Coronation Street to screen six times a week from late 2017

(Image credit: Joseph Scanlon)

ITV announced today that the world's longest-running soap Coronation Street will be broadcast six times a week from next year

Coronation Street will expand from five to six episodes per week from late in 2017, according to ITV.

ITV’s Director of Television, Kevin Lygo, said: "I am a life-long fan of Coronation Street and one of the first things I wanted to explore when I became Director of Television was taking the production to six episodes a week.

“The soaps are the cornerstone of the ITV schedule, and Coronation Street continues to produce some of the finest drama and comedy on television. It is a hugely important part of what has defined ITV throughout its history, and I want it to continue to be right at the heart of what ITV defines in years to come.

“As a viewer I have watched the soap as it has continued to evolve, entertain, and grip the nation with fantastic storylines and this move will be the next exciting chapter in Corrie's story."

The new schedule was only outlined to writers, cast and crew today.

ITV says it will create employment opportunities, while the current set will be extended to enable the expansion in production, and create additional studio space on the 7.7-acre site in Trafford, Manchester.

ITV Studios Managing Director of Continuing Drama and Head of ITV in the North, John Whiston, said: “Coronation Street’s new producer Kate Oates, modern filming and editing facilities at the programme’s Production Centre and our fantastic, peerless drama teams will help turn this great idea into reality."

ITV has not announced when the sixth episode of Coronation Street will be scheduled each week.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.