Coronation Street episode branded ‘worst ever’

The Street has seen a lack of award wins, and viewers branding the show ‘awful’…

It seems however when it comes to outdoing how awful Corrie has become the producers this week have manged to outdo even recent awfulness that saw the show called ‘CSI Weatherfield’ by some viewers, with its recent focus on crime and cops.

Now research suggests that yesterday’s episode of the long running serial, that used to be everyday life on a terrace street, is possibly the worst ever edition, certainly an abysmal offering in many years.

Before the internet Granada Television’s Press Office did a sterling job at keeping The Street out of bad publicity, more often than not. But those days are long gone. And while it has traded on its legacy for decades, as year on year its quality diminishes, that viewer goodwill and loyalty is disappearing faster than the Weatherfield death rate rises.

Social analysis has revealed the Coronation Street episode that aired on ITV1 on 23 June 2025 has triggered what may be the strongest viewer backlash in recent memory — and new analysis by the team at Slotozilla confirming it wasn’t just a bad night. It may have been the soap’s lowest moment.

Using a combination of social listening tools, brand sentiment analysis, and Grok’s AI-powered platform, Slotozilla tracked public opinion around the episode — and benchmarked it against two years of viewer reactions.

The results: sentiment for the June 23rd episode ranked lowest across the entire two-year dataset, with over 90% of reactions falling into negative or critical categories.

Poor Writing and Tone: Fans labelled the script “pathetic” and overly focused on grim, issue-led storylines without any of the warmth or wit typically associated with the show. One user said, “It’s like they’re trying to kill it off.”

Overstuffed Plotlines: Dramatic reveals — including the Brody/Kit father-son twist and Lauren’s drug spiral — were criticised for being rushed and jammed into a single hour. Viewers described the pacing as “chaotic” and “impossible to follow.”

Production Quality: Acting was described as “GCSE level,” while the overall production was dubbed “shambolic.” Some even compared the episode unfavourably to children’s TV shows like Byker Grove.

“EastEnders can do scenes of drama without the need for dodgy camera work, and American-style incidental music. Can you imagine how awful the scene of Hilda Odgen mourning the passing of husband Stan would be if it was done now – with random shots and weird music. It was one camera, one shot and silence. The result was brilliant. Brilliance is a word no one will be using to describe Corrie if it carries on as it is. It needs clearing out from the top down.” – ATV Today TV Critic Vivian Summers

Slotozilla’s two-year trend data suggests viewer frustration has been building — with spikes in negativity seen during similar high-drama episodes, but none matching the volume or intensity of June 23rd.

“We’ve monitored UK entertainment sentiment for years — and this episode triggered the kind of backlash usually reserved for reality TV controversies,” said a spokesperson from Slotozilla’s insight team. “If nothing else, it’s a clear signal that viewers feel the show has lost its balance.”

Former cast have in the past spoken about the change in tone of Coronation Street, something that began many years ago as it attempted to compete with EastEnders and Brookside. ‘In the old days the soaps all had their own style and identiy, these days the storylines just move from one to the other, and they all try to be EastEnders – and frankly the only serial that should be doing that is EastEnders’ Summers adds.

• Analysis used Grok AI alongside proprietary sentiment tools and keyword tracking, covering social platforms including X and Facebook groups.
• A total of 214 relevant media pages and user posts were assessed, with additional historical comparisons to Coronation Street episodes dating back to June 2023.