Corriedale overnight ratings revealed after crossover skipped early ITVX release
The special episode saw characters from Corrie and Emmerdale caught up in a multi-vehicle pile-up.
ITV aired its hotly-anticipated Corriedale special last night (Monday 5th January) – and now we have the overnight ratings.
The special, which saw the worlds of Coronation Street and Emmerdale collide in an hour-long episode that aired on ITV1 at 8pm and wasn’t released early on ITVX or YouTube, was a huge hit with fans, averaging 4.2million viewers, and peaking with 4.7 million.
That is the highest live TV ratings for a soap in over a year, and the biggest TV peak audience for a soap since 2022 (excluding Christmas Day episodes).
The figures also mark the highest live TV audience for any drama across any broadcaster or streamer since Call the Midwife in February 2025, and ITV’s highest TV audience since I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
The special episode saw characters from both ITV soaps caught up in a multi-vehicle pile-up, and it was certainly a dramatic one as two characters met their ends, a soap legend received a harrowing diagnosis and a major character from Emmerdale’s past made a surprising return.
In the aftermath of the episode, Emmerdale and Coronation Street will be moving to new slots in the ITV schedule, with both soaps set to air five half-hour episodes per week.
Emmerdale viewers will be able to tune into the programme at 8pm, while Corrie fans will have to wait until 8.30pm to catch the drama.
The change to ITV’s soap scheduling, called the soap “power hour”, launched with Corriedale last night.
Speaking about the schedule change during a red carpet appearance for the launch of the special episode, Emmerdale star Chris Bisson, who plays Jai Sharma, told Leeds Live: "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 continued: "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."
Read more:
- Coronation Street boss gives exciting update on Corriedale crossover
- Coronation Street and Emmerdale crossover event gets title confirmed as production begins on "mind-blowing" stunt episode
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Authors
Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
