ITV boss rules out plans for soap crossover after Corriedale stunt: ‘It won’t work’

Nearly 5 million viewers tuned in for the ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Emmerdale’ cross-over event

Coronation Street and Emmerdale’s cross-over special may have been a roaring success for ITV, but the broadcaster’s soap boss doesn’t have any further plans for another Corriedale.

The two worlds crossed over at the start of this year, with characters from both programmes meeting one another following a multi-car collision. It proved to be a massive hit with fans, with 4.7 million tuning in to the hour-long episode.

Despite the impressive ratings, ITV’s executive producer for continuing drama Iain MacLeod has ruled out the possibility of another Corriedale special – saying that it “doesn’t make any sense” to revisit the idea.

Speaking to the This Is Media City podcast on Tuesday (17 February), MacLeod said that blending the ”gothic and crazy” Emmerdale with the “more grounded” Coronation Street again “wouldn’t work” on a long-term basis.

“The two shows do have a very different editorial voice and different sensibilities and the type of stories they tell are different,” he said. “And also, if you’ve got two incredibly successful brands, why would you blend them together?

“I don’t know that it would end up being more than the sum of its parts if you did it long-term. It doesn’t make any sense from my point of view to do it more permanently.”

The cross-over special saw characters from both soaps come face-to-face (ITV)

MacLeod added that it’s not like to generate “the same level of excitement” if it were to happen again.

The crossover special kicked off ITV’s new soap schedule, which saw runtimes for both programmes slashed by 30 minutes. The broadcaster announced last year that it would be moving Emmerdale to 8pm and Coronation Street to 8:30pm as part of the channel’s “soaps power hour”.

As a result, soap fans now get one hour fewer of the shows per week – with ITV’s managing director of media and entertainment, Kevin Lygo, announcing at the time that the cutback would “have an impact for the people who work on the soaps team”.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

“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,” he said.

It’s not the only soap cut to be made by ITV, with the British Soap Awards being canned by the network earlier this month. In a statement issued in February, ITV said: “The British Soap Awards is taking a break and won’t be on air in 2026.”

It’s not the first time that the British Soap Awards has been cancelled: the awards were paused for two years during the pandemic and then returned for a year, before the event was pulled in 2024. It is unknown whether the awards will be back for 2027.