[Scarlett.]

National Television Award bosses have defended Coronation Street's win at Wednesday night's ceremony, denying accusations of 'bias' and insisting that the soap had a "significant gain over the other contenders" throughout voting.

The awards, held at London's O2 arena, saw the commercial broadcaster's flagship soap triumph in the 'Most Popular Serial Drama' category following a public phone vote that remained open throughout the two-and-a-half hour show.

BBC sources today expressed their displeasure at the producers' decision to include a speech by Weatherfield veteran William Roache to mark the show's 50th anniversary, prior to a three-minute promo reel showcasing its upcoming storylines. The BBC allegedly felt that both the speech and clip package influenced votes.

EastEnders, meanwhile, was afforded a 'Who Killed Archie?' camera pan across the actors who play the potential murder suspects, as well as praise from award host Dermot O'Leary over the soap's current form. Walford icon Barbara Windsor subsequently presented the 'Newcomer' trophy to Corrie's Craig Gazey. Lacey Turner also collected the 'Serial Drama Performance' going for her portrayal of Stacey Slater.

However, Digital Spy this afternoon learned that Coronation Street remained at the head of the phone vote from the start of the show, through the promo reel and until the end of the show when X Factor winner Joe McElderry announced the result.

Speaking on behalf of the National Television Awards, a spokesperson for independent adjudicators PromoVeritas told DS: "With regards to the specifics of the live phone vote, Coronation Street had a significant gain over the other contenders from the start of the voting period until the end and for every monitored period within."

They added: "We do not believe that any editorial content would have had a material impact on the live phone voting or on the final result."

However, when asked to release the percentage shares, ITV upheld its policy not to release any voting figures due to their "commercially sensitive" nature.

Sources at the show also maintained that they treated the soaps "fairly" and "impartially" throughout. They explained that each year, one public vote category remains open throughout the programme and this year was the turn of the soaps.

Meanwhile, an Ofcom spokesperson confirmed: "Ofcom has received complaints about the National TV Awards but we are not currently investigating the show."

Following the programme, hundreds of Digital Spy forum users voiced their concern, with 'Lummo' commenting that it was "blatantly unfair because of the huge preview they had of Corrie while phone lines were still open". A number of other readers noted that Emmerdale and Hollyoaks received no special treatment at all.

However, user 'norbitonite' said: "I would be very surprised if a significant proportion of voters decided to vote at the last minute because of a compilation that was run during the awards."

Digital Spy

[Arneldo]

It was a blatent fix, and the whole show was like some sort of "celebration" of ITV. ITV getting Arlene to present the award to XF was also stupid.

[Scarlett.]

An independant ajudicator has confirmed it wasnt fixed...so, um, yeah

[Arneldo]

Originally Posted by Chewy

An independant ajudicator has confirmed it wasnt fixed...so, um, yeah

Well, fix isn't the right word. But it was an influenced vote.

[Scarlett.]

Well, since it was lead of the vote all the way through...I doubt it

There has been weeks of voting, a clip will only have made a few people vote, but I cant imagine it affecting enough people to make millions vote

Face it, EastEnders didnt win

[Arneldo]

Originally Posted by Chewy

Well, since it was lead of the vote all the way through...I doubt it

There has been weeks of voting, a clip will only have made a few people vote, but I cant imagine it affecting enough people to make millions vote

Face it, EastEnders didnt win

I don't care who won - but I do think the vote was influenced. There had been adverts on UTV leading up to NTA asking for people to vote Corrie as well.

[Scarlett.]

Originally Posted by Arneldo

I don't care who won - but I do think the vote was influenced. There had been adverts on UTV leading up to NTA asking for people to vote Corrie as well.

Well, thats UTV's fault, not ITV's, they're two sperate entities, and that would be classed as fixing IMO, over here we didnt get those adverts but still, Corrie was ahead ALL THE WAY THROUGH voting

And not just in the lead, it had a "significant lead"

[Jords]

Originally Posted by Arneldo

It was a blatent fix, and the whole show was like some sort of "celebration" of ITV. ITV getting Arlene to present the award to XF was also stupid.

I thought it was stupid too Arneldo.

[Firewire]

Okay. I do think it was 'influenced', but not fixed exactly.

And imo, EastEnders has had better story lines in the past year, but yeah.

[Scarlett.]

Originally Posted by Jonathan.

Okay. I do think it was 'influenced', but not fixed exactly.

And imo, EastEnders has had better story lines in the past year, but yeah.

