Soaps Square up
ITV shuffle puts Emmerdale and Corrie in head-to-head clash with EastEnders
ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale will go head-to-head with EastEnders from March.
A schedule shake-up to make way for an hour-long evening news bulletin will mean Corrie will drop all of its half-hour episodes and become an hour-long soap three times a week at 8pm.
It will clash with BBC1’s EastEnders on Mondays and Fridays.
In a bold move, ITV will also push Emmerdale’s weeknight instalments to the later time of 7.30pm – pitching it against the action in Albert Square on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The rival serial dramas have traditionally avoided each other so that soap fans can watch them all live if they choose.
ITV said the move was prompted by a desire to follow the half-hour regional news at 6pm with a national and international news hour every night at 6.30pm, fronted by Mary Nightingale, who now anchors the half-hour version.
It comes as the teatime bulletin is getting its strongest ratings in a decade.
ITV boss Kevin Lygo said: “The nation’s two most popular continuing dramas, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, are fundamental to ITV’s success and, as with all dramas, viewers increasingly watch them whenever and however they choose.
“The new scheduling means 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.”
Corrie has aired hour-long and halfhour episodes in recent years. But data shows a preference for the 60-minute instalments, which attract higher ratings.
Both ITV soaps averaged consolidated audiences of more than five million viewers in 2021.
Lygo said that news ratings were also strong and this was the moment to give viewers more.
He added: “As viewing habits rapidly change, live audiences to our … news programmes remain remarkably strong. Our evening news programme reached an impressive 35.6million 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.”
ITV’s extended news programme will employ 27 new staff thanks to an investment of millions, according to ITV head of news Michael Jermey. News at Ten will not be affected.
Jermey said there was no intention to turn the bulletin into a magazine show like BBC1’s The One Show, but it will simply see it cover more news.
He added: “This isn’t going to be an analysis programme, it is going to cover more stories.
“A 30-minute bulletin covers the headline stories of the day – pages one and two of the newspapers.
“In an hour we can cover more stories outside of London and pages three and four of the newspapers.”