Is Emmerdale and Coronation Street on tonight? ITV soaps pulled from schedule again as Six Nations action starts

The ITV soaps have been pulled from Thursday evening’s line-up, marking the second time this week that fans have gone without the latest fix of Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

Viewers were previously left disappointed after Tuesday night’s ‘soap power hour’ was removed from the schedule to make way for live coverage of the ELF Cup semi-final second-leg clash between Arsenal and Chelsea.

Now, ITV’s coverage of the opening match of the Six Nations Championships 2026 is the culprit for interrupting the usual soap schedule.

The match, between France and Ireland, will be shown live on ITV1 and STV. Coverage, presented by Jill Douglas, will begin at 7.20pm before the match kicks off at 8.20pm.

This is slap bang in the middle of ITV’s normal ‘soap power hour’, which sees half-hour episodes of Emmerdale and Coronation Street air between 8-9pm. As a result, the two popular soaps will not air on Thursday evening.

There will also be no early release episodes on Thursday morning due to the schedule change. ITV normally releases new episodes of Emmerdale and Coronation Street at 7am every weekday on ITVX, STV, and YouTube, but only on days when episodes will also be hitting television that same night.

The good news for fans is that Emmerdale and Coronation Street will return to the ‘soap power hour’ slot on Friday, February 6. There will also be the early release of the episode to enjoy on Friday morning.

Fans have been left frustrated by the interruptions to ITV’s soap schedule for sports coverage. One viewers took to social media to say: “First #Emmerdale gets moved from 7pm to 7.30, so as not to clash with other things, then its moved to 8pm & half hour removed...and yet STILL we lose episodes to the boring football? @ITV this is getting silly.”

Another added: “If we must have football in the week just put #emmerdale & #corrie on #itv2 Why do those of us who hate football have to suffer?”