Some people were surprised last year when ITV announced that the British Comedy Awards would not be broadcast. At the time it was reported the reason was that there were suspicions of wrongdoing at the 2005 Awards.

Newsround web report

Newsround's TV report on BBC1 at 5pm yesterday explained the situation quite well:-

Jake: So this afternoon the big news is the top telly award wrongly given to Ant & Dec. The duo were given the prize after a public vote, but it turns out TV Bosses actually faked the result. Well Sonali's been following the story for Newsround all afternoon. Sonali, what can you tell us?

Sonali: Well Jake, Ant and Dec are probably TV's most popular double act. They've won lots of awards, and in 2005 one of them was a British Comedy Award. It's voted for by the public but it turns out that Ant and Dec didn't get the most votes. Catherine Tate, who we know from Dr Who, did.

Jake: Okay, so Catherine Tate should have won the award but she didn't get her prize. What on earth happened?

Sonali: Well first of all Ant and Dec didn't know that this competition was unfair. But this is where it all gets a bit complicated. ITV bosses wanted Robbie Williams to appear at the awards show. He's friends with Ant and Dec and said he'd be happy to give them a prize. And it's thought that bosses at ITV were so keen on Robbie Williams appearing that they guaranteed that Ant and Dec would get a prize. The problem with this is the only prize they could have won was the people's choice, and in the end they didn't get the most votes. Robbie knew nothing about this, was told his mates won, and Catherine Tate went home empty-handed.

Jake: Okay well this story's just come out this afternoon, what's the reaction been since then?

Sonali: Ant and Dec say they're completely appalled by what's happened and they're now planning to send back their award. Ofcom - that's the organisation that checks up on TV companies and how they're run - they're going to investigate this. And we can't forget the people that have spent money phoning in to vote. Their votes didn't count. They're going to be pretty upset by this.

Jake: I imagine so. Sonali, thank you very much.