ITV’s Emmerdale and Corrie to see schedule change this week

The soaps regularly get moved about for football matches, and this week is no different.

Here’s what we know about the changes and which episodes the TV schedule shakeup affects.

Emmerdale and Coronation Street to see schedule changes this week

The England v Uruguay match will air from 7pm on ITV1 on Friday, March 27, with kick-off at 7.45pm.

Since it crosses over into the soap slots, Emmerdale and Corrie have both changed their usual schedules.

Emmerdale fans tune into the soap from 8pm on ITV1 on Monday through to Friday but this week, the Friday episode on March 27 will not air.

Instead, fans can look forward to an episode at 6pm on Sunday, March 29.

Coronation Street usually airs from 8.30pm on the same channel on Monday through to Friday but Friday’s episode won’t air.

The soap will, however, air on Sunday too with an episode starting after Emmerdale, at 6.30pm on ITV1.

Apart from these changes for the England match, the soaps will run as normal this week.

On Reddit, fans reacted to the schedule change, questioning why the soaps had to change for the coverage of a football match.

One said: “Why don’t ITV just broadcast the football on itv2 or itv4?”

Someone replied saying: “I agree however I think the reason is that’s it in the contract with the football guys to have matches shown on the most prominent channel.”

This person said: “Why do they think that the whole country cares enough about football to have soaps moved and cancelled?

“Put the football on another channel like ITV4”.

In 2025, ITV announced changes to its soap schedule, including Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

From January 2026, the broadcaster introduced a “soaps power hour” on weekdays with 30-minute Emmerdale episodes at 8pm and 30-minute Coronation Street episodes at 8.30pm.

Coronation Street previously aired for three hour-long episodes a week, while Emmerdale aired four 30-minute episodes and one hour-long instalment.

In May 2025, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said the company was making “good progress” on a cost-cutting drive, and that she expected to make £30 million of non-content savings during 2025.

ITV also introduced changes to its popular daytime TV shows such as Good Morning Britain (GMB) and Lorraine.

From January this year, GMB has been extended by half an hour, while Lorraine Kelly’s morning talk show has been reduced to 30 minutes for 30 weeks of the year.

What do you think about the schedule changes this week? Let us know in the comments.