Soap Opera Canceled After Thousands of Episodes: ‘Doctors’ Is Done

The doctors are out. After more than 4,500 episodes and 24 years, the long-running BBC soap opera Doctors aired its final episode on Thursday, Nov. 14, bringing an end to an era. The beloved series was canceled back in October 2023 due to “super inflation in drama production.”

“After over two decades, Doctors won’t be taking any more appointments,” the show’s Facebook page wrote. “To our incredible fans, thank you for joining us through thousands of stories, twists, and heartfelt moments. Your loyalty and love have made every step of this journey worthwhile. Thank you for watching!”

The Doctors’ series finale was packed with references and meaningful moments to the iconic series’ decades-long past. In addition to the guest role of Carson being named after the show’s first producer, Carson Black, and Bev being named after Beverley Dartnall, Carson’s successor, the cake Rosie ordered for Scarlett’s birthday had the wrong age, the 25 instead meant to be a celebration of Doctors’ 25 years on the air. The episode also brought in crew members to stand in for many of the featured extras, while the music playing at the Icon bar, “It’s Not Unusual,” was the same song heard from the charity ball episode.

Created by Chris Murray, Doctors premiered in March 2000 and is set in the fictional town of Letherbridge and follows the lives of staff and patients of a Midlands GP practice. The BBC soap has featured everyone from Phoebe Waller-Bridge to Nicholas Hoult, Eddie Redmayne, Sheridan Smith, and more, and has won 17 Bafta awards.

In October 2023, the BBC announced it made the “very difficult decision” to cancel the Doctors after 23 years. The announcement added that the decision was made due to “super-inflation in drama production,” which caused a significant rise in costs.

“With a flat licence fee, the BBC’s funding challenges mean we have to make tough choices in order to deliver greater value to audiences. We remain fully committed to the West Midlands and all of the funding for Doctors will be reinvested into new programming in the region,” the statement added. “We know the crucial role Doctors has played in nurturing talent, and we will work to develop new opportunities to support skills in scripted programming.”

At the time, the broadcaster said it was “working closely with BBC Studios to give it the finale it deserves,” which would air in late 2024.

The decision to axe Doctors was met with widespread upset. Screenwriter Philip Ralph, a writer on the show for the past 19 years, slammed the cancellation as “disastrous,” writing on X that “there is no other show in the UK industry that offers such variety of storytelling – everything from high drama and tragedy, to farce, dream sequences, stand-alone single plays, themed weeks on important subjects, you name it, we wrote it… The loss of Doctors is clearly disastrous for those who worked on the show. It is obviously disastrous for the industry. And, I would argue, it is also disastrous for the tone of public discourse.”

The cancellation even sparked a 9,000-signature strong Change.org petition in an effort to save the show. Following the Doctors series finale last week, the petition’s creator, Carys Ashby, said it was the “end of an era.”

The vacant spot left in the BBC’s programming now that Doctors has ended will be replaced by Hope Street Monday through Thursdays, according to Metro. The crime drama, which is set on the coastline of Northern Ireland, returned for its fourth season in late October.