New watcher

I'm typically only an EastEnders watcher, but I want to start watching Emmerdale and my current plan is to try and watch from 1st September (I'm on the 5th at the moment) before Christmas. But I see they've got series 52 with 32 episodes (which I imagine is part of 2023) and series 53 with 249 episodes (which I imagine is 2024).

Are they in the process of uploading episodes or are episodes slowly coming off? As in, will more of the "series 52" epsiodes be uploaded, or will those 32 episodes gradually be taken off and the series 53 will follow? If they're being uploaded and I manage to keep watching until Christmas, I might try and watch earlier episodes too to get an even better grasp of what's going on. With EastEnders, I'm currently watching the 2008-present episodes they have on iPlayer.

Also, does anyone know of anywhere else I could watch more episodes? Whenever things are referenced that I don't know about, I like going and watching clips from that storyline, but obviously episodes would be better.