Coronation Street has received a major boost in the same week that it has been at the centre of concerns following episode and job cuts.
While the news of a potential 75 redundancies has hit hard, and half an hour of weekly drama will be lost from next year, the soap has had a welcome injection of positivity.
At the recent Broadcast Awards, judges named the soap as Best Continuing Drama, after it submitted the episode focusing on Paul Foreman’s death to judges.
Branded ‘deeply moving’, the entry was already acclaimed by critics and fans alike, with actor Peter Ash delivering the performance of a lifetime.
Corrie was also congratulated for its focus on moving to a digital era as well as its diversity behind the camera, with over a fifth of episodes directed by people from protected minority group.
It’s bound to come as a welcome bit of news given the current updates, which will see the show move into a soap ‘super hour’ from January 2026 alongside Emmerdale.
This will take the form of five weekly half hour episodes per soap, which effectively cuts 25-30 minutes of filmed footage.
The move will be marked by a spectacular stunt apparently never seen before, which is a bold claim.
The changes are said to be leaving many at the show ‘deeply worried.’
A source told Metro: ‘The move is leading to a wide range of redundancies across all departments.
‘Staff were only told of the temporary studio shutdown yesterday afternoon, and attended a consultation meeting at 10am this morning.’
Speaking of the decision and where things go from here, Head of ITV drama input Peter Lygo put a positive spin on matters as he confirmed it was a move led by fan viewing patterns.
‘In a world where there is so much competition for viewers’ time and attention, and viewing habits continue to change, 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,’ he said.
‘This new commissioning pattern will mean five hours of soaps a week, rather than the current six,’ he said. ‘We are conscious this will have an impact for the people who work on the soaps team. We will support our colleagues in ITV Studios as they work through these changes, and will do what we can to mitigate the impact on our people.
‘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.’
