Emmerdale and Coronation Street usually treat fans to hour specials on Christmas Day to get fans into the festive spirit but this year will be slightly different.
Both of the ITV soaps will now only air for half an hour on December 25, in a change to the usual timings.
Soaps fans have now been left devastated after finding out about the change to the schedule.
Emmerdale and Corrie Christmas schedule changes
Fans usually look forward to festive specials of both Emmerdale and Coronation Street on Christmas Day.
However, this year these soaps will only air for half an hour each, with Emmerdale airing at 6.30pm.
Coronation Street will then follow it, showing it’s Christmas instalment at 7pm.
This means that rival BBC soap, EastEnders, will be the only soap out of the big three that will air for one hour. Its Christmas episode will air at 9.45pm, after the watershed.
Soap fans unimpressed with ITV Christmas half hour episodes
ITV soap fans have been quick to share their upset over the changes to this year’s festive soap episodes.
They’re unhappy that they’re not getting the full hour that they usually get given each year.
One fan commented: “Emmerdale and Corrie must be in a mess if they aren’t on for a hour like normal.”
Another person complained: “Very surprised to hear this. Emmerdale and Coronation Street on for half an hour each on Christmas Day. I think it almost feels like a tradition now to have the one hour Christmas episodes every year. It might just feel like a regular episode now…”
A third fan said: “Hold on?!! EastEnders is going to be the only soap, having an hour long episode on Christmas Day…. Emmerdale and Coronation Street are going to be half an hour, hmm, they’ve never done that before.”
A final viewer complained: “30 minute Christmas episodes? You know it’s [bleep] when they do this.”
What to expect from Emmerdale and Corrie’s Christmas?
The specific details of the Christmas Day episodes are being kept under wraps at the moment but Coronation Street fans can expect there to be tension for both Peter and Carla in the lead up to their two-hander Boxing Day episode.
Emmerdale’s Christmas scenes are set to be darker than usual, with not everyone enjoying the festivities. But, what will Christmas look like in the Dales and Weatherfield this year?
Read more: Complete Emmerdale cast list 2023 – meet them all here!
Emmerdale usually airs on weekdays at 7.30pm, with an hour long episode on Thursdays.
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