Coronation Street to make Friday night scheduling change

Coronation Street will change its Friday night scheduling pattern again later this month.

The ITV soap has recently returned to airing a double bill on Fridays, with episodes broadcast at 7.30pm and 8.30pm and a half-hour gap in between.

For most of the year, Corrie had screened hour-long episodes at 7.30pm on Fridays, followed by repeats of shows like Midsomer Murders and Vera. The shift back to two episodes was then made after a new series of Grantchester was scheduled in at 9pm on Fridays.

New schedules for Friday, October 29 have now confirmed that the hour-long slot is returning at the end of the month.

dev and aadi alahan in coronation street

ITV

That evening, Corrie airs for 60 minutes from 7.30pm. As Grantchester's latest series will have finished by then, a Midsomer Murders repeat follows on ITV at 8.30pm.

As schedules beyond October 29 haven't yet been confirmed, it's unclear whether this will be a permanent change.

Rival soap EastEnders is currently scheduled for 8pm on October 29, meaning that it'll be going head-to-head with Corrie on the night.

In the week commencing Monday, October 25, Corrie looks certain to explore the aftermath of its Super Soap Week episodes, which feature sinkhole stunts, a dramatic road accident and Harvey Gaskell's escape.

ITV

Corrie's producer Iain MacLeod recently promised: "Having done a number of these event weeks over the years, it's only worth doing it if the aftermath is more interesting than the week itself, if that's not a funny thing to say.

"If at the end, nothing has changed and everyone's lives proceed exactly as if it had never happened, then it hasn't really been worth doing at all. So we try to construct all these stories in a way that means that they're the launchpad of something really massive going forward, rather than just feeling like the end of things.

"There are brilliant final chapters for certain stories going on in this week. But there are also exciting chapters in all kinds of different areas, some of which I think will be quite surprising for people. It's a launch pad for most of the big stuff that we'll be doing into Christmas and well into the new year."

Coronation Street currently airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.