Scheduling of Emmerdale and Central Television chose to move the programme to 19:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays in February 1989, This was the first time Anglia had screened "Emmerdale Farm" in the 19:00 slot, Central were simply returning to the slots they used until December 1987, for a period Anglia and Central saw episodes one week later than other regions. From January 1990 all other regions followed the Central and Anglia schedule in the familiar Tuesday and Thursday 19:00 slot. Most companies continued to broadcast the series at 7 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, repeats was shown in the daytime slot of the
Emmerdale plane crash White in October 2015. Previously seen as "quaint and slow" compared to other British soap operas, the plane crash was a turning point for "Emmerdale" and marked its "graduation" into a major prime time soap opera. The episode gave "Emmerdale" its highest-ever audience of 18 million. ITV received many complaints as the timing of the storyline was close to the fifth anniversary of the Lockerbie Disaster. According to "The Independent", the episode proved to be "brilliant television", as it "allowed the writers to get rid of much dead wood, and reinvent the soap virtually from scratch." In the 5 January