A VETERAN Coronation Street writer has warned the soap risks a drop in quality if it goes to six nights a week.
Writer John Stevenson, who penned episodes of the soap for 30 years, has confessed he worries the high quality of the ITV soap will be negatively affected when production ramps up to six episodes a week.
Alamy
According to the Daily Star, Stevenson, who began writing for the show in 1976, told fans at a Corrie event of his fears for the show.
“When it got to four episodes it became too much,” he said to the audience.
“Before you could hear a line in rehearsal, realise it wasn’t working and tell the director to change it. Those days are gone.”
A show insider previously told The Sun cast and crew were also previously worried about being too short-staffed to cope and they feel they will be “worked to the bone” to fill another 30 minute episode every week.
ITV
Some say they worry storylines will be dragged out or that new ones won’t meet the high standards of the world’s longest-running soap.
And younger cast members are now eyeing bumper pay-rises – with some newcomers paid up to six times less than veteran actors on the show.
ITV
A Street source said: “They believe many more cast will need to be hired to cope, if they don’t then the existing cast are going to be worked to the bone to fill the extra half an hour, and it’s the same with the crew.
“The cast fear that going to an extra episode will bore fans. Six episodes a week, 52 weeks a year leaves no feeling of ‘wanting more’.”
In an email sent to cast and crew after the announcement, Corrie stars were promised there would be new hires.
The email said: “We’ll be able to strengthen and increase our teams right across the board to support making the additional episodes.
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The show’s younger cast are now putting pressure on show bosses for pay-rises with the increase in working hours.
New actors who joined the show like Lucy Fallon, 20, who plays Bethany Platt, pick up six times less than Street veterans like Bill Roache, 84.
Getty Images - WireImage
And strict rules mean glam actors including Brooke Vincent, 24, and Kym Marsh, 40, have been forced to turn down lucrative ads plugging clothes and cosmetics.
A TV source said: “Everyone thinks that the actors are on top dollar but that’s not the case. Some are on big money but the salaries drop off really quickly.
Getty Images - WireImage
“The six-days-a week run is now an opportunity for them to really boost their earnings with extra appearance fees.
“The kids coming in now are on a pittance compared with what the older cast members earn.
“They work really hard but compared to the older cast, their salaries are chalk and cheese. And a lot of the actors have been offered advertising work that they aren’t allowed to do because they are in a soap.”
Newcomers can earn as little as £40,000—a-year – that’s on a par with cast members at Channel 4 show Hollyoaks, which has a fraction of the viewers of Corrie.
While Weatherfield big guns are taking home a quarter of a million pounds.
But now the extra workload should mean extra appearance fees and royalty payments for repeats on ITV2.
The Sun revealed how the show would air six episodes for the first time in its history - starting in Autumn 2017.
It's not yet known which day the extra episode will be shown on however for some time the show has aired an extra episode on Thursday nights.
- Coronation Street airs weeknights on ITV
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