Emmerdale is not on tonight (Friday, March 21) in a shake-up to the usual soap schedules. It usually airs on ITV on Fridays at 7:30pm, with the episode dropping beforehand on ITVX. However, this isn’t the case tonight, with Emmerdale neither on TV nor available for streaming today.

A dark day for soaps fans, who won’t be getting their Coronation Street fix either, with this also having been removed from the schedule.

But why isn’t Emmerdale on tonight?

Emmerdale is not on tonight – here’s why

Emmerdale and Coronation Street are not on due to the World Cup Qualifiers airing on ITV1 from 7pm to 10:05pm tonight. No need to feel short-changed though, the soap already made up the missing half-hour earlier this week, with an hour-long episode on Tuesday.

However, there’s more bad news in store… the disruption will continue into next week, with the World Cup Qualifiers continuing to affect soap schedules then also.

When is Emmerdale on next week?

Emmerdale will not air on ITV1 next Monday (March 24) either, with the football airing at the same time that evening. Instead, the soap will play another hour-long special on Tuesday (March 25) to make up for lost time.

This will be in addition to its usual hour-long special on Thursday. The episodes are expected to drop on ITVX as usual on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before airing in the evening.

This means fans will have to wait a whole five days to see Ella’s torment continue, as the accusations surrounding Chas continue. Backed into a corner as she becomes the village pariah, Ella stands her ground – trying to convince Liam that Chas has a secret painkiller addiction.

And, as her former friends reach their wits’ end, she lashes out – leaving a mortified Manpreet caught in the middle.