Coronation St moves to earlier timeslot

Coronation Street's Rovers Return will be appearing on your screens at the earlier time of 530pm - temporarily at least. Photo / supplied

In a move sure to outrage Coronation Street fans, the massively popular show has been bumped from its comfortable 7.30pm timeslot on TV One to make way for MasterChef Australia.

Coronation Street, which airs on Tuesday and Thursday for an hour, will now be shown at 5.30pm for half an hour every day, while MasterChef Australia will air every night at 7.30pm for the final three weeks of the competition.

The schedule change will also remain in place for the coverage of the election in October and November.

There are already fears from fans that the move may become permanent and complaints that commuters will still be on their way home when the opening credits roll and the familiar wheedling theme begins.

TV One and TV2 head Jeff Latch said that although the schedule change was temporary, there was a possibility the move could become permanent, depending on how it performed in the earlier slot.

"I haven't made a call on what will happen at the end of the three weeks. A lot of things come into play and we will be interested to see how it impacts.''

Since 2002 the Coronation Street audience has dwindled to half what it was.

The new schedule was "not about moving Coronation Street, that's not the driver. It's about putting the hugely popular MasterChef into primetime to drive people there,'' Mr Latch said.