Emmerdale boss reveals she’s quit the soap and moved to Coronation Street in huge ITV shake-up – after the cobbles were thrown into crisis over boss replacement ‘headache’

Kate Brooks has been appointed the new producer for Coronation Street after leaving Emmerdale in a surprise shake-up.

The TV veteran – who first served as story producer on the cobbles back in 2012 – is leaving Emmerdale after eight years to take over from Iain MacLeod after he was promoted to executive producer for continuing drama.

In a statement, she said: ‘I’ve had a wonderful time working on Emmerdale and I feel immensely proud to be part of a team that has achieved such great success over the past eight years.

‘I’ve absolutely loved my time on the show, and I’ve had the privilege of working with such a hugely talented and hard-working bunch of people, who also happen to be the loveliest, too.’

Kate added that she has gained more than she ‘ever could have imagined’ both professionally and personally from her time on the Yorkshire Dales-based show, but she’s delighted to make the jump to Weatherfield next month.

She said: ‘Corrie has lit up my living room since I was a kid, so to be asked to produce a show I’ve revered for such a long time is the ultimate pinch me moment.

‘I’ve adored the show from across the Pennines and have consistently been in awe of the talent on display, both on and off the screen.

‘It truly is a special show and I endeavour to take great care to ensure that it continues to thrive as we head into the next chapter.

‘Coronation Street has, and always will be, part of my DNA, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.’

Meanwhile, Iain hailed Kate as a ‘fantastic storyteller’, and he’s looking forward to seeing what she does at the helm.

He commented: ‘I know under her guidance the show will be ambitious, exciting and full of heart and humour.

‘She is ”Corrie” to the core and such a good fit for the show. I am genuinely excited to see what the next chapter holds and can’t wait to work with her again.’

During her time on Emmerdale, Kate produced a range of storylines alongside fellow producer Laura Shaw, including serial killer Meena Jutla and Mandy Dingle’s 2019 return after 17 years away, along with Marlon’s stroke, and Faith’s breast cancer storyline in 2022.

She also married Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick in 2019, and they have two children together.

Earlier this month MailOnline revealed that Corrie bosses were struggling with the ‘headache’ of finding Iain’s replacement.

It was revealed that a number of television executives turned down the prestigious job – leaving the network with a ‘huge headache.’

ITV’s top drama boss and former editor of The Archers Huw Kennair-Jones was drafted in to sort the problem out and he has approached a number of top television executives working at the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky in a bid to lure them across.

But so far, he has failed to entice anyone to manage the show, which is set in the fictional town of Weatherfield, after Iain McLeod left the position of Coronation Street’s boss for a bigger role at the broadcaster after six years last week.

As a stop gap, MacLeod’s wife and deputy on Corrie, Verity MacLeod, is filling in until they find someone to take the job.

Staff at ITV say that this is putting off potential candidates because they don’t want to be working in between the married couple, something that is now referred to internally as the ‘MacLeod sandwich.’

One insider told MailOnline: ‘ITV have had conversations with a number of television executives who are currently working on other serial dramas or have in the past been at the helm of big shows.

‘But no one wants to do it. One of the things putting people off is the fact that you’d be answering to Iain while having his wife as your deputy.

‘It’s a ”MacLeod sandwich” that no one wants to be in the middle of and it’s now become even more of a headache for ITV.’

In recent years, Corrie, which still stars William Roache as Ken Barlow, and has come under fire for abandoning its loyal audience, its obsession with younger characters and a number of ‘unbelievable’ plot lines.

Show insiders say that there have been a number of conversations amongst the top brass at ITV that Corrie series producer Iain MacLeod had been in the job too long after joining the show back in 2018 because it is a role that has always changed hands every two to three years.

One said: ‘Corrie has always been a job for two to three years. It needs that change every few years to bring in new ideas, while staying loyal to its DNA and keeping the viewers happy.

‘It’s one of the biggest and most prestigious jobs in television. There had been some noise for a while with talk of the ‘Corrie problem’ so by creating this new role ITV across both soaps it saw it as the answer to both Corrie as well as Jane Hudson’s departure at Emmerdale.’

Earlier this year, actress Maureen Lipman, 77, who has played Evelyn Plummer since 2018, urged the soap to scrap gritty storylines and go back to basics.

She said: ‘We’ve come to a point in Corrie now where people are getting murdered in knicker factories. We’re having domestic abuse. Anything that ticks the box of social problems in the 21st century is going to be in your local soap.’

Speaking on the Beyond The Title podcast, she continued: ‘Whereas back then you had the freedom to put Martha [Longhurst], Minnie [Caldwell] and Ena [Sharples] in the snug and have a conversation about Ben-Hur.

‘It’s never been political but I always like it when the women sit down and go, ”Ooh, Donald Trump, ain’t his hair shocking.’

She added: ‘All those wonderful expressions that your parents come out with, like my mother saying, ‘Ooh, doesn’t a black skirt cover a multitude of sins.’ People talk like that, and we recognise it as true.’