ITV have announced that Coronation Street and Emmerdale will join will join forces in an unprecedented, one-off special episode to launch the broadcaster’s new power hour of soap in January.
For the first time in British soap history, the hour-long episode will see characters from both soaps come together in a celebration of the soap genre.
The worlds of Emmerdale and Coronation Street are set to collide for one night only in a “mash-up” of two beloved communities.
The producers, scriptwriters and production teams are said to have conceived “an ingenious way of linking the two universes, but with characters then returning to the soaps they are renowned for inhabiting in Manchester and Yorkshire”.
It will see the combined production teams embark on “an ambitious stunt that will have everlasting consequences for everyone involved”.
According to a press release: “The episode will be self-contained, but the consequences of the high-stakes drama will have repercussions for both communities and see them linked forever as familiar faces depart and exciting new characters arrive into both soaps.”
And in an extra treat for soap fans, the producers of both programmes are inviting the audience to choose which two characters, one from each soap, they would like to see meet and interact in a scene. Details of this initiative will be launched next month via Coronation Street and Emmerdale’s Insta, Facebook and Tik Tok accounts with viewers then able to influence the content of our two pre-eminent soaps.
After the special episode has aired, each soap will then return to its new normal pattern of transmission - 30 minutes each evening - Emmerdale episodes at 8pm, and Coronation Street episodes at 8.30pm on ITV1 and STV.
Episodes will continue to drop at 7am on ITVX and STV Player, before transmission that evening.
According to the broadcaster: :The new schedule chimes with research insights that show 30-minute episodes attracted higher audiences in 2024, and deliver more digestible instalments of continuing drama that better fits with changing viewer habits.
“The changes ensure that ITV remains the premier home of soap, as the commissioning broadcaster that backs the genre more than anyone else in the market.”
