Why is Eastenders not on tonight? BBC soap removed from schedule and will not air tonight - here’s why

The popular BBC One soap usually airs from Monday to Thursday every week, but has been removed from the schedule tonight - here’s why
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The BBC schedule has been slightly disrupted this week as the broadcaster has opted to offer viewers live coverage of the FA Cup fifth round. This has caused much-loved soap Eastenders to be removed from the airwaves tonight (March 1).

The broadcaster will show extensive coverage of the fifth round FA Cup tie between Championship side Sheffield United and Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, with coverage spilling in to Eastenders’ usual slot.

This comes as the soap airs one of its hardest hitting storylines of recent time, with Whitney Dean’s pregnancy woes and more. In 2022, It was confirmed that Eastenders had its best ever year of viewing on BBC iPlayer, racking up a total of 366 million times streamed.

This also isn’t the first time this year that the soap has recently been disrupted due to FA Cup coverage. Earlier in February, the soap was removed from the schedule due to a replay between Sunderland and Fulham.

When the soap was last removed in February, as explained above, the BBC allocated Eastenders an extra slot. The soap usually airs every weekday bar Friday for 30 minutes from 7:30pm.

And, this will occur this week as well, with the BBC giving Eastenders a slot on its schedule for Friday, meaning fans of the soap will get their usual four episodes a week, just on a slightly askew schedule.