Anger at plans to move Coronation Street

Fans of Coronation Street in Wanganui feel let down by TVNZ plans to move their favourite soap to the earlier time slot of 5.30pm.

Of particular concern to those Coronation Street fans in rest homes is that many won't have finished their dinner by the time the opening credits start rolling.

Others fans say that with a 30-minute episode each night instead of the hour-long show twice a week, the programme won't be closing on an exciting cliff-hanger any more.

Many described Coronation Street, television's longest-running soap, as one of their television-watching mainstays.

Coronation Street's 7.30pm time slot is to be taken over by MasterChef Australia, but many fans are outraged, saying they're sick to death of cooking shows.

At Summerset Retirement Village yesterday, many fans were up in arms over the time change, with a petition being started asking TVNZ to keep the show in its 7.30pm time slot.

Summerset hairdresser Judy Dean said she had watched Coronation Street from the very start and had always loved it.

"And I heard on the radio today that there were 344,000 fans of Masterchef and 580,000 fans of Coro... so that tells you something, doesn't it?"

The fans describe the show as being well-written with marvellous characters, and believe its faithful following should be taken into account.

However, a TVNZ spokeswoman said Masterchef was a prime-time winner last year, with its final show drawing in more than a million viewers.

Masterchef would end in early November but Coronation Street would not necessarily return to the 7.30pm timeslot, she said.

The schedule change would take effect from October 17, and was in place not only to work around Masterchef's popularity but also to fit in coverage of the Rugby World Cup and the election.

Coro viewers would now have an extra half hour of the show each week and can watch an omnibus, of all of the week's episodes, on Saturdays.