The highly-anticipated crossover began with a car crash, with many beloved residents from both Weatherfield and the Dales left fighting for their lives

An image depicts a clapperboard from a film set, with the words "Corriedale" prominently displayed, indicating the filming of a

Corriedale has been a huge hit with fans (Image: PR)

ITV’s popular soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale united audiences for the first time on Monday (January 5) evening in the groundbreaking Corriedale event. The eagerly awaited crossover kicked off with a disastrous car accident, leaving many cherished inhabitants from both Weatherfield and the Dales battling for survival.

 

The thrilling events continued relentlessly throughout the action-packed hour, offering viewers a rollercoaster of drama from beginning to end, including gruesome murders, a romantic proposal, suspenseful chase sequences, and even several fatalities. As anticipated, the show was a tremendous success with fans, peaking at 4.7 million viewers (averaging 4.2 million viewers across the hour). The remarkable live overnight audience figures are the highest live TV ratings for a soap in over a year, and the largest TV peak audience for a soap since 2022 (excluding Christmas Day episodes), reports the Daily Star.

Graham Foster, as played by Andrew Scarborough, wearing a suit and in the village

Graham, who was a legal guardian and father figure to Joe Tate, made his first appearance on the hit ITV soap in 2017 as Joe’s right-hand man (Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

 

Corriedale boasts the highest live TV audience for any drama across all broadcasters or streamers since Call the Midwife in February 2025, and ITV’s highest TV audience since I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

The hour-long special, which saw the two soap universes clash in a high-stakes multi-vehicle pile-up, has ignited a social media storm, with a combined reach of over 140 million across social platforms. Viewers have hailed it as ‘the greatest hour of television I have ever seen’ and ‘absolute cinema’.

One viewer posted on X: “Standing ovation from my living room. What an episode. That was the greatest hour of television I’ve ever seen. Everyone involved should be incredibly proud.”

Another declared: “I think that was the single best episode of a soap I’ve ever seen in my life and I’m not even being dramatic. My brain is going to take 3-5 business days to process this. So many questions. Absolute cinema. Everyone who worked on it take a f***ing bow.”

There were worrying scenes on Emmerdale after the Corriedale crossover episode

Corriedale ITV SCREENGRABS (Image: ITV)

A third enthused: “They’re gonna need a bigger stage for the NTAs when #corriedale sweep all the awards. #CorrieDale was some of the best TV I’ve watched for years.”

While another praised: “‘I am so bloody proud to be a soaps fan right now. congratulations to every single person who worked on that episode because it was beautifully done and felt like such a gift. I am in shock, I grew up with both these shows and that was the most special piece of tv.”

The triumph of Corriedale marks the official launch of ITV’s new ‘Soap Power Hour’ schedule, which sees both programmes now airing every weeknight for 30 minutes per episode. The aftermath of the crash will continue to unfold across Coronation Street and Emmerdale on ITV and ITVX.

Both soaps are starting 2026 on the back of a record-breaking year for soaps on ITVX, with viewing figures up 30% – surpassing half a billion streams in 2025 for the first time in history.