'Appalled' Ant & Dec Return Award |
|||||
After discovering they weren't the People's Choice after all
Ant and Dec found themselves in the unfamiliar position of not being everyone’s favourite tv twosome this week after it was revealed that their People’s Choice Award should have been given to Catherine Tate. Said to be ‘completely appalled’ at the news that broke after an investigation into the 2005 British Comedy Awards, the squeaky-clean comedy duo have handed back the trophy. The investigation discovered that the awards organisers had promised their friend Robbie Williams that he could present Ant and Dec with an award if he appeared on the show. Although the inquiry did not find evidence to suggest the award was wrongly given to Ant and Dec to please the pop star, it was revealed viewers of the ITV show were asked to keep voting on premium rate lines even though the pair had already been filmed winning the People's Choice Award. The unfortunate scandal coincides with ITV being hit with a £5.67 million fine after details of TV phone-in scam were made public. Ofcom condemned ITV stating that breaches, involving programmes such as Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and Soapstar Superstar, were among the "most serious abuses" of premium-rate services. Although Ant & Dec are executive producers of their Saturday Night Takeaway programme, the pair have always maintained that they were entirely unaware of the phone-in debacle. May 8, 2008
|