ITV Share By Tamzin Meyer Jan 17 2025 By Tamzin Meyer Jan 17 2025 I'm a Gen Z Emmerdale fan - 8 things that'll encourage more soap viewers my age The future of soap depends on it Emmerdale Share By Tamzin Meyer Jan 17 2025 By Tamzin Meyer Jan 17 2025 With times ever changing, soaps are trying to constantly modernise themselves to appeal to younger viewers. As a Gen Z Emmerdale fan myself, I love tuning into the village drama every weekday. But, most of my friends my age have never even watched an episode. So, with this in mind, here are eight things the soap could do to bring in younger viewers. There aren’t enough teens and young adults in the village (Credit: ITV) Emmerdale young viewers: 1. Bring in more young characters Currently there are a lack of younger characters in the village, and the ones that are in the soap aren’t being focused on as much as they could be. We have April who has gone missing, and we have Jacob who is busy training to be a medical student. But, more focus could definitely be put on bringing in more teens and young adults and showing them hang out with their mates and having a good time. article continues below Read all the latest spoilers We don’t often see young characters hang out with anyone outside of the village either. Focusing on a group of teens for example could help younger viewers relate. 2. New landmark/ location shoots For this to happen, the introduction of a new landmark in the village could really help. Introducing a bar or new hangout spot in the village tailored to younger people could act as a foundation for a number of different character and storyline introductions. Even a village gym could work well, bringing something a bit more modern and ‘cool’ into the village rather than having characters limited to The Hide, the pub or the cafe. On a similar wavelength, the cast could film on location and head out to Leeds from time to time. Characters often mention that they’re off out to Leeds or Hotten but we never actually see it. This would help younger viewers realise that there’s so much more to Emmerdale than it being a stereotypical ‘farm’ based soap. Emmerdale young viewers: 3. Interactive episodes Something that rival soap EastEnders is trialling out next month is an interactive episode. Fans can vote on a storyline’s ending. The choice with the most votes will be the one that the soap pursues on screen. This creates such a buzz and gets fans involved with the soap. They feel as though they’re actively interacting with the soap. Young people love anything that is hyped up and talked about, so giving them this power will help them tune in to see whether their choice has been chosen! 4. Social media Gen Z just loves social media. In the age of technology, we mostly scroll through TikTok before switching over to X and Instagram later in the day, and then again having another TikTok session before bed. Including hashtags in the corner of episodes linked to storylines e.g. ‘#WhoKilledAnthony?‘ or ‘#Who’sBehindTheIce?’ could really help increase the number of young people talking about the soap online. And then if one person talks about it, their friends will most likely be intrigued. Kudos must be given to the Emmerdale TikTok team as they’ve started creating fun and engaging videos in recent months which are bound to rake in the likes and reposts. More of this, please! Storylines could be more tailored to younger viewers (Credit: ITV) 5. Storylines More topic-based storylines that reflect real-life issues and situations of younger viewers could be explored. Again, introducing new landmarks such as a bar or club could spark off these storylines. More storylines that involve things like social media trolling, online dating, drink spiking etc… could bring in young people who have experienced or feel connected to such topics in some way. 6. More flashforwards At the start of the year, Emmerdale aired five flashforwards for scenes that will air at different points throughout the year. This is something that really (really) appeals to me and other people my age, because as a generation we have serious FOMO. The thought of not having watched something that everyone has been talking about scares us (stupidly) and we feel like we must keep on top of the trends. Flashfowards help keep people interested in storylines for a long time, again creating so much hype. And, we love the hype, we really do. Cutting episodes down would make it easier to catch up (Credit: ITV) 7. Cut episodes down We’re a generation of binge-watchers meaning that we also like to watch shorter episodes that we can keep on top of rather than feeling like we are behind what everyone else is talking about. It can be hard to stay up to date with a soap as if you miss one episode, the chances are you’ll have missed a few more before you even find the time to catch up. And by then, you feel like you’ve missed too much to get back on track. But, if the number of weekly episodes were cut down to three or four half an hour episodes, it would be more manageable for younger viewers to keep up to date and catch up whilst fitting the show around their busy schedules. Emmerdale young viewers: 8. Celeb cameos Having a celebrity that is popular with Gen Z enter the village for a one off episode could help attract new viewers. They might tune in for that episode and end up sticking around for many episodes after. In 2023, Emmerdale involved Torvill and Dean in their Christmas Belle and Tom proposal episode. Something like this but with someone from a Reality TV show such as the Traitors or a popular TikTok star could work really well. We can just imagine GK Barry turning up in the Woolpack and having a pint with Steph Miligan. Read more: 15 Emmerdale spoilers for next week as Anthony is murdered Emmerdale usually airs weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV, with an early release at 7am on ITVX. Classic Emmerdale usually airs weekdays at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm. Follow our Facebook page @EmmerdaleInsider for the latest Emmerdale spoilers, news and gossip. Or find us on Twitter @EmmerdaleInside. Share Good to Know Share By Tamzin Meyer Jan 17 2025 By Tamzin Meyer Jan 17 2025
