Blue Heelers

Aired 1998

The fifth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 24 February 1998 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 41-episode season concluded 25 November 1998. The 41-episode fifth season saw the show move to Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM, making way for All Saints on Tuesdays at 8.30 PM. Ratings dipped, but finished still finished the number 2 show for the year with 2,240,000 in the five cities.

Aired 1999

The sixth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 10 February 1999 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 42-episode season concluded 24 November 1999.

Aired 2000

The seventh season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 9 February 2000 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 pm. The 41-episode season concluded 22 November 2000.

Aired 2001

The eighth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 21 February 2001 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 41-episode season concluded 28 November 2001.

Aired 2002

The ninth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 13 February 2002 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 pm. The 41-episode season concluded 20 November 2002.

Aired 2003

The tenth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 12 February 2003 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 42-episode season concluded 26 November 2003.

Aired 2004

The 11th season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 4 February 2004 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 39-episode season concluded 5 November 2004.

Aired 2005

The twelfth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 2 February 2005 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 42-episode season concluded 26 November 2005.

Aired 2006

The thirteenth and final season of the Australian police drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 1 April 2006 and aired on Saturday nights at 8:30 pm. The 11-episode season concluded 4 June 2006, due to its cancellation by the Seven Network as a result of its sharp decline in ratings. When, in late 2005, the time came to renew Blue Heelers, Seven commissioned eleven further episodes to be produced, but its future after this was still undecided. In January 2006, Seven officially announced that they had cancelled Blue Heelers, but would air a final shortened season of only 11 episodes in mid-2006—the 11 episodes which had been filmed in late 2005, before Blue Heelers had been cancelled. This season focuses primarily on the show's main protagonist, Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon, his failing health and his personal troubles. John Wood, who portrays Croydon, is the only actor to appear in every episode of Blue Heelers and is, indisputably, the pillar of the show. The final episode of the thirteenth season aired as a 2-hour, movie-length tribute starting with an introduction from John Wood, and concluding with a compilation of Blue Heelers moments from over its 13-season run. For this thirteenth season, Blue Heelers was moved from its primetime Wednesday-night timeslot to the lower rating Saturday-night timeslot, which saw it come up against The Bill, a British police drama which has become quite popular in Australia. Ratings for this season, partially due to the series' move to its lower-rating timeslot, were relatively low; ratings were around the 1.2 million viewer mark, increasing to 1.5 million for the finale. Blue Heelers failed to even make it into the top 20 programmes at any time during its thirteenth season.