The series was widely derided by critics who criticised the wobbly sets and fluffed lines, but gained many fans. Prime Minister Harold Wilson's wife Mary complained when the newly formed Thames Television decided to stop showing it in 1968. The decision proved unpopular with viewers and was reversed six months later. As a result of the gap in transmission, viewers in the Thames region were six months behind the rest of the country for several years. In 1972, Granada became the last ITV company to show "Crossroads". By the early 1970s it was second only to "Coronation Street" in the ratings. In the mid-1970s it beat "Coronation Street" gaining audiences of up to 15 million viewers.
From April 1980, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), commercial television's regulator, decided production should be reduced further to three episodes a week. The chairman of the IBA Lady Plowden described the soap opera as "distressingly popular".
ATV planned to replace the fourth episode with a spin-off series called "A Family Affair" but this idea was dropped. Series star Noele Gordon, who played Meg Richardson, regularly won the "TV Times" Most Popular Female Personality viewers award during the 1970s.
Viewers reacted negatively at the dismissal of Gordon in 1981, an action taken by head of programming Charles Denton. He became a "national hate figure".
The series producer Jack Barton agreed with Denton that Gordon's character had become too dominant.
Why Gordon was sacked remains a mystery to TV historians as she was the most popular character on the soap and no real reason was given other than that producers felt it was time for a change. The actress herself was terribly upset by the decision. She was the only cast member on a permanent contract. She had been misled that the meeting where she was dismissed was to be the annual negotiation for the next years contract. In interviews she made it clear that she did not want to go. There is debate about the reason for her dismissal. Some people have said that Gordon's attitude within the company had upset some executives and they simply wanted rid of her. Gordon was very passionate about the soap and would regularly defend it against the many critics. Others believe that ITV found Crossroads an embarrassment and wanted to find a way of decreasing the viewing figures by sacking Gordon. She was the biggest audience draw. With fewer viewers it could be justified to axe it. Whatever the reason, the series never recovered from her loss.
ATV lost its ITV franchise at the end of 1981. It was ordered by the IBA to reform into Central Independent Television. It took over the franchise on 1 January 1982. It was thought to have little enthusiasm for the programmes it inherited.
Further changes were introduced in March 1985, when new filming locations, sets and characters were introduced. Many storylines were about the new motel owner, Nicola Freeman, played by Gabrielle Drake. Long-term characters, such as David and Barbara Hunter, were axed. The theme tune was updated and the opening titles replaced with a longer version. Finally, the show was renamed "Crossroads Motel" with the word "Motel" added in the opening titles. The closing titles, which had scrolled in multiple 'crossroad' directions since the start, were replaced with conventional scrolling credits.
In 1986, a new producer, William Smethurst, took over the series following the sacking of his predecessor, Philip Bowman. Smethurst had been brought in by Central Television's new head of drama, Ted Childs. He ordered changes, creating a wittier serial and improving the production values of the show. Smethurst shifted the story to the nearby village of King's Oak. Yet more long-running characters, such as Diane Hunter and Benny Hawkins, were dropped. This was unpopular with viewers, who telephoned Central in protest.
Further changes included the series being renamed "Crossroads Kings Oak" for a time, with the intention in the future of shortening this to "King's Oak". This final change was overtaken by the decision in June 1987 by Andy Allen, Central's director of programmes, to axe the series. The familiar theme tune was replaced in September 1987 by a new theme composed by Max Early and Raf Ravenscroft. New titles were introduced to accompany the new theme, which featured stills of King's Oak and the new King's Oak Country Hotel. Michele Buck guided the show through its final few months on air as series producer, with William Smethurst still on hand as executive producer.
In January 1988, the series was reduced to only two episodes a week, with "Crossroads King's Oak" finally coming to an end on 4 April 1988 (the Easter bank holiday). The last, extended episode saw the character of Jill (Jane Rossington) riding off with her lover, John Maddingham (Jeremy Nicholas). Asked what name she would give the hotel she would be running in her new life, the character remarked, a little sadly, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name".
In 1994, Carlton Television bought Central Television.
In April 2000, Carlton announced that they would be reviving "Crossroads" for the daytime slot on ITV. The first episode was shown on 5 March 2001. The revived series was sponsored by washing detergent Surf and was broadcast each weekday at 1.30pm and 5.05pm on ITV, with a Sunday omnibus on ITV2. The revived series was also broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ One and in New Zealand on TV One.
Four characters from the original series returned: Doris Luke (Kathy Staff), Jill Harvey (née Richardson), Jill's ex-husband Adam Chance (Tony Adams), and Jill's daughter Sarah-Jane Harvey (Joanne Farrell/Holly Newman). Initial reactions were favourable. However, changes in the story from the original puzzled fans and did not help ratings. Kathy Staff left in dismay at the amount of sex. She told ITV Teletext she felt it was no longer the family-friendly show she had originally been part of.
The story where original character Adam Chance murders ex-wife Jill Harvey three months into the new series' was unpopular with fans. Jane Rossington said she did not want to commit herself to another long run in the show, but warned Carlton it would be suicidal to kill Jill.
Episode 137 of the second revived series remains the only episode never to be shown in full on ITV. The lunchtime screening on Tuesday 11 September 2001 began at 14:10 BST. At the halfway commercial-break point however, the programme was interrupted to hand over to ITV News for then very sketchy details of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, USA. As the afternoon went on and the seriousness of the situation became clear, all ITV Network daytime programmes, starting with CITV transmissions at 15:15, were relegated to ITV2 to continue rolling news coverage. The semi-dropped episode was therefore transmitted in full on ITV2 at 17:30 BST. However, at the time, the channel was only available to a small number of viewers able to view the subscription-based ITV Digital, Telewest or NTL. As a result, the episode remains unseen by most of the programme's regular fanbase, including the entire Channel Islands who could not receive ITV Digital. A short re-cap of events in Episode 137 was screened before both the 14:10 and 17:05 showings of Episode 138 on 12 September 2001. The episode was included in the Omnibus edition that Sunday. This also only was shown on ITV2.
The series was reduced to four episodes a week from November 2001 until January 2002.