Emmerdale and Coronation Street are set to undergo a major TV scheduling shake-up which will see both soaps given new time slots for the first time in years.
Under new plans, ITV News will be broadcast from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, with more focus on stories outside of London. Currently, Emmerdale airs in the 7pm slot, but now it will move half an hour later to 7:30pm to make room for the longer news broadcast.
ITV also announced Coronation Street will broadcast three continuous one-hour-long episodes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so this means that the programme will no longer be split into half an hour chunks with a different show in between.
Viewers will now get a full hour and a half of soaps on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as the network moves the popular soaps into new back-to-back slots, with Emmerdale’s half an hour episodes moved to a prime time showing of 7:30pm instead of 7pm on weeknights.
After Emmerdale, Coronation Street will air single one-hour episodes from 8pm to 9pm, which will only be interrupted by regular advert breaks, instead of another programme in between.
This schedule shake-up also means the ITV soaps will go head-to-head with EastEnders over on the BBC now that they will be airing later.
An ITV statement confirmed that this 'super soap' scheduling means live TV viewers of the ITV soaps “can get their soap fix back-to-back” and that it will be "destined to build a strong block of continuing drama.”
Announcing the scheduling shake-up, ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, Kevin Lygo has revealed that Coronation Street and Emmerdale are "fundamental to the success of ITV,” due to them being the most popular soaps to watch.
He added: "We know that, as with all dramas, viewers increasingly watch them whenever, and however they choose. The new scheduling means that viewers can watch them live on TV in one go in a continuous soap fix, as well as on ITV Hub where they are regularly in the most watched shows every month.”
Until the changes are made in March Emmerdale continues weeknights from 7.00pm on ITV, while Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.
