Has Wentworth Been Axed?

By Travis Johnson

According to entertainment reporter Peter Ford, it’s a done deal.

“Now today I bring you the news the show’s been axed,” Ford said on radio station 3AW. “That’s the curse of the Logies. Officially Foxtel won’t confirm it, not while the current series is on the air. But the word I’m getting from people who work on the show is that they’ve been told, this is it, you’re not returning. The set in Newport is currently being dismantled.”

He’s speaking about Wentworth, the hugely successful Foxtel drama based on the old Australia TV mainstay, Prisoner. Set in the eponymous women’s prison, the series followed inmate Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack), a new arrival in the facility who fights and schemes her way up the prisoner hierarchy. Following Cormack’s departure at the end of season four the show became more of an ensemble drama, and over the course of its run its impressive cast has been filled out by the likes of Nicole da Silva, Pamela Rabe, Kate Atkinson, Celia Ireland, Aaron C. Jeffery, Sigrid Thornton, Leah Purcell, Susie Porter, and more.

Only a fortnight back, Wentworth won Logies for Oustanding Drama Series and Most Popular Drama Program, but now rumours are swirling that the series is no more – season seven, which is due to wrap principal photography this week, will be the last.

However, while some pundits are eager to shout it from the rooftops:

Confirmed: @wentworth WILL NOT BE RENEWED FOR SEASON 8 – fans are expected to riot – I'm sure of it #wentworth #bestshowever @foxtel watch "flashback" video : https://t.co/AooFShh6LF

— Donna Demaio (@donnademaio) July 15, 2018

No official confirmation has come down from Foxtel or production company FremantleMedia. Indeed, it seems the cast are as in the dark as the rest of us:

https://twitter.com/SarahHarris/status/1018643497396531201

Writing at the Herald sun, Colin Vickery surmised that any cancellation might be due to the series losing out on a massive production rebate once it hit 65 hours of content. No longer eligible for Screen Australia’s Producer Offset scheme, Wentworth‘s production costs will jump by 30%.

At this stage, however, the official line is: “Discussions between Foxtel and FremantleMedia regarding future seasons of Wentworth continue. Season 7 of the series will conclude production in Melbourne on Friday July 27.”