Members of the Hollyoaks cast were spotted looking downcast as they left the Liverpool studio where the show is filmed on Friday 9 September, just hours after it was revealed the long running series had been pulled from the Channel 4 schedule.
The iconic soap, which is set in Chester, has been a mainstay of weeknight evenings on the channel, since the show barrelled onto our screens in 1995.
Night after night, excited viewers had tuned into the regular 6:30pm slot to catch up on the latest goings on of some of Soapland’s mot beloved characters.
However in a new schedule shake up, it was revealed this week that Channel 4 would be pulling Hollyoaks from it’s historic time-slot, and moving it to sister channel E4 instead, in the hopes of attracting a younger audience.
In addition to the move, the broadcaster also revealed plans to upload content onto Youtube, with the episodes also available to stream online, meaning the show will go on – albeit in a different place.
The news will no doubt have come as a shock to many fans, but the cast too appear to be feeling the sting of the decision when they were spotted leaving the studio on the day the news first broke.
In the images, Kieron Richardson who plays fan favourite Ste Hay in the soap was seen looking far from cheerful as he got into his car to leave the studio.
A similar sentiment also appeared to have been shared by his co-star Kirsty Leigh Porter, who plays Leela Lomax in the soap, as she too appeared downcast while driving home from set.
The schedule shake up marks a startling change for the popular soap, which has held the same evening time-slot for the duration of its 28 year history!
The show, which was created by soap mastermind Phil Redmond, became the first big smash-hit soap to delight audiences on Channel 4, since the axe of Brookside two years earlier.
Throughout its almost 30 year run, Hollyoaks has often tackled subjects that many other soaps have shied away for and even previously became well known for airing a special series of darker episodes after the watershed when tackling particularly taboo subjects.
Beginning with just 15 characters in total, the current cast now extends to over 50, with viewers continually tuning in to watch the drama and day to day lives of their beloved characters unfold.
The new changes to the Hollyoaks schedule are due to come into force on 25 September
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