Corriedale boss Iain MacLeod has finally revealed whether the ITV shows will merge permanently, following the upcoming crossover. The two flagship soaps are set to collide on 5 January 2026, in a groundbreaking celebration of the genre.
The hour-long special will unfold within a self-contained episode, before the residents of Weatherfield and the Dales return to their respective homes. However, the huge event will link both communities forever. So, could this result in a lasting amalgamation of the two shows?
Unfortunately for fans, MacLeod, the executive producer for continuing drama at ITV Studios, has shut down any possibility of a long-term crossover, describing both soaps as “distinct entities.”
“They have their own tone of voice and their own sense of humour and their own way of telling stories, and they wouldn’t blend long-term at all, I don’t think really,” he told Digital Spy and other media. “So it’s brilliant to bring them together for this. But no, there are no plans to do anything similar in future. Sorry to be a killjoy, to those of you who were hoping there was!”
The episode has promised an “ambitious stunt” with “everlasting consequences” that will rock the lives of everyone involved. MacLeod explained how the drama is intensified through cinematic storytelling which will give it “a very premium feel”.
ITV
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“We knew that we’d be in the shop window as a genre. So part of that is showing what we can do in terms of our visual aesthetic… We started off with a shopping list of what’s the best things that can happen in a soap. From pregnancy reveals to murderer reveals to affair reveals, and we literally just put the shopping list down and went, ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could get every single one of these things into an episode? Would that not be like the best episode of soap you’ve ever seen?’
“And we had a flaming good go, let me say. So yeah, we wanted to showcase the best of our storytelling, the best of our technical craft, both the production teams, the crew, everybody behind the scenes, I should say, on Emmerdale and Corrie, look at what they did. It’s absolutely stunning and if anyone has the temerity to look down their nose at soap as a genre after watching that, then I’ll be writing them a sternly worded letter!”
ITV
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Speaking about how the crossover got its official name, MacLeod shared that they originally thought ‘Corriedale‘ was “too obvious”.
“We spent months and months torturing ourselves, going, ‘oh, come on, we’re supposed to be creative’. But no, we’ll just call it Corriedale. It just makes no sense to go the other way. ‘Emmernation’ [Street] is confusing, because it’s actually almost a real word.
“So yeah, Corriedale was the logical choice, I think and it works. I love the logo. I think I might have that printed on a T-shirt or a beer mat or something, just so it stays with me forever, because it looks great, and it’s a soap first. I can’t think of anything more proud in my career than that. Yeah, I’m going to get it printed on loads of stuff and parade around like an embarrassing idiot wearing it! But no, Corriedale was the only choice, really in the end.”
ITV
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The special episode will usher in a new broadcast schedule for 2026, with a 30-minute episode from each soap airing every weekday night. MacLeod shared that the change has been made to accommodate busy viewers, alongside the recent decision to upload each episode online from 7am on the day of transmission.
“If you’re trying to fit an episode of soap into your day, if you work from home, or you work part time, or maybe you want to watch your soap in the evening, it’s much easier to do that if it’s a half hour transmission, rather than an hour long transmission,” he said.
“So, it’s way more digestible. It’s the right length of soap, in my humble opinion, it’s what soap started as. And yeah, I think it definitely will be easier for people now, especially as they move more towards ITVX, to pick up a half hour of Corrie or a half hour of Emmerdale and fit it in before they’re due to come and collect their kid from school, fit in on their lunch hour if they’re working from home, or watch it on the tram into work if they want to on their phone.
“So, yeah, the effort we’re making is to try and align what we’re offering with how people consume TV these days.”
Corriedale airs on Monday 5 January at 8pm on ITV1 and will stream on ITVX.
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