Emmerdale and Coronation Street fans - me included - were left reeling today with their shock announcement. Both ITV soaps announced they would be cutting episodes from 2026. In January, rather than air on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for an hour, Coronation Street will now air half an hour episodes daily - meaning their offerings will now be half an hour shorter each week. The same can be said for Emmerdale, which will now air five half an hour episodes a week, and the longer hour episode on a Thursday will be cut to just half an hour, so 30 minutes shorter each week.

This is devastating for soap fans, me included, but I am hopeful this change - which will also sadly see a string of job cuts - will be what the soap needs to save it amid reports of cast 'culls' and multiple exiting characters. Kevin Lygo, ITV's Managing Director of Media and Entertainment, hinted that there was some bigger reasons behind this change. In a lengthy statement, he explained of the cuts: "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.".

Whether it's the drama from the Dales - which next week will see a whole host of the lead cast involved in a deadly double limousine crash - or huge stunts on the Cobbles, like this week with The Platts involved in a shocking arson story, the soaps are great at showing us things that we hope never happen to us! The stunts are great, exciting and harrowing in equal measure. But let's not forget what other things the soaps have given us. We've seen our own lives shown on our screens. We've seen cancer storylines, devastating relationship splits, and heartbreaking health diagnoses.

The soaps are great at bringing an issue to the forefront of our minds. Only last year, Paul Foreman's Motor Neurone Disease on Coronation Street raised awareness of the early signs of MND and likely got someone help sooner than they might have before. Over on Emmerdale, Belle Dingle's harrowing coercive control storyline at the hands of her husband Tom King had people coming up to actress Eden Taylor Draper to share their own stories of domestic abuse. At the time it was on screen, Eden had said if the storyline could help one person in a real life similar situation, it was worth doing.

These shows have far more of a reach than can ever be put into words and numbers and we should do all we can to make sure they stay on our screens. Coronation Street celebrated its 60th anniversary a few years back in 2020 and Emmerdale has been on our screens for over three decades too. For these shows to be around in 20 years' time, this is exactly the right thing to do. Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs onTikTok,Snapchat,Instagram,Twitter,Facebook,YouTubeandThreads.