ITV’s top secret plans for Coronation Street’s future revealed – as legendary soap’s legacy crumbles

WHEN The Rover’s Return removed Betty’s Hotpot from the menu, there was an outcry over the cruel blow to Coronation Street tradition.

Because, let’s face it, no tears have ever been spilt over a lack of casserole.

ITV

Coronation Street is set to have their episodes slashed by an hour a week[/caption]

ITV

Helen Worth’s exit was a wasted opportunity for a huge telly moment[/caption]

So when I revealed yesterday that ITV had plans to slash the amount of Corrie and Emmerdale it made, the upset was not really over losing an hour of soap a week.

It was because it was the first seismic crack in Corrie’s tower, which could bring the world of soap tumbling down around it.

Some 10million people watch one of Britain’s soaps every night and I’ve heard from countless overnight, worried about what this means for their favourite show.

So here’s the real story behind ITV’s top secret plans for its serial dramas.

Three months ago, Corrie’s contractors and freelance staff were warned there would be a lot less work around as cuts were coming.

They had even heard the plan was eventually to put Corrie and Emmerdale on ITV2, my sources tell me.

ITV staunchly denied that was the case and maintained the soaps were an “integral part” of ITV1’s programming – and did so yesterday when I put the same story to them.

But what cannot be denied is the new plans feel like ITV’s first real opening move in the great Netflixisation of soaps.

To recap, currently, Corrie airs six shows per week, spread across Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as double episodes.

Emmerdale airs six 30-minute episodes per week, Monday to Friday with a double episode on Thursdays.

Now just five 30-minute episodes of each soap will air, back-to-back.

ITV has dubbed it a soap “power hour”. But the real story here is in the channel’s boss Kevin Lygo’s rationale behind the decision.

Yesterday, he said: “This new commissioning pattern will mean five hours of soaps a week, rather than the current six.

“Research insights show us that soap viewers are increasingly looking to the soaps for their pacey storytelling.

“Streaming-friendly, 30 minute episodes better provide the opportunity to meet viewer expectations for storyline pace, pay-off and resolution.”

A NETFLIX SET UP

The move is setting Coronation Street and Emmerdale up to become the kind of show people watch like a comedy or drama on Netflix.

Binged at the weekend, or chucked on during your commute.

Tellingly, when the so-called soap power hour is brought in next year, it will begin at the later time of 8pm.

Terrified for their job but moved to speak out, one of Corrie’s current cast told me, anonymously: “Losing the primetime 7pm and 7.30pm slots in the schedule, losing those hallmark hour-long episodes, it all adds up to a feeling that we’re are being sidelined and it’s devastating.

“We’re all tremendously worried.

What is clear is that ITV needed to do something to save the soaps… but it would have Fred Elliott spluttering in his hot pot

Felicity Cross

“We understand 30-minute episodes will whip along and feel exciting and cut some of the waffle but some fans love that waffle.

“They feel like the characters are their friends and so those seemingly duller moments in the cafe are important. It can’t all be trauma and stunts and affairs and deaths.

“And we hate the idea that people can just binge five episodes at the weekend. What’s the point in cliffhangers and tense endings that people can discuss with their friends the next day and look forward to the next episode.

“It’s stopping us being event TV and turning us into background noise.”

Corrie has already given up on making event TV, it would seem.

FOR THE OLDER GENERATIONS

Helen Worth’s departure after fifty years as Gail Platt should have been a huge moment in television history.

Instead, just 2.6million viewers watched her limp off the cobbles.

There was little fanfare, ITV made no fuss.

You reading this now, on The Sun’s website, might not mind consuming your TV in Netflix-style chunks and catching up when you can. But there are many who do.

And they’re the ones who need soaps the most, like our older generations who need them for company and something to look forward to in their day.

Here’s the kicker, though.

Those people are not the ones who ITV know will be watching Corrie and Emmerdale in ten years’ time – and these plans are about the new generations, not the old.

Kevin Lygo said: “These changes are motivated by doing what we believe is best for the continuing success of these important programmes in the long term.”

The Sun has reported on Corrie’s cash crisis before and its exodus of big name stars like Sue Cleaver and Colson Smith, with many others also heading out the door as they claim to be struggling to make ends meet on pay-per-appearance style contracts.

What is clear is that ITV needed to do something to save the soaps.

But the Netflixisation of Corrie would have Fred Elliot spluttering into his hotpot.

Alamy

Those on set of The Cobbles had been warned about cuts[/caption]

ITV

Big show stars like Colson Smith departed the series in a cast cut-down[/caption]