Coronation Street and Emmerdale fans have been left baffled by World Cup-enforced schedule changes over the past few weeks, with the popular soaps taken off air on several occasions due to ITV’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The soaps were cancelled last Wednesday evening, when Switzerland vs Canada kicked of at 8pm on ITV1. On Thursday, Coronation Street returned at the later time of 9pm until 10pm, but Coronation Street fans celebrations were as short lived as Scotland’s North American adventures, as Friday’s episode was taken off air in favour of coverage of Norway vs France at 7pm, building up to an 8pm kick-off for the pair’s final group stage game at Boston Stadium in the USA.
Now England have qualified for the knock out stages with a solid 2-0 victory over Panama at the weekend, fans can look forward to further disruption, although it’s likely to be Eastenders fans sent into a tizzy by that one as England’s last-32 game against DR Congo will screen on BBC One on Wednesday evening. Not that that will stop the ITV soap disruption since, as the last-32 moniker implies, there are another 30 teams for broadcasters to work through in the current stage of the competition.
Coronation Street shared a post on social media earlier this week to acknowledge the schedule changes, and fans weren’t shy about airing their grievances.
Responding to ITV’s notification of the ongoing changes, one fan described the situation as “beyond a joke,” while another wondered: “Why can’t the soaps move to a different channel when sports are on?!!!”
A third said: “I’m watching episode everywhere here there ….. I don’t know what’s happening…Can’t wait for footy to come to an end after next week.”
As if things weren’t already bad enough for beleaguered soap fans, the BBC shifted Eastenders to BBC Two last week over the small matter of another PM resigning, so I’m sure we can all unite in wishing for a swift end to both the football and the political drama so that dedicated fans of the goings on in Weatherfield, Emmerdale and Albert Square alike can return to some semblance of normality.
Or they could just switch to watching Hollyoaks, since Channel 4 doesn’t have the rights to the World Cup this time around.
