Nicole Kidman's First TV Job Was On An Incredibly Popular Soap Opera

Nicole Kidman is a globally recognized A-lister, but there was a time when her talents were mostly confined to Australia. While she was born in Hawaii, Kidman spent most of her early life in Sydney, Australia. She started getting minor roles in movies and music videos in 1983, and the following year she landed her first TV show: "A Country Practice," a popular Australian daytime TV soap opera that ran between 1981 and 1993.

"A Country Practice" is centered around a nursing hospital in Wandin Valley, a fictional rural town in New South Wales. Kidman appeared in the two-part Season 4 episode "Repairing the Damage" as a character named Simone Jenkins, a rebellious student who proves to be a bad influence. She's involved in a storyline about solvent abuse — even after the death of a boy, she and her friends continue to inhale them in the local park, which leads to more tragedy.

It may not qualify as one of Nicole Kidman's best TV shows, but "A Country Practice" was incredibly popular with audiences. At one point, viewership reached 10 million people a week – over half of Australia's population at the time. It also won a bunch of Logie Awards (essentially the Australian version of the Emmys) and it was even inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame in 2026.

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Reports from Australia suggest that a new version of "A Country Practice" is in the pipeline. According to an Aussie TV insider, the revival will center on Chloe Jones (the daughter of Brendan Jones and the late Molly Jones, whose heartbreaking death from leukemia continues to evoke major feels in former viewers to this day) taking over the medical practice in Wandin Valley. "It would be a continuation rather than simply remaking the original," the insider told Woman's Day in September 2026. "Chloe provides the perfect bridge between the 'A Country Practice' that millions of Australians remember and a completely new generation of characters."

This report comes roughly one year after "A Country Practice" star John Tarrant discussed whether or not he'd be up for a reboot. Tarrant played vet Matt Tyler on the beloved soap, and although he's had a few acting and entertainment-adjacent jobs since its conclusion, today he works in the medical field as a paramedic. However, he told Woman's Day in 2025 that he'd be open to returning to "A Country Practice" under the right conditions. He said, "If it had the right script, the right people and all that, I wouldn't turn it down." The chances of Nicole Kidman coming back for the revival are slim to none, but she would no doubt be happy to see such an iconic Australian TV show resurrected.