I was the same. My parents used to have Emmerdale on when I was a kid, but I wouldn’t have watched since the early 2000s. I recognised the Dingles and Andy Sugden, Robert and Victoria Sugden are played by different actors than when I watched and John is obviously newer.
I thought it was a novelty, the interactions between Carla/Charity, Ken/Eric, Tim/Chaz were really good. I wasn’t aware of any of the Emmerdale story lines, but it wasn’t too hard a follow, I also didn’t really invest in thinking too much about them, with no interest in watching Emmerdale again in the future.