To be fair, EastEnders still won awards when it was going through its very bad period a few years ago Emmerdale improved a LOT over the past year, so they deserved it more than Corrie

[Jords]

Eastenders overall have the best storylines and characters of them all imo. But looking forward to Corrie this year too.

[MissKittyFantastico]

How the hell was it fixed or manipulated even if Corrie was leading the vote even before the awards show started?!

Get a grip.

[Scarlett.]

Originally Posted by MissKittyFantastico

How the hell was it fixed or manipulated even if Corrie was leading the vote even before the awards show started?!

Get a grip.

Amen!

[bbfan1991]

Well done to Corrie but EE are going to kick ass at the BSA.

[Jack_]

Well regardless of how much of an influence it was, the VT still influenced it in some way. Besides, it was unfair to show it anyway.

I'm still holding out for a year when Hollyoaks will win. They deserve it the most. Have they actually ever won it?

[Marc]

I hate all soaps now, but when I watched them I used to prefer Eastenders. Corrie was crap.

[arista]

Originally Posted by Chewy

Well, since it was lead of the vote all the way through...I doubt it

There has been weeks of voting, a clip will only have made a few people vote, but I cant imagine it affecting enough people to make millions vote

Face it, EastEnders didnt win

The Bloated BBC won other Awards
Fuuuuck Sake they have won this Awards loads of Freaking Times.

No Fix - The Public Voted
100% ITV won this.

[bbfan1991]

Originally Posted by Jack_

Well regardless of how much of an influence it was, the VT still influenced it in some way. Besides, it was unfair to show it anyway.

I'm still holding out for a year when Hollyoaks will win. They deserve it the most. Have they actually ever won it?

No HO haven't won at the NTA's although last year Matt Littler who played Max got an award. Last big win was in 2007 with 6 British Soap Awards when Bryan Kirkwood was in charge who is now going to Eastenders as producer.

Paul Marquess who used to be in charge of The Bill and Footballer's Wives is taking charge of HO since Lucy Allan is going, think she was told to go before she was pushed. It's been dull and lots of problems since she took over with lots of cast leaving, deadwood and not interesting storylines but the new man is known to be very harsh so is needed to sort it out.

[Scarlett.]

Originally Posted by bbfan1991

No HO haven't won at the NTA's although last year Matt Littler who played Max got an award. Last big win was in 2007 with 6 British Soap Awards when Bryan Kirkwood was in charge who is now going to Eastenders as producer.

Paul Marquess who used to be in charge of The Bill and Footballer's Wives is taking charge of HO since Lucy Allan is going, think she was told to go before she was pushed. It's been dull and lots of problems since she took over with lots of cast leaving, deadwood and not interesting storylines but the new man is known to be very harsh so is needed to sort it out.

HO doesnt win many awards due to its small audience, it used to be good before Lucy Allen, I hope Paul Marquess can get the show good again

and I agree arista

[Stacey.]

Sure

[Scarlett.]

Originally Posted by Stacey.x

Sure

EE lost, get over it, fans of other soaps do every year

[bbfan1991]

Originally Posted by Chewy

HO doesnt win many awards due to its small audience, it used to be good before Lucy Allen, I hope Paul Marquess can get the show good again

and I agree arista

True Chewy and Hi btw. It's because they at C4 see it is a teen soap but the number of older people watching it has increased a little. I think they would be better focusing on the older characters a bit more to bring a better balance to the show.

[Scarlett.]

Originally Posted by bbfan1991

True Chewy and Hi btw. It's because they at C4 see it is a teen soap but the number of older people watching it has increased a little. I think they would be better focusing on the older characters a bit more to bring a better balance to the show.

Hello Yeah, thats true, what I found annoying during LA's reign was that the brat pack (Theresa ect.) all were at the forefront

[bbfan1991]

Originally Posted by Chewy

Hello Yeah, thats true, what I found annoying during LA's reign was that the brat pack (Theresa ect.) all were at the forefront

OMG yes they get on my nerves, best students they had was Max and OB, Bombhead, Zara and co. Latest was Zoe, Sarah, Will, Zak, Jess and Elliot. There is going to be lots of big changes ahead.

Lucy worked under BK when he was in charge but it hasn't worked out at all, only thing I will remember her for was her brilliant writing of HO Later the exit of Niall Rafferty.

[Scarlett.]

She couldnt do a good job of producer (Much like Anita Turner (or Turnoff) who nearly killed Emmerdale in 2008 and got the whole production team sacked in 2009 and like Kim Crowther who is in charge of Corrie until summer when Phil Collinson takes over (he used to produce Dr. Who [the new ones]), though she did make some good decisions every now and again, and I suppose LA did make one or two good ones too