'Neighbours' becomes Eleven's top show

Neighbours has officially made its channel switch to Eleven in Australia and was the new station's top-rated show on its launch day.

As announced last August, the Ramsay Street soap will no longer air on its long-time home of Channel Ten Down Under but will continue to be broadcast on weeknights at 6.30pm on digital-only Eleven.

On Tuesday evening, 254,000 viewers tuned in for the season premiere of Neighbours on Eleven, TV Tonight reports.

The serial was the most-watched show of the day on the channel, ahead of Futurama and The Simpsons, which pulled in 210,000 and 173,000 viewers respectively.

Neighbours' channel change came after it suffered a ratings struggle on Ten in 2010, attracting disappointing audience numbers for most of the year.

Although Eleven is targeted at a youth audience, Neighbours' executive producer Susan Bower has promised that fans will not notice any major changes on the soap this year.