CORONATION Street’s Mollie Winnard has become the latest star to swap Weatherfield for a rival soap.
It comes with longtime stars such as , , , and either quitting or being forced to leave the cash-strapped serial drama.
Coronation Street’s Mollie Winnard has swapped Weatherfield for Waterloo Road after bagging a role on the rival soap Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk
The actress portrayed Kayla Clifton on the cobbles back in 2018 Credit: Rex
Now, Mollie – – has jumped ship with a new role on Waterloo Road.
The actress, 29, is joining the school-set drama as new teacher Gemma Tully, who has recently qualified.
She has so far been confirmed to appear in eight upcoming episodes, with it yet to be announced whether she’ll be a longterm fixture.
Mollie joined Coronation Street as waitress Kayla in April 2018 and left the summer of that year.
She has joined Waterloo Road with a role as a newly qualified teacher Credit: PA
Mollie left Corrie in 2018, with the soap recently undergoing a slew of cast cuts and cost slashes Credit: Rex
She has since appeared on shows such as Happy Valley and Silent Witness.
It comes after Coronation Street bosses previously decided to slash the number of established characters in in a bid to reportedly claw back cash.
Every time actors appear on-screen, they are due a per-episode fee, which can mount up for actors on lucrative deals.
Both Corrie and Emmerdale have been hit by scheduling changes too, with both soaps slashed , rather than six.
Despite the chaos, both soaps have seen a rise in their viewing figures – largely understood to be due to the release of early 6am streaming on and .
In January of this year, both soaps reported a cool 65 million viewers combined, 10 million more than their previous highest month – with the ratings likely boosted by the history-making crossover Corriedale and the events that followed in each soap.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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