Viewers of the BAFTA TV Awards were left fuming during Sunday’s ceremony when The Masked Singer beat Saturday Night Takeaway for one of the gongs.
Home audiences began scratching their heads when the ITV talent show beat the popular variety programme fronted by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.
Taking to Twitter, they asked whether the world had ‘gone mad’ while claiming they’ll ‘never know’ how TMS ended up winning the prestigious trophy, collected by host Joel Dommett.
Later… With Jools Holland: Jools’ 30th Birthday Bash and Strictly Come Dancing had also been nominated in the entertainment category.
One wrote, ‘The Masked Singer? Has the world gone mad? Utter c**p #BAFTAS,’ while another joked, ‘The Masked Singer? Seriously? #BAFTATVAwards.’
Seething: Viewers of the BAFTA TV Awards were left fuming during Sunday’s ceremony when The Masked Singer beat Saturday Night Takeaway for one of the gongs
Surprise: Home audiences began scratching their heads when the ITV talent show beat the popular variety programme fronted by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly
A third penned, ‘How The Masked Singer has won a BAFTA i’ll never know,’ with a fourth adding, ‘The fact that ‘The Masked Singer’ has won a #BAFTA … physically hurts me.’
More chimed in with, ‘no it’s the way the masked singer won?? it’s the worst one that could have won,’ as well as, ‘Wow, Masked Singer beat Saturday Night Takeaway! #BAFTATVAwards.’
Someone else concluded, ‘Saturday Night Takeaway didn’t win! #BAFTATVAwards.’
Joel said in his speech: ‘I really didn’t expect this, Strictly normally wins everything. Thank you so much to ITV firstly for believing in this silly show, it is so silly and it’s so wonderful, it has brightened up so many families and homes.
‘It is such a joy to make. All of the crew love making it. Thank you to all of the celebrities who have been on the show.’
Judge Mo Gilligan said: ‘People tied to mock it when it first came out, and now it has won a Bafta. It is great escapism…people at home don’t want to watch something depressing. We are just the faces of it, aren’t we Joel?’
The Masked Singer, along with The Traitors, were among the early winners at the 2023 British Academy Television Awards with P&O Cruises.
The star-studded ceremony, held at London’s Royal Festival Hall, saw the best and brightest of British TV descend on the capital, with hosts Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganatha acting as hosts for the evening.
Shock: Taking to Twitter, they asked whether the world had ‘gone mad’ while claiming they’ll ‘never know’ how TMS ended up winning the prestigious trophy
One of the big winners proved to be BBC’s runwaway hit The Traitors, which scooped the Reality And Constructed Factual award, while host Claudia Winkleman won Entertainment Performance.
While Anne-Marie Duff was awarded Supporting Actress for Bad Sisters, the viewer-voted BAFTA for the The P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award was given the moment Paddington Bear enjoyed tea with The Queen during her Platinum Jubilee concert.
The BBC received the most nominations out of all the broadcasters with 47 nods in total, while Channel 4 received 21 and ITV scored 15.
At the start of the show, Siobhan McSweeney won her first BAFTA TV award for best female performance in a comedy programme, for playing Sister Michael, the eye-rolling principal of the show’s Our Lady Immaculate College in the Channel 4 programme Derry Girls.
The comedy about a group of teenagers growing up in Londonderry in the 1990s was a sleeper hit that built a large and committed following across its three series.
Set during the Troubles, the show was praised for offering a new perspective on the period of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires through the eyes of a group of young girls.
In the humorous speech, which she said in double speed given the short time given, she said: ‘So I’ve been warned not to do a political statement, so as my mother laid dying in Cork, one of the very last things she said to me was would I not consider retraining as a teacher.
‘If she could see me now, getting a Bafta for playing a teacher. Joke’s on you.’
Host Joel Dommett said in his speech: ‘I really didn’t expect this, Strictly normally wins everything’
Grateful: He added: ‘Thank you so much to ITV firstly for believing in this silly show, it is so silly and it’s so wonderful, it has brightened up so many families and homes’
Oh dear! Dec (left) and Ant (right) put on a smile for the cameras
The reality and constructed factual award was given to psychological adventure show, The Traitors, and collecting the prize, presenter Claudia Winkleman, 51, said she and the team are ‘blown away by this, thank you so much’.
She also thanked Derry Girls writer Lisa McGee ‘for not listening to me when I said I could play all the girls parts’ and she also thanked Channel 4, adding ‘you have my devotion’.
McSweeney added: ‘To the people in Derry, thank you taking me into your hearts and living room, despite the ignorance of your so-called leaders in Dublin, Stormont and Westminster.
‘Into the words of my beloved Sister Michael, ‘its time they started to wise up’.
She also thanked the BBC and referenced the meeting where commissioning editors agreed to make the show saying: ‘We are going to Scotland, we’re going to use the word murder – are you okay with that?’
Things got even better for Claudia, as later that evening she received the Entertainment Performance award for hosting The Traitors.
The presenter, 51, said she did not want to get emotional as her mascara ‘will run’ before asking her husband: ‘Please, can we have a dog?’
She also ‘thanked’ her mother and father and said it was ‘for you’ before saying: ‘You can’t have it… no, but you can touch it.’