The announcement that ITV’s soap operas will now only run for 30 minutes has alarmed fans, who believe that something must be seriously wrong for TV executives to cut the shows’ airtime in half.
Fans of Coronation Street and Emmerdale are concerned about the shows’ futures after Christmas Day, when their viewing hours were cut in half.
This year, ITV is attempting a different approach from the custom of airing hour-long specials of each show on Christmas Day. According to their recently disclosed holiday schedules, both ITV soap operas will only air for thirty minutes on Monday, December 25.
On Christmas Day, ITV1 will broadcast Coronation Street for 30 minutes starting at 7 p.m., while the Yorkshire-based soap opera Emmerdale will air earlier at 6.30 p.m. for a similarly brief 30 minutes. This year’s Christmas episode of Coronation Street will be the shortest since it last aired in a 30-minute block on Christmas Day in 1997.
The final 30-minute Christmas episode of Emmerdale aired in 2004. The decision to reduce the duration from an hour to thirty minutes was deemed “huge” by concerned fans, and the news was received with less fervour than a poorly poured pint in the Rovers Return.
Someone wrote: “Emmerdale and Corrie must be in a mess if they aren’t on for an hour like normal.” A concerned viewer of a soap opera also posted: “Hold on?!! The only soap opera airing an hour-long episode on Christmas Day will be EastEnders. Emmerdale and Coronation Street will take a half hour, something they have never done before.
Another ITV viewer tweeted in the meantime, saying, “Huge changes. For the first time in 26 years, ITV reduces the Christmas Day airtime of Corrie and Emmerdale to half hours. I doubt Emmerdale has ever aired a half-hour episode on that day.
They went on to say: “This is a very un-ITV move and shows they’re really trying to compete again.” However, viewers shouldn’t worry too much about the abbreviated episodes because Corrie will still air for three and a half hours on Monday, December 25 through Sunday, December 31.
The fictional North of England town of Weatherfield, close to Manchester, serves as the setting for the long-running British ITV soap opera Coronation Street. Produced by ITV Granada and conceived by Tony Warren, the series debuted on December 9, 1960.
This year, Corrie will be airing episodes on Tuesday, December 26 (Boxing Day) and Sunday, December 31 (New Year’s Eve), days it doesn’t typically air during the week. Between Monday, December 25 and Sunday, December 31, Emmerdale will also air three and a half hours of content, including one-hour specials on December 27 and 28.
Producer of Coronation Street, Iain MacLeod, stated that the show’s Boxing Day episode, which showcases Chris Gascoyne’s exit from the Peter Barlow role, is the one to look forward to. “It all builds up to this incredibly surprising Boxing Day episode,” stated MacLeod.
“Peter and Carla have a fantastic two-hander; they are essentially the only two cast members in the episode. For those of you who have been huge fans of Peter and Carla from the beginning, this is a greatest hits compilation.
“Every aspect of their personalities, past experiences as a couple, goals for the future, and definition of happiness is covered in detail. It’s leading up to Peter’s departure, which is incredibly creative, heartbreaking, and reminiscent of Corrie at its finest.”
Laura Shaw, the producer of Emmerdale, remarked, “We have some exciting plans leading up to Christmas, but I have been sworn to secrecy on this one, absolutely, definitely! I can tell you that we’ve done a lighter, fluffier Christmas for Emmerdale in the past few years, but the tone of this one is very different.”
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