Lord Alan Sugar has slammed the National Television Awards and claimed it was a “fix” after Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly walked away with two awards and Kate Garraway one for her documentary about her late husband – Derek Draper’s – fight with COVID-19.
Comedian Joel Dommett hosted the ceremony on Wednesday night as hopeful celebrities took to their seats to nervously await to see if they were walking away with a trophy.
Whilst many recipients, nominees, and viewers at home thought the awards were a fair representation of the TV shows which have aired over the last year, it seems Sugar was irked by multiple outcomes.
Taking to his X account, the Apprentice boss issued seven posts ranting about Ant and Dec, Kate Garraway and The Chase all winning due to their shows being shown on ITV.
The Chase won the award for Best Daytime Show, seeing off the likes of Deal or No Deal, Loose Women, This Morning and The Repair Shop.
Garraway won the award for Best Authored Documentary after competing with Robbie Williams, Rhod Gilbert: A Pain in the Neck, Beckham and Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs for Change.
Ant and Dec walked away with the Best Presenter award, beating Alison Hammond, Bradley Walsh, Claudia Winkleman, and Stacey Solomon, as well as their series I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! taking home the award for The Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award.
Unfortunately for The Apprentice – which was nominated for Best Reality Competition – it lost out to fellow BBC reality show The Traitors.
Issuing a series of rants this morning, Sugar originally exclaimed: “Surprise surprise Ant and Dec win an award at the NTA. DONALD TRUMP would say it’s a fix.”
“Were you not there Alan? The Apprentice was up for an award,” one user asked but the 77-year-old hit back: “I was invited but for 18 years I have learnt we won’t win. Karren has also learnt but Tim is still learning.”
“They probably won because it’s not a scripted show like The Apprentice,” another jibed, leading Sugar to slam: “Shut up idiot how can the Apprentice be scripted? Use the pea brain you have. We have no idea what the candidates will say out in the street or in the boardroom.”
He went on to issue a further four posts targeting ITV, with the first reading: “Guess what the cookery, travel, football, beauty and football category have been won by Ant and Dec.”
“Double award for Ant and Dec. This NTA is an ITV show. Coincidence or not?” the second said before the third noted: “The Chase another ITV show. Who counts the votes? Coincidence!”
His sixth and final tweet said: “Actually for the record the Apprentice has won every other TV award except NTA. COINCIDENCE!” (sic)
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Sugar’s rant came as Garraway completed a hat-trick in the best-authored documentary category, winning for Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story, which followed the final year of Draper’s life before he died in January aged 56 after a lengthy battle with the long-term effects of Covid.
Bringing her son and daughter on stage, she expressed: “This one is for all those people who care. We need a system that catches us when we fall, not catches us out… I’m going to keep the fight on for all of you.
“I think maybe that’s because it’s not about me and it’s not about Derek, it’s about really the subject matter which touches everybody, doesn’t it?
“Everybody knows somebody who needs the care of one sort or another, and if they don’t know, they will do… so I think hopefully it’s given those people a bit of a voice.”
