From January 2026 Coronation Street will drop one episode per week and will be shown 5 times a week, instead of 6.
The new schedule will have 30-minute episodes of Coronation Street at 8.30pm each week night.
The new scheduling comes after ITV said its research showed that 30-minute episodes attracted higher audiences in 2024.
Coronation Street currently airs for three hour-long episodes a week but from next year will only air 30-minute episodes.
Speaking about the changes, 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.”
Episodes will continue to drop at 7am on ITVX and STV Player, before they air in the evening.
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2 comments:
This is probably a good idea as Corrie will become habitual viewing if it's on every night. I remember 'Family Affairs' on Channel 5 when the channel started in the 90s. It successfully (for a time) had 5 programmes a week so this is not a new concept. Also Emmerdale will be doing the same. The only issue will be when the Football Internationals play havoc with the schedules. The only choice will be either an hour episode on some week nights to cover this or extra episodes on Sunday nights (Saturday nights are out of the question for soaps)
The cross over with Emmerdale and Corrie characters mingling is probably brought in to encourage those who don't watch one, to watch both, in that soap hour.
But I haven't watched Emmerdale in decades. I don't know who the characters are and I have no idea about the history of the stories.
The last time I watched it, the airplane crashed happened and Chris Tate ended up in a wheelchair!
I don't think this soap hour will encourage us to watch both soaps.
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