What time is Emmerdale on tonight? Get up-to-date schedules and changes here

You don't need to miss a minute of Emmerdale with our handy guide
Carena Crawford

After weeks of disruption, Emmerdale is back to normal this week – so what time is it on tonight?

Between football, rugby and other special shows, ITV tends to shift the soap schedule round to accommodate them. And boy have they been shifting A LOT lately! But we’ve got you covered with all the up-to-date schedule changes right here!

Where is Bear? (Credit: ITV)
Where is Bear? (Credit: ITV)

What time is Emmerdale on tonight?

On Friday July 18 2025, Emmerdale is airing in its usual time slot of 7.30pm.

The episode is usually released on ITVX and now YouTube every day at 7am, and so it is already available to watch on those platforms.

Bear is still missing from the village
Bear can’t find the courage to contact Paddy (Credit: ITV)

What happens in Emmerdale tonight – Owen is back

After the funeral last night (Thursday July 17), John is feeling worried. He makes another call to the helpline, but quickly cuts the call – why?

Meanwhile, Liam has Owen on a list of call-out patients – what does Owen want? And why is he back now?

Elsewhere, Paddy opens up to Mandy over his fear of dogs. Can Chip help him overcome his worries?

We also finally see Bear, but he is a long way from hom – and a long way from reconnecting with his son.

Paddy is living in fear in Emmerdale
Paddy is living in fear of dogs (Credit: ITV)

Soap power-hour in 2026

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, there is a big change coming as 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