Coronation Street back to prime time

Turn those frowns upside down - Coro's back where it belongs! Photo / supplied

By 'eck, it's good news.

TVNZ has announced it'll be moving Coronation Street back to its usual 7.30pm timeslot.

The broadcaster's decision to move Coronation Street to the earlier time of 5.25pm and replace it with MasterChef Australia created a deluge of anger - even claims the move was a form of 'elder abuse'.

But today TVNZ said now the MasterChef Australia finals are over, Coronation Street will run once again at 7.30pm, on consecutive Thursdays and Fridays, starting next week.

The broadcaster says the prime time placement has been selected to allow flexibility of scheduling for the early part of the week, and foreshadows the introduction of predominantly NZ content on Tuesday nights when New Season material is launched in the New Year.

In the meantime Ellen will return to the 5pm slot, and the best of Intrepid Journeys will take the 7.30 Tuesday slot formerly occupied by Coronation Street.

Head of TV ONE and TV2, Jeff Latch says, "we always said we would retain an open mind about the best place for Coronation Street, and TVNZ is very happy to give fans some certainty about the show's placement in the schedule."

A word of caution from Mr Latch however, that the schedule could be further interrupted by TVNZ's obligation to broadcast the closing addresses for the general election and the final leaders' debate.