Emmerdale star Chris Bisson has addressed a permanent change to ITV soap scheduling, which is starting this week. From tomorrow (6 January), Emmerdale will move to an 8pm slot on the channel, followed by Coronation Street at 8.30pm.
Called the soap “power hour”, the permanent change will see both soaps air five 30-minute episodes per week in their new timeslots.
Speaking during a red carpet appearance for the launch of Corriedale, tonight’s special crossover episode of Emmerdale and Corrie, Bisson, who plays Emmerdale’s Jai Sharma, opened up about the change in schedule.
“All the fans have been waiting for the two shows to collide and now we get it to kick off our new schedule on ITV. That ‘soap power hour’,” he said via Leeds Live.
“No more moaning that they are shifting Corrie around because of the football and nobody knows when it is on – all that kind of stuff. We all know where we are up to now – 8pm to 9pm everyday of the week,” he continued.
ITV
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Opening up about how things were when he first started his soap journey, having previously played Corrie’s Vikram Desai, Bisson said: “It is like the old-fashioned way. When I started on Corrie, a quarter of a century ago or something like that, we did half-hours and when we went to three episodes, everyone went ‘oh, that’s too much’.”
Discussing the shake-up, which means that Emmerdale will no longer air an hour-long episode on a Thursday, Bisson said he prefers a more “bitesize” approach.
ITV
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He said: “For me, because we did it every week it didn’t feel special anymore. And, the genre everyone loves is half-hour, it is bitesize.
“I think we can get back to telling stories in a way where you can weave it all together. You see something on-screen and you know it is bubbling. It doesn’t have to be a stunt every Thursday. We just watch the soaps as we love them.”
Emmerdale continues on Monday 5 January at 7pm on ITV1, followed by Corriedale at 8pm, and streams on ITVX.
Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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