Soap opera only lasted one year. Nevertheless, soap operas gained increasing prominence on UK television schedules. In 1995, Channel 4 premiered "Hollyoaks", a soap with a youth focus. When Channel 5 launched in March 1997, it debuted the soap opera "Family Affairs", which was formatted as a week-daily soap, airing Monday through Fridays. "Brookside"s premise evolved during the 1990s, phasing out the politicised stories of the 1980s and shifting the emphasis to controversial and sensationalist stories such as child rape, sibling incest, religious cults and drug addiction, including the infamous 'body under the patio' storyline that ran from 1993 to 1995, and
Channel 5 (UK) programming series "The Tribe" was shown from 1999 to 2003. Channel 5 also acquired the rerun rights to the BBC and Network Ten serial drama "Out of the Blue", which were screened from 2009 on Channel 5's digital counterpart, 5*. On 18 May 2007, Channel 5 acquired the rights to Australian soap opera "Neighbours", previously screened on BBC One. This was the second time UK networks had fought over an Australian soap, with Channel 5 having previously competed over broadcast rights to "Home and Away". "Neighbours" is one of Channel 5's most popular programmes, and is in fact more popular in