Coronation Street

My view of changes to ITV since January 1993:

1. The overall quality of programmes has declined. The question is now more what is good rather than what is bad.

2. The diversity of programmes has declined. Various genres of programmes including local issues / interests, sitcoms, and documentaries that people took for granted that ITV would show back in 1992 have become rarer sights in recent years.

3. The channel is heavily reliant upon soaps and a small number of very popular entertainment programmes, like X-Factor, in order to attract large audiences.

4. A loss of interest in providing a localised service. Only a bare minimum of local issues / interest programmes are shown just to meet its public service obligations.

5. The management appear to subscribe to Fordism - we don't make programmes we make money.

Is that a learning frommThe X Factor? It isn't any longer than it's ever been is it? They haven't increased the number of episodes or introduced a 2nd yearly series or anything like that?

I suppose they could make three one hour episodes of Corrie as opposed to six half hour ones.

Terrible decision IMO.

Corrie has gone so downhill these past few years they should be reducing episodes not adding. Like many others I hate the Monday and Friday double episodes. As Spencer for Hire said earlier, hardly anything happens in the first episode until just before it ends. Then there is a cliffhanger, sometimes something rubbish! Most of the time it hardly makes you want to watch the 2nd ep. I do because im a Corrie fan, but its a struggle in recent times. The double episodes would be fine on occasional special weeks with big storylines like the tram crash, Carla's exit etc. But run of the mill weeks its not needed.

Also when the football is on it bugs me when they try to play catch up. Why not just have less episodes for the month when the football is on. Its only once every 2 years. They could have had just 3 episodes this week - the hour long 9pm show last night wasnt needed. They cant even use the excuse that its needed for ratings, as football is on in the usual slots which brings in big ratings. And enough people are complaining anyway about the soaps moved around so it shouldnt make too much difference to the amount of complaints if they just had fewer episodes for the duration of the football.

Emmerdale seem to cope a lot better at producing 6 eps a week than Corrie do at producing 5. But as much as I love Emmerdale at the moment i still think 5 is more than enough for anyone!

As some of you know im a long term fan of Coronation Street but im sorry to say i barely recognise the show these days. Part of the blame for that is the number of episodes they churn out a week. It will get even worst when we have 6 episodes.

If we must have 6 episodes however i think the return of the Sunday episode is the only way to go. Putting a 6th episode on a weeknight would mean that with Emmerdale and Corrie 12 out of the 20 half hour slots between 7pm-9pm would be soaps on a weekday which is overkill. Id prefer it 4 times a week but if we must have 6 id say Sunday for 1 hour, then Monday, Wed, Thurs and Fri for half hour each.

I'm not sure that's the right answer either, Jack. (PS: Welcome to TVF)


'Continuing dramas' like Casualty, Holby City and The Bill (at times) manage/managed to maintain 60 minute episodes because they have the scope to bring in multiple short-term characters/storylines for each programme, yet maintain long story arcs for the smaller regular cast over much of each annual series without making them seem too drawn-out.

Soaps aren't the same: they have a large fixed cast and so the majority of storylines are relatively short, or unrealistically 'sensational' to get media attention. Guest cast members are injected simply to allow a change/event to happen to one of the regular fixed cast, or for a specific short-term event to emerge.

For soaps, drawing out those repetitive storylines over 60 minute episodes, only normally works for special events (tram crash, pub burning down/exploding again, house collapse, murder); I don't think it would 3 times every week.

It has increased significantly over the years - more in the duration of each episode rather than the number of episodes, but that has sneaked up too. The phase between auditions and judges houses was 10 hours last year - in early series it was just the two. On the other hand apart from adding a separate 30 minute result show in the fourth series Britain's Got Talent has exactly the same number of episodes as it did in the second series.


Exactly - and not just for the tournaments but also for in season matches too - probably works out at less than an episode a month on average, even with the double episodes. The BBC are as bad with EastEnders, Casualty and Holby, commissioning episodes for slots they know it won't be able to air like the telethons, Friday night Six Nations and the Olympics.

I do think it's inevitable now that even with the current climate EastEnders will go up to 5 nights a week - can be sold as a value for money exercise considering a new set it being built. The worst thing is pretty much everytime an extra half hour of soap is added to the schedule BBC1 and ITV effectively lose an hour between them as they just don't compete agressively against the soaps. You'd think by now that somebody at ITV might have listened to all the people complaining about how miserable EastEnders is and thought that rather than some ageing celeb touring another English county that actually it might be worth trying some comedy against it and making it a slot that works for ITV rather than a slot that folds to the BBC.

It's always bugged me then whenever a special event happens and the TV schedule is drastically altered to accommodate it the soaps NEVER get axed as if they are sacrosanct programmes. I suppose the BBC and ITV could have got away with this practice back in the 1980s when we had just two episodes a week but once it reached four episodes a week then it became clearly evident that the soaps must survive at all costs.

Thanks Stuart! I guess you're right. The issue being writing 6 episodes a week. Another thing is that this effectively blocks up the schedule for new programmes.

You'd think also as a studio rather than just a channel that it would be in their long term interests to create a new content that they can sell internationally. A sixth episode of Corrie isn't going to see international sales for it rise by 20% - indeed I think when Emmerdale went six times a week Australia (and probably others) continued airing it five times a week, and as such are getting further behind with each passing year.

I doubt an extra corrie effects international sales at all. What do they usually show on a Sunday evening? Celebrity Chase? It isn't replacing a major internationally sold drama slot.


They even do it for Holby and Casualty, often shifting them to other days

Possibly because booting the regular soaps out of the way annoys those viewers, booting them off entirely would annoy them even more.

Plus there may be a budgetary reason where producing a couple less episodes barely saves any money as everyone is staff.

Holby and Casualty are different as they are weekly. I also think they have about 4 or 5 weeks during the year when Casualty doesnt air. Corrie is on so much i doubt most would notice if it lost an episode a week during the football. They know far enough in advance to know they only need say 3 episodes for that particular week.

As for international sales, i doubt it would effect it but they might not appreciate having to schedule an extra episode a week or fall behind if they keep it to 5 a week.

I just dont understand the need for 6 episodes. I never understood why Emmerdale have 6. The only thing im surprised at is its taken so long for a 6th Corrie episode to be announced considering Emmerdale have had 6 for over a decade now.

6 episodes is definitely overkill, especially as the current 5 episodes has resulted in boring characters and poor storylines.

I really thought Jason's exit storylines was one of the most boring, bland and rushed stories on the TV that I've seen in years.

It looks as though many others agree that 6 is too much as there's a poll on DS.