Ross in Emmerdale Thursday May 15

The drama is ramping up again in this week’s Emmerdale as Joe’s attacker at Home Farm is unveiled – but at what time is Emmerdale on tonight, Thursday, May 15?

With football, rugby and other special shows, ITV tends to shift the soap schedule round to accommodate them. But we’ve got you covered with all the up-to-date schedule changes right here.

The suspects in the Joe Tate whodunnit
Who pushed Joe out of the window at Home Farm? We find out in Emmerdale this week (Credit: ITV)

What time is Emmerdale on tonight?

On Thursday, May 15, 2025, Emmerdale will air at the usual time of 7.30pm on ITV.

The episode is already available on streaming service ITVX. It is normally released there every weekday at 7am.

Victoria and Tracy hail John a hero
Victoria and Tracy hail John a hero (Credit: ITV)

What happens in Emmerdale tonight – Ross meets Lewis

Ross is still reeling from the revelation he has a half-brother he knew nothing about. After Matty’s words of wisdom, Ross decides to seize the day and arranges to meet Lewis. Moira is understandably apprehensive as she’s aware her murder secret could come spilling out.

Things are tense as Ross and Lewis meet and Lewis has many, many questions about their mum, Emma Barton. Ross can’t answer them and gets flustered, deciding to leave and never see Lewis again. Will Lewis leave the family reunion alone, though?

Meanwhile, it’s John and Aaron’s stag do. Mack is determined to get one over on John and sets his plan into motion. But does John also have something up his sleeve? And who will come out on top?

Emmerdale powering ahead as schedule set to change again for 2026 ‘power hour’

In October 2024, Emmerdale announced they were going to start streaming the daily episode of the soap from 7am. Despite some concerns that it meant the soap was in trouble, coupled with lots of cast exits, it has been revealed that actually it was a great move by ITV.

Stats for the first quarter of 2025 revealed that ITVX has achieved a ‘record-breaking’ billion streams in a quarter for the ‘first time ever.’ Coronation Street and Emmerdale have raked up 124 million streams on ITVX so far this year. Soap viewing is up 35 percent in comparison to the first quarter of 2024. So it seems fans are really enjoying the 7am uploads.

It’ll soon be all change once again for ITV and Emmerdale in 2026 after the soap announced a new schedule. The soap ‘power hour’ will start from next January.

Emmerdale will continue to air five nights a week. New episodes will also drop on ITVX every morning at 7am as usual – meaning we don’t have to wait all day if we don’t want to!

However, the soap will move to a new time slot of 8pm. The Thursday double bill will also be cut to half an hour to make way for additional episodes of Coronation Street.

This ensures faster-paced, digestible episodes – a 30-minute format which has already proven popular with viewers.

Read more: Who’s leaving Emmerdale? All the cast exits, arrivals and returns

Emmerdale usually airs weeknights on ITV at 7.30pm, with an early release on ITVX at 7am.

Classic Emmerdale usually airs every weekday on ITV3 at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm.

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