Coronation Street and Emmerdale will undergo a huge schedule shake-up next year. Currently, Emmerdale airs every day at 7.30pm on ITV with a half an hour episode, and a special hour episode each Thursday. Coronation Street, meanwhile, airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm for an hour. It has now been confirmed, from 2026, Coronation Street and Emmerdale will both change times. From January, there will be a soap 'power hour', with Emmerdale airing for half an hour each day at 8pm and Coronation Street straight after at 8.30pm each day, again for half an hour, as the drama from the Cobbles returns to its daily offerings.

This means that fans will get a total of five hours a week rather than the six they are used to. The special soap schedule change will begin in January with a huge stunt week for both soaps. The soaps will remain being uploaded to ITVX at 7am each morning. 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. Research insights also show us that soap viewers are increasingly looking to the soaps for their pacey storytelling. Streaming-friendly, 30 minute episodes better provide the opportunity to meet viewer expectations for storyline pace, pay-off and resolution.

"Whilst viewing is growing on ITVX, we know a significant proportion of our soaps’ audience still watch us via the schedule. This new pattern is in the DNA of the soap genre - nobody else does 30 minute drama this successfully. It creates a soap power hour that's consistent, and easy to find in the linear schedule, for the UK’s biggest soaps.". He added: "This new commissioning pattern will mean five hours of soaps a week, rather than the current six. We are conscious this will have an impact for the people who work on the soaps team. We will support our colleagues in ITV Studios as they work through these changes, and will do what we can to mitigate the impact on our people. These changes are motivated by doing what we believe is best for the continuing success of these important programmes in the long term. They also create headroom in the overall programme budget for investment in programming that can help ITV grow reach in a very very competitive market.".

This week, Coronation Street is airing some huge scenes as a fire takes hold of the Platts house, leading to death and devastation for many, whilst next week, on Emmerdale, a double limousine crashes also causes some deadly scenes. The surprise move by ITV bosses comes amid multiple exits across Coronation Street on Emmerdale. Coronation Street had been accused of a 'cull' as multiple stars quit or were axed from the programme, including the likes of Gail Platt star Helen Worth, who has already left, and Sue Cleaver (Eileen Grimshaw) and Charlotte Jordan (Daisy Midgeley) who are both leaving.

On Emmerdale, a number of famous faces are also set to leave the show. Daisy Campbell (Amelia Spencer) and James Chase (Tom King) have already left and Roxy Shahidi - who plays Leyla Harding - and Lesley Dunlop (Brenda Walker) are also expected to leave. *This is a breaking showbiz news story. Join The Mirror’s WhatsApp Community or follow us on Google News, Flipboard, Apple News, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads - or visit The Mirror homepage.