Between April and August 2019, ITV began airing an additional episode on Tuesdays at 8pm, bringing the total number of episodes a week to seven but it was reduced back to six due to the heavy amount of filming for cast and crew involved. In March 2020, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, filming was suspended, and the episodes transmitted per week were decreased to three on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.[12] For three weeks of June 2020, two episodes of Emmerdale were transmitted per week in order to preserve episodes.[13] At the end of June, episodes returned to three per week.[14] In September, Emmerdale returned to its regular transmission count of six weekly episodes.[15]