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X Factor is over, Wogan is gone from our coffee and cornflakes, David Tennant has left Doctor Who and Stephen Fry has switched off his Twitter stream. Even Big Brother and Jonathan Ross have begun their goodbyes. You might be forgiven for concluding that books are all that is left.

TV is not going to give up that easily. 2009 was a bumper year for high ratings, particularly for ITV who had 19 million people watching the X Factor final. It is no surprise to see that ITV rode on the crest of this wave by advertising the 15th UK National Television Award Ceremony (held on January 20), which they sponsor.

What is best?

This awards show celebrates the types of programmes and presenters that many would regard as populist fodder. They are pure entertainment and really do reflect the tastes of the majority of viewers, since it is the public who vote for the winners subsequently named ‘most popular’ rather than ‘best’. They act as an interesting thermometer of the times, reflecting a purely consumer view rather than articulating the industry’s own opinions as to what reflects good TV.

As such, these awards play second fiddle to the BAFTAs. A good indication of this is the fact that the winner of last year’s Special Consideration Award was given to pop mogul Simon Cowell, financial megawinner of the Britain’s Got the Idol Factor franchise. Cowell is an example of someone who is roundly criticised for returning us to a pop chart of bland music. He is respected purely for his ability to make mountains of money and for the degree of influence that he has in an arena that many dream to be part of.

These awards are also unique in that non-British programmes can be nominated and voted for as long as they were shown on a British TV channel in the previous 12 months. This is far more inclusive than the BAFTAs and gives opportunities for foreign productions to get recognition. However, my favourites — Larkrise to Candleford and 24, both of which have made a comeback on BBC and Sky respectively (hurrah!) — are predictably nowhere to be seen in the nominations since their audiences are smaller than Doctor Who and Eastenders.

Usual suspects

I’ve had a look back over the nominations and winners of the awards of the last 15 years and it is interesting to see which types of programmes and personalities dominate the long-term picture. The presenters Ant and Dec have won ‘Most popular Entertainment Presenter’, as well as various other categories, for the last eight years and their programmes are nominated three times in two different categories this time around. The four main soaps or ‘serialised dramas’ usually gain a couple of awards apiece and the staples like A Touch of Frost, Neighbours and the Antiques Roadshow may not always win but are still a constant favourite, rooted in the national consciousness.

There are changes in categories, which reflect our changing tastes too. The Reality Show category has gone, as has Most Popular Talk Show, Daytime and Quiz Programme, even Most Popular Advert! There are now specific categories for Most Popular Talent Show and Star Travel Documentary. We should hardly be surprised that one sub-genre of TV could spread to so many programmes that they are able to compete against one another. Where the ratings increase, the money will follow. It is a good reminder of how fickle audiences can be, too. The hugely popular shows and personalities will fade away eventually as new genres and individuals distract us from the old.

Centre of our orbit?

I’ve been reading Graham Beynon’s Mirror Mirror for my reading group (which was snowed off earlier this month) and have been refreshed to find much that confronts this TV Awards idea of personality and success.

Beynon points out that we put ourselves at the centre of our world and we deeply desire a ‘great’ identity that everyone will love. We want them to recognise and praise us. We also tend to love putting ourselves in orbit around those personalities who have in some sense achieved this great identity. In doing so, we put ourselves in orbit around ourselves.

The apostle Paul wrote about the change of thinking that we should have because of Jesus’s death; the change that puts us back into orbit around Jesus. He said: ‘And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again’ (2 Corinthians 5.15).

Television awards: TV at its best?

What is best?

Usual suspects

Centre of our orbit?

Eleanor Margesson

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