Coronation Street and Emmerdale have found themselves bumped from the TV schedules tonight to make way for the broadcast of the football.
Tonight (9 June) and tomorrow night (10 June), both soaps will not air in its usual slots and instead will air an hour-long episode each on Friday 12 June to make up for the missing episodes.
The summer of sport has well and truly kicked off, with ITV airing the women’s European qualifiers tonight as England face Ukraine. The broadcast airs from 7:30pm to 10:25pm.
Tomorrow night will be the last of the England friendlies ahead of the World Cup, where England take on Costa Rica live from Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando. Kick off is at 9pm but the broadcast begins at 8pm, with Mark Pougatch presenting all the action from the friendly.
Thursday 11 June sees the beginning of the World Cup with the first of the group A matches, as Mexico face South Africa. The broadcast begins at 7:50pm and concludes at 10:35pm.
This change in the schedules comes following the soap’s new “power hour” format which began in January to provide consistency for viewers.
Earlier this year, ITV reduced their weekly soaps output from six to five episodes, airing for 30 minutes each from 8pm on weekdays.
ITV’s managing director of media and entertainment Kevin Lygo said at the time: “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.”
However, since then, the soaps have been taken off air to allow for sports coverage.
When we head back to Emmerdale on Friday, there is plenty of action going on as Archie scams Caleb, while Gabby’s healthy eating obsession takes a darker turn and Graham urges Kyle to talk to Cain.
Meanwhile in Weatherfield, Sam’s mental state declines severely when fact and fiction collide, a suspicious Maria is stood up by Gary, Debbie’s pals organise a surprise holiday, and Carla makes a discovery.
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm and Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1. Both can be streamed from 7am that day on ITVX.
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Authors
Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
