Coronation St to Change Channels

Coronation Street will soon switch channels to TVNZ 2 — but only for the duration of the Tokyo Olympics.

TVNZ 1 will screen saturation coverage of the Olympics daily from midday, breaking only for 1 News at 6pm and Seven Sharp.

Normally that would disrupt continuity of a serial like Coronation Street. But instead of outraging Weatherfield diehards by taking their favourite fix off-air for two weeks, TVNZ 1 will strip it 9.30 Wednesday-Friday on its sister channel (it usually screens 9.30 Tuesday-Thursday).

It will do the same with the weekday broadcasts of Emmerdale.

“When we jumped the series forward to line up with the UK broadcast, we promised we would not fall behind,” a spokesperson says.

“Moving the programme to TVNZ 2 ensures we honour that. We’ll also move Emmerdale to TVNZ 2 for two weeks, airing weekdays at 1pm.”

The temporary move will coincide with tensions escalating between Street stalwart Rita Tanner (Barbara Knox) and former foster daughter-cum-new crime queen Sharon Bentley (Tracie Bennett).

Kudos to TVNZ 1 for the initiative. It nimbly pulled off the Herculean coup of updating Coronation Street from a two-year broadcast gap with the UK to two weeks, and its commitment to the soap’s fanbase is commendable after years of previous programming regimes not treating the primetime warhorse or its viewers with the respect both deserve.