Coronation Street and Emmerdale change time slots in huge ITV shake-up

Soap fans, beware: Coronation Street and Emmerdale will be changing their time-slots in one of ITV’s biggest schedule shake-ups in years.

From March 2022, Emmerdale will be moving to Coronation Street’s usual 7:30pm time slot following an hour’s worth of news programming, while the latter will have three hour-long episodes on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8pm.

Corrie’s usual split episodes will end with the arrival of the new TV schedule.

ITV

But for the most dedicated of soap fans, this new schedule will see Corrie clash with Eastenders, which airs on BBC One at either 7:30pm and 8pm on every weekday except Wednesday.

According to ITV, the changes have been introduced in a bid to strengthen regional and national news output with a direct lead into the popular serial dramas, giving a 6:30pm-9pm chunk of consistent output.

So it isn’t because of Sally’s raunchy scenes…

ITV’s Managing Director Kevin Lygo explained: “As viewing habits rapidly change, live audiences to our national and international news programmes remain remarkably strong.

ITV

“Our evening news programme reached an impressive 35.6 million viewers in 2021. We are very excited to be announcing this investment in what is an important public service strength of ITV – high-quality, impartial, trusted broadcast journalism – at a time when it could not be more important.”

John Whiston, ITV’s Managing Director of Continuing Drama, added: “With Coronation Street bursting at the seams with fantastic story and character, the new format gives the show a brilliant new canvas on which to shine.

“And Emmerdale will do what it does best in this new time slot where viewers can continue to enjoy the dramatic goings on in the Dales.”