News - United Kingdom: National Television Awards | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

The nominations for the National Television Awards have been published, with the British viewing public able to vote for their favourite television programmes and personalities from the last year. In two categories there is interest for visitors to this site. In the best Entertainment Programme, the Eurovision Song Contest is one of the 25 short listed programmes, many of which are made up of various format talent shows. In the best Entertainment Presenter category, veteran BBC commentator Terry Wogan has been included in the nominations list.

The National Television Awards will be broadcast in November on ITV1. The ceremony, dubbed Britain’s TV Oscars, is the only awards event where viewers decide all winners. It is due to the unique voting system that makes the awards held in such high esteem by those who receive them.

Categories include awards for best actor, actress, newcomer, drama and serial drama, comedy, factual, reality and quiz programmes. It is however in the Best Entertainment Programme category that the Eurovision Song Contest has been included as one of the nominated shows. It has been featured in this stage of the voting several times in the past, but so far it is understood that it has never made the final short list of the top four or five programmes to be included on the big night.

Terry Wogan is included in the nominations for Best Entertainment Presenter, he is no stranger to winning awards having been TV Personality Of The Year, no fewer than ten times, as well as being awarded an OBE and made a knight. He has commentated on the contest on both radio and television since 1971, and has presented the final for selecting the United Kingdom entry,  for almost every year since 1977, with just a few exceptions. He was seen by a wider audience when he co presented the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 final in Birmingham.

Voting by the public can be done by telephone, by text, or by printing off the forms and posting them to the National Television Awards. Alternatively, you can vote by clicking on the link to the NTA voting pages to the right of this screen. The closing date for voting at this stage is 4th August 2006.

The National Television Awards will be broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall in November.  The venue itself has connections to the contest, having been the venue for the Eurovision Song Contest 1968, and the venue for A Song For Europe in both 1976 and 1978. Anyone who wishes tickets for the event can phone +44 020 7589 8212.

So as the say in the Eurovision Song Contest itself "Start voting..."  and who knows, maybe we will see the Eurovision Song Contest finally collect an award in Britain, and perhaps Sir Terry Wogan will add another award to his many trophies too!