‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Emmerdale’ have announced historic interactive crossover episode

The beloved British soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale have announced a dramatic crossover episode which is set to be aired in 2026.

This historic hour-long episode will unite the residents of Weatherfield and the Dales, kicking off the new year for both shows.

While the episode will be largely self-contained and promises to be action-packed.

The occasion will be marked by “an ambitious stunt” that will have “everlasting consequences for everyone involved”. The consequences of the drama will link the two communities forever, as familiar faces depart and new arrivals stir the pot.

Digital Spy also reported that fans will get to shape the plot of the upcoming crossover. Soap enthusiasts can choose which two characters, one from each soap, that they would like to see meet.

Details of how viewers can influence the story will be shared next month on Coronation Street’s and Emmerdale’s social media pages.

The BBC had a similar gimmick attached to EastEnders as the soap celebrated its 30th anniversary. Fans were given the opportunity to choose whether Denise Fox (Diane Parish) would reunite with her estranged husband Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) or her secret lover Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara).

This is not the first time there has ever been a soap crossover, but it is the first of this scale.

The Channel 4 series Hollyoaks and Brookside repeatedly made cross-show references. In 2010 Children in Need aired a charity crossover between the stars of EastEnders and Coronation Street, titled “East Street”.

More officially, there was a week-long series of soaps crossovers back in November 2021 when characters in Casualty, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Doctors and Holby City made references to each other.

The crossover week was intended to draw attention to climate change ahead of the COP26 conference.

In that episode, Coronation Street characters only watched a social media video featuring two of Emmerdale’s residents but this episode promises a much more tangled drama between ITV’s most beloved soap stars.

Following the crossover, Coronation Street and Emmerdale will return to their new airing schedule for 2026.