Kiwi TV favourite 'Shortland Street' filming shuts down, cuts episodes

Due to the Government's current restrictions in regards to the closure of non-essential services, South Pacific Pictures will close all of their productions effective immediately.

This includes the postponement of filming on Shortland Street, Westside, Educators and Mean Mums.

"It is our priority to follow the practices and procedures set out by the Ministry of Health to ensure the safety of everyone involved," said Kelly Martin, South Pacific Pictures CEO.

"We will continue to evaluate the situation over the coming days and hope to resume the production of all of our shows as soon as it is deemed safe."

View this post on Instagram

To our loyal Shorty family. To ease the pressure off the cast and crew, we will be reducing Shortland Street to four days a week (Mon-Thu).

A post shared by Shortland Street (@shortlandstreetofficial) on Mar 19, 2020 at 4:23pm PDT

All broadcasters who currently have productions in commission with South Pacific Pictures have been informed of this situation and understand the necessity behind it.

TVNZ has also announced that in light of the Prime Minister's announcement raising New Zealand's COVID-19 alert level, Shortland Street will now only air Monday - Wednesday, effective immediately.

"This move allows us to continue to air the programme while it is not in production in a consistent way throughout the lock-down period," said spokesperson Rachel Howard.

This article was first published on the NZ Herald and is republished with permission.

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