Soap fans bewildered as their favourite shows disappear from schedules

Another week of the World Cup rolls on, so too do the schedule changes for ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale and, for this week, BBC soap EastEnders.

The football tournament officially kicked off on June 11, and coverage will air on ITV until July 19, meaning changes galore.

It comes just months after both soaps adopted a brand new scheduling pattern on ITV, the ‘soap power hour’, which sees the staples of evening broadcast now only air half an hour instalments back-to-back nightly, as opposed to three hour-longs for Corrie and a weekly hour-long visit to Emmerdale.

While the new scheduling pattern has been frequently disrupted, the football tournament has guaranteed chaos for the soaps.

Having already faced serious disruption – soap fans were shocked when both of the ITV soaps disappeared from tonight’s line up.

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BBC, meanwhile, have scheduled a double dose of EastEnders tonight (June 29), and moved this weeks episodes to BBC2 in place of Wimbledon.

Despite being previously advertised, Coronation Street will not air tonight (June 29), but will air for the rest of the week.

This weeks episodes are set to see Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon) finally face the music next week, as the trial against her begins.

With Will Driscoll (Lucas Hodgson-Wale) due to take the stand and testify against the woman who groomed and sexually abused him, will he find justice?

Episodes can be streamed on ITVX and YouTube from 7am on the day of airing.

This week in the Dales sees the fall out from the return of viewer favourite, Kev Townsend’s (Chris Coghill), who caused shockwaves through the village when he revealed to Lewis Barton (Bradley Riches) that he’s his dad.

With Lewis’ brother, Ross (Michael Parr), and surrogate mother-figure, Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler), both desperate to see the back of him, will Kev’s return be a short one?

Episodes can be streamed on ITVX and YouTube from 7am on the day of airing.

While relatively untouched by the football schedule, this week has seen EastEnders shift it’s transmission pattern, with a double bill of episodes tonight, and no episode tomorrow.

Episodes can be streamed on BBC iPlayer from 7am on the days that they’re due to air.

📢SCHEDULE UPDATE📢 Double #EastEnders tonight at 7:30pm & 8:00pm on @BBCTwo. No episode on Tuesday 30th June. Watch both episodes now on @BBCiPlayer. ➡️ https://t.co/IL75vOfwyb pic.twitter.com/BGPl6dnH1U

This week will see the climax of creepy Bea Pollard’s (Ronni Ancona) story, as her manipulation of the Mitchell family is fully exposed, leading to a final showdown between her, Billy and Honey (Perry Fenwick and Emma Barton).

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