UK NEWS

TV JUDGES TO FACE THE PUBLIC VOTE

ACID-TONGUED: Mogul Simon Cowell

Monday July 9,2007

By Liz Hazelton

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MUSIC moguls Simon Cowell and Andrew Lloyd Webber are set to go head-to-head at the National Television Awards.

The acid-tongued judge will take on the Lord of the theatre in a new category, Most Popular Talent Show.

Cowell is nominated for his shows X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Grease Is The Word. Lloyd Webber is in the running with Any Dream Will Do and How Do You Solve A‑Problem Like Maria?

Elsewhere in the awards, presenters Ant and Dec are nominated five times, including Best Programme Presenters, where they are up against Chris Tarrant, Graham Norton and Davina McCall.

Nominees for the Best Factual Programme include Gordon Ramsay’s F Word, Ready Steady Cook, Grand Designs, Cash In The Attic, A Place In The Sun, Holiday and Airline.

The public can vote from today until August 3 for their favourites in 13 categories.

A final shortlist will be announced in October when the public will be asked to pick the cream of the crop for 2007, with the winners to be announced later in the month.

Since the awards were launched in 1995, the event has become known as much for its off-screen antics as for the
on-screen drama.

Previous ceremonies have seen Robbie Williams sobbing on stage, Tony Blair being mistaken for Rory Bremner, Sharon Osbourne being flashed at by a naked man, Judy Finnigan’s “wardrobe malfunction” and Michael Barrymore’s announcing that he was gay.

Sir Trevor McDonald will host the star-studded ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which will be screened on ITV1 on October 31.

●To vote, log on to www.nationaltvawards.com or phone 09011 986868. Calls cost 10p a minute.