Soap fans were divided last night after EastEnders and Coronation Street made a major change.
The two mainstream soaps have each developed their own set of loyal followers who are committed to keeping up to date with the shows’ dramatic storylines every night.
Loyal viewers will be on the sofa at the same time every evening ready to hear that oh-so-familiar jingle chiming out of their TV speakers.
And there are even those who schedule their evenings around their viewing.
So many were disappointed last night when the hit soaps were hit with a schedule change.
Throughout the decades the two shows, which air on BBC One and ITV, have been careful to schedule themselves around each other so that fans can catch both of them without having to deal with an inconvenient clash.
But last night saw ITV's Coronation Street, which usually lasts for half an hour, was airing a special hour-long episode that ran from 7.30pm until 8.30pm.
However, this meant that it would clash with EastEnders’ 8pm time slot, which led to the BBC soap pushing back half an hour to air at 8.30pm instead.
And the rescheduling divided fans on social media.
Many took to Twitter to air the opinions after EastEnders posted the confirmation on their Twitter feed.
‘Sound the trumpets!’ they wrote, alongside a picture of character Sonia Fowler blowing a trumpet. ‘#EastEnders is on at the slightly later time of 8.30pm tonight! Don’t miss it.’
The change left some fans unhappy, with one writing: ‘8.30?!?!!?! Ffs This is gonna tip me over the edge. Fed up with this’.
Others commented: ‘Please don’t!’ and ‘Aaaaargh. Just settled down with a cuppa.’
However, many were for the change with one writing: ‘I prefer this later time along with Corrie being a straight hour long. Keeps the flow going nicely without channel hopping. Hope this will be a permanent routine.’
Others added: ‘Haha, love this, can't wait’ and ‘I asked for trumpet & you delivered Thanks’.
