Coronation Street viewers have made their feelings clear after recent schedule changes caused by ITV’s World Cup coverage.
The long-running soap has temporarily moved away from its current format, with hour-long episodes returning to screens over the past few weeks. And while some fans previously welcomed the move to shorter episodes, many are now urging bosses to make another permanent change.
Coronation Street schedule disrupted by ITV World Cup coverage
The World Cup is now underway, and soap fans know that usually means one thing – Coronation Street schedule changes.
With football coverage taking over parts of ITV’s evening line-up, Coronation Street has once again had to make way, leading to a return of its former scheduling pattern.
Before January this year, Corrie aired hour-long episodes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. However, the launch of the soap power hour saw the programme switch to five half-hour episodes spread across the week.
But with sport dominating the schedules recently, viewers have been treated to longer episodes once more. And despite complaints in the past that hour-long instalments felt too much, many fans now seem delighted to have them back.
Corrie fans want old schedule brought back for good
After seeing the return of the old format, some Coronation Street viewers have admitted they’ve changed their minds and would now like the schedule to stay that way permanently.
Even once the World Cup coverage comes to an end, a number of fans have called for Coronation Street to return to its previous schedule pattern of hour-long episodes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
One fan on X commented: “Feel like I owe some of you an apology. I was quite vocal about how much I was looking forward to the return to 30 minute episodes but honestly, the hour long eps this week have been better than anything we’ve had all year.”
Another person who thought that hour episodes worked so much better shared: “Brilliant having an hour episode! The 30 mins ones with the ad break doesn’t give enough time to get into it.”
A third fan contributed: “Wooooo let’s keep having these long episodes please, hate the 20 minute episodes, bad idea.”
A fourth person added: “How great was that to have 2 evenings of hour long episodes? I absolutely hate the bite size episodes they now do, it’s impossible to really get into the story lines these days. Such a bad decision.”
With viewers continuing to debate the best format for the soap, it’s clear the temporary return of hour-long episodes has proved far more popular with some fans than many might have expected.
Read more: Coronation Street opinion: Soap losing balance as villains dominate
Coronation Street usually airs Monday-Friday at 8.30pm on ITV.
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