Heartbreak High is going out on top.
The third and final season of the hit Australian series has debuted at No. 1 in Netflix Australia’s and New Zealand’s Top 10 English show lists and No. 10 on the Global list with 2.4 million views since its launch last week.
The first two seasons of the show’s reboot were also massive successes, hitting Netflix’s top 10 shows in over 40 countries and racking up 50 million viewing hours within a month of season 2’s release in 2024.
Heartbreak High star Ayesha Madon is primed to be Australia’s next big export, following the likes of Geraldine Viswanathan – who featured in Will Ferrell film You’re Cordially Invited and Marvel’s Thunderbolts last year – and Charlotte Nicdao who stars in Apple TV+ show Mythic Quest alongside Rob McElhenney.
Appearing on a recent episode of the Rolling Stone Uncut podcast, Madon agreed that we are seeing more diversity on Australian screens, but there is still work to be done.
“I’m so grateful for how far we’ve come, [but] I think we can push it,” Madon said.
“I think colour is a massive thing [in Australia]. Now, we need to see dark-skinned people on screen… I want to see dark-skinned Indians, I want to see dark-skinned black people, I want to see dark-skinned First Nations people on screen now. Overseas, we see so many incredible women of colour popping off in the States… Australia takes a while to actually catch on to those people.
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“Something like Heartbreak coming into the zeitgeist hopefully will show people that we can make really popular television and can make money. Like, if it’s a business decision, we can make money off stories of colour. So I think that’s really cool.”
Madon continued: “We really challenge a lot of the tropes, like being an Indian-Australian. Amerie is absolutely batshit crazy. You never see women of colour in Australia as romantic leads or people of colour as romantic leads.
“You never get to see the tropes kind of being broken. I think we need to see more of that, especially in Australia.”
