadcast. A sum of $10 million was originally paid for an initial 230 episodes. Caterina De Nave was hired as the show's producer and subsequently travelled to Australia to work with Grundy Television to work out the concept for the five times-a-week soap opera. TV2 programmer Bettina Hollings suggested the setting of a hospital after reading an article detailing ideal locations of a drama, which included hospitals, police stations and schools. De Nave worked with several storyliners including Jason Daniel to outline the show.De Nave noticed Neighbours and Home and Away had a generally straightforward Australian cast and wanted the cast of the show to be culturally diverse to reflect New Zealand society. She also wanted the cast to have strong female characters to attract a female audience. Daniel created the character of Kirsty while De Nave created Meredith and Ken Catran created Hone. The character of Stuart was originally planned to be gay but the plans made TVNZ nervous and were scrapped. De Nave also wished to counter-stereotype races and made Polynesian Sam Aleni a paramedic as there was only one paramedic of Polynesian descent throughout New Zealand. De Nave decided to make the setting that of a private hospital as it reflected New Zealand medicine at the time.
History
1990s
Shortland Streets first episode aired on 25 May 1992 to mixed reviews. Ratings were originally high after a successful marketing campaign, but fell steadily throughout the year until 1993 when they rose dramatically. The show would have been cancelled in the first year if it was not for the fact TVNZ ordered a year's worth of episodes.2000s
With high public interest in the show and a viewing figure of a constant 600,000, Shortland Street received more sets and the outdated nursing uniforms were replaced. In 2000, an Australian consultant drastically changed the show so that it would suit the 21st century tone of New Zealand. This included transitioning the hospital to a public hospital, bringing in low income families and writing off 14 characters. Michael Galvin and Angela Bloomfield were brought back as their characters Chris Warner and Rachel McKenna and the show appointed a new producer.The show reached huge ratings in 2007 when a Serial Killer Storyline was introduced, with five characters meeting their demise. Episode 4000 saw the return of series original Dr. Hone Ropata for a six-week stint in 2008.
2010s
Shortland Street aired its first ever 90-minute episode on 2 August 2010. The episode featured Chris discovering he had a son with series original Alison Raynor in 1996, and the conclusion to the three-year Kieran Mitchell storyline which saw the shows second highest ever ratings. Shortland Street has since made the 90-minute episode an annual feature. On 18 April 2011, Shortland Street screened its first episode in high definition.In July 2011, Shortland Street achieved a New Zealand first when it made its 2011 feature-length episode available to purchase via Facebook, becoming the second ever TV show in the world to use this technology. In August 2011, All Blacks Keven Mealamu, Anthony Boric and Jerome Kaino filmed a scene that aired on the opening night of the 2011 Rugby World Cup on 9 September. The show added short transition scenes in which two characters in the hospital elevator discussed the wins or losses the All Blacks endured during the tournament.
On 15 December 2016, Shortland Street released a charity single featuring Lionel Wellington and J.J. Fong to raise money for Starship Children's Health hospital.
On 25 May 2017, Shortland Street celebrated 25 years on New Zealand television.
2020s
Production of Shortland Street was suspended on 24 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown from 26 March to 28 April 2020, and TVNZ 2 reduced broadcasting the show to three episodes per week to spread out the existing backlog of episodes. Production resumed on 30 April with some restrictions, such as intimate scenes not being allowed. The show returned to five episodes per week on 29 June 2020.In early August 2022, the Minister of Health Andrew Little and a Health New Zealand spokesperson confirmed that Shortland Street and TVNZ's advertising division TVNZ Blacksand Partnerships would be working with the Health Ministry, Health NZ, and New Zealand Nurses Organisation to produce the "Real Nurses" multimedia marketing campaign to recruit nursing workers from both domestic and overseas markets in order to address the country's shortage of nurses. Little confirmed that the Real Nurses multimedia campaign would be integrated into the television series' storyline. In response, NZNO President Anne Daniels criticised the series for misrepresenting the difficult working conditions for nurses while National Party MP Chris Penk expressed concerns about the collaboration between the Government and creative industry. In response to criticism, Little stated that the "Real Nurses" campaign had been created by the NZNO, which had approached the Government to secure financial support for it. Auckland University of Technology communication professor Dr. Rosser Johnson expressed support for the "Real Nurses" multimedia campaign, arguing that it could encourage younger demographics to consider nursing as a career and rejected claims that it would serve as government propaganda.
In 2024 South Pacific Pictures CEO Kelly Martin said that the company was in "close conversations" with TVNZ about funding the programme after TVNZ cut several programmes due to financial pressure. In July 2024, it was confirmed Shortland Street would be reduced from five to three episodes a week, beginning in 2025. The cut also caused the series to reduce some of its sets. In May 2025, staff members were concerned about the future of the series, with speculation emerging from TVNZ about its possible cancellation. TVNZ later issued a statement saying that there are no plans to cancel Shortland Street in 2026, and that the broadcaster's focus is to deliver its current season to viewers.
Spinoffs
Since 2018, there are weekly spinoffs during Christmas and New Year breaks that are exclusively streamed on TVNZ On Demand. The most recent being , the first spinoff with an R16 rating, with the storyline revolving around Constable Curtis Hannah and Esther Samuels. The series is also the first spinoff to be set in Christchurch and the South Island.Characters
Shortland Street stars an ensemble cast. Most of the characters either work at Shortland Street Hospital, or are relations to employees of the hospital.Since 1992, many notable faces have appeared on the soap. Only one character remains from the original cast: Chris Warner. Though taking a 4-year break, Chris has featured in the show the longest of the current cast, outstaying all of his family, who either died or left. Rachel McKenna, another long-standing character, first appeared in the soap in 1993 and has made regular appearances since. Nick Harrison, another long-running character, disappeared from the show in 2005. Currently Esther Samuels is the longest-running female character, joining the show in 2015.
Characters on the show attribute and portray several different demographics found in New Zealand. These range from the rich and well-off to the struggling and poor. Other areas covered include different ethnicities, sexualities, genders, and abilities. In the first year of the show, it was decided that CEO Michael McKenna's personal assistant, Jenny, should be a solo mother to help draw in that demographic, who statistically would be watching TV at 7 pm. The show has also had a long string of families, such as the Warners, McKennas, Harrisons, Crombies, Hudsons, Jeffries, Valentines, McKays, Coopers, Avia-Levis, Hannahs, and Kings and various teenagers, helping young audiences and families relate to the show.