National Television Awards


The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public, and are often branded as 'television's biggest night of the year'.
The most prestigious award of the ceremony is the National Television Award for Special Recognition.

History

The first ceremony was held in August 1995 and was hosted by Eamonn Holmes at Wembley Conference Centre. From 1996 onwards, it was traditionally held annually in October at the Royal Albert Hall and hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald. McDonald retired from the role after 12 years in 2008. In 2009, the NTAs changed the timing of the event from October to January so there was no event in that year. For the 2010 ceremony, Dermot O'Leary took over as host, the ceremony was also hosted at The O2 Arena for the first time.
O'Leary decided to leave the programme on 13 February 2019. On 4 October 2019, in a video posted on social media, comedian and author David Walliams was announced as the new NTAs host for 2020. Despite this, the ceremony remained at the O2 for the 10th successive year.

Voting process

There are two voting stages: a longlist of nominees featuring the most watched programmes and their stars from each channel, based on BARB ratings, is published in September, and the subsequent shortlist of the leading contenders in each category is published in January. The public vote in a nationwide poll via post, telephone and online with the process verified by PromoVeritas, the independent adjudicators. The results are widely reported in the British media with worldwide media coverage of some categories.

Ceremonies