Coronation Street and Emmerdale fans are facing a major schedule shake-up next year. At present, Emmerdale airs every day at 7.30pm on ITV with a half-hour episode, and a special hour-long episode each Thursday. Coronation Street, on the other hand, airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm for an hour. However, from 2026, both soaps will undergo a schedule change.
Starting January, there will be a soap ‘power hour’, with Emmerdale airing for half an hour each day at 8pm and Coronation Street following suit at 8.30pm each day, again for half an hour. This means that the drama from the Cobbles will return to its daily offerings. As a result, soap fans will get a total of five hours a week rather than the six they are currently getting. The special soap schedule change will kick off in January with a huge stunt week for both soaps. The soaps will continue to be uploaded to ITVX at 7am each morning, reports the Mirror.
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ITV’s Managing Director of Media and Entertainment Kevin Lygo said: “The new commissioning pattern is viewer-led. We already give more choice than ever to viewers on how they watch us through ITVX and we want to present their favourite soap to them, in the most digestible way.
“In a world where there is so much competition for viewers’ time and attention, and viewing habits continue to change, we believe this is the right amount of episodes that fans can fit into their viewing schedule, to keep up to date with the shows. Research insights also show us that soap viewers are increasingly looking to the soaps for their pacey storytelling. Streaming-friendly, 30-minute episodes better provide the opportunity to meet viewer expectations for storyline pace, pay-off and resolution.
(Image: ITV)
“Whilst viewing is growing on ITVX, we know a significant proportion of our soaps’ audience still watch us via the schedule. This new pattern is in the DNA of the soap genre – nobody else does 30 minute drama this successfully. It creates a soap power hour that’s consistent, and easy to find in the linear schedule, for the UK’s biggest soaps.”
Kevin admitted the upcoming changes from six hours of ITV soaps to five hours a week will “have an impact for the people who work on the soaps team”. He added: “This new commissioning pattern will mean five hours of soaps a week, rather than the current six. We are conscious this will have an impact for the people who work on the soaps team. “We will support our colleagues in ITV Studios as they work through these changes, and will do what we can to mitigate the impact on our people.
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“These changes are motivated by doing what we believe is best for the continuing success of these important programmes in the long term. They also create headroom in the overall programme budget for investment in programming that can help ITV grow reach in a very, very competitive market.”
ITV also revealed that the start of the 2026 schedule will be “marked in spectacular style” when both Corrie and Emmerdale “embark on an ambitious, never before seen stunt as part of a week of special episodes”.
This news comes after it was confirmed that several big-name stars are to leave Coronation Street later this year. Sue Cleaver (Eileen Grimshaw), Colson Smith (Craig Tinker) and Charlotte Jordan (Daisy Midgeley) recently announced their departures, and it’s also expected that Shelley King (Yasmeen Nazir) and Sue Devaney (Debbie Webster) will leave the cobbles, too.
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