Much gnashing of teeth in the press today over ITV's deceit towards viewers. You know the script by now. You thought you were ringing up to vote for something or to take part in a competition and either the votes weren't counted or they had already picked the person who was going to take part in the competition.
Personally, as a rule, I feel that if you're daft enough to think ITV really wanted to let you win £50,000 on one of its naff overnight quiz shows then you deserve to be taken for a ride. And as for voting on programmes, if it really meant so much to do, would you have left it to the last minute anyway?
But what did shock me was the British Comedy Awards. Remember them? They weren't shown last year but as a rule they were quite good, as awards shows go.
Yet the joke really was on viewers when they were asked to vote for the "people's choice" award. Catherine Tate won, but she didn't know it, and neither did we. Because the award went to Ant and Dec. Because Robbie Williams, the bloated pop star, had refused to attend the awards unless he could present an award to Ant and Dec.
Oh, where to start with the questions. Surely Robbie Williams is famous enough and rich enough to have just booked Ant and Dec for an evening if he wanted to meet them? Why would a past-it pop star want to meet the Cheeky Boys of Tyneside?
Now to the serious questions: Why on earth did the producers think they'd get away with this? Why on earth be so desperate to bring Robbie Williams to an awards ceremony which has always insisted on not taking itself too seriously? Why not just make up an extra award to meet Robbie's odd demands?
It's one thing taking gullible people for a ride - and that's want TV quiz contestants are - it's quite another to turn a public vote into a public stitch up just to pander to the ego of a pop star who, quite frankly, would turn up at the opening of an envelope these days.
Ant and Dec do deserve awards. Their current routine on Britain's Got Talent is second to none. They make I'm a Celebrity what it is. They, in a nutshell, shine because they don't take themselves too seriously. Unlike Robbie Williams, and the half-wit who hatched the hijack-the-public-vote plan back in 2005.
ITV may well hang its head in shame. Ant and Dec may well return their award. But until ITV vows never to use the company behing the comedy awards ever again, their integrity will be brought into question. The Daily Mail asked today, in rather large print: Can you trust anything ITV says? Answer: No.
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