Corriedale boss Iain MacLeod has finally revealed whether the ITV shows will merge permanently, following the upcoming crossover. The two flagship soaps are set to collide on 5 January 2026, in a groundbreaking celebration of the genre.

The hour-long special will unfold within a self-contained episode, before the residents of Weatherfield and the Dales return to their respective homes. However, the huge event will link both communities forever. So, could this result in a lasting amalgamation of the two shows?

Unfortunately for fans, MacLeod, the executive producer for continuing drama at ITV Studios, has shut down any possibility of a long-term crossover, describing both soaps as “distinct entities.”

“They have their own tone of voice and their own sense of humour and their own way of telling stories, and they wouldn’t blend long-term at all, I don’t think really,” he told Digital Spy and other media. “So it’s brilliant to bring them together for this. But no, there are no plans to do anything similar in future. Sorry to be a killjoy, to those of you who were hoping there was!”

The episode has promised an “ambitious stunt” with “everlasting consequences” that will rock the lives of everyone involved. MacLeod explained how the drama is intensified through cinematic storytelling which will give it “a very premium feel”.

“We knew that we’d be in the shop window as a genre. So part of that is showing what we can do in terms of our visual aesthetic… We started off with a shopping list of what’s the best things that can happen in a soap. From pregnancy reveals to murderer reveals to affair reveals, and we literally just put the shopping list down and went, ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could get every single one of these things into an episode? Would that not be like the best episode of soap you’ve ever seen?’

“And we had a flaming good go, let me say. So yeah, we wanted to showcase the best of our storytelling, the best of our technical craft, both the production teams, the crew, everybody behind the scenes, I should say, on Emmerdale and Corrie, look at what they did. It’s absolutely stunning and if anyone has the temerity to look down their nose at soap as a genre after watching that, then I’ll be writing them a sternly worded letter!”