‘Dreadful’ disruption at British Soap Awards ‘explained’ as angry fans hit out at ITV

ITV is yet to address the situation…

Viewers were left fuming last night after ITV suffered an awkward disruption before airing this year’s British Soap Awards.

The pre-recorded ceremony, which was originally taped on Saturday night (May 31) at the Hackney Empire in London, aired on Thursday evening (June 5).

However, while soap fans were buzzing to catch their favourite acts being nominated and winning awards, things didn’t quite go as planned…

Last night’s British Soap Awards was disrupted before it started (Credit: ITV)

ITV disruption delays British Soap Awards

The glitzy awards show was scheduled to kick off at 8pm last night on ITV1. That said, as it was set to start, ITV issued a message on everyone’s screens, which read: “We’re sorry for the disruption.”

The message remained on screens for nearly 10 minutes, causing a huge delay. As a result, the show, which was supposed to be finished by 10pm, ended up running over.

The high-profile event, which was hosted by national treasure Jane McDonald, left people at home putting ITV on blast before things had even started.

Jane hosted the British Soap Awards (Credit: ITV)

‘Sort it out’

“Sort it out, at this rate it won’t have enough free time to fit in before the news at 10, guess it will be bumped for something else,” one user wrote on X.

“How can ITV [bleep] up a pre-recorded programme?” another person asked.

“Tune in at 8pm, to watch [bleep] all,” a third remarked.

“Sort it out,” another demanded at ITV.

“Worst thing about this @itv glitch is no human apologising!! That is dreadful,” a fifth said.

However, many believe they figured out why the ceremony had been delayed…

‘The night EastEnders sweeps the board it starts lagging’

On the night, BBC’s EastEnders came out on top, winning eight awards, including Best British Soap. Channel 4’s Hollyoaks also did well, taking home three trophies.

ITV soap Emmerdale, however, only won two awards. And Coronation Street didn’t fare any better. David Neilson, who plays iconic character Roy Cropper, won Outstanding Achievement, which was the only win for Corrie.

As a result, soap superfans couldn’t help but think ITV wasn’t impressed with its competition doing so well.

“ITV’s response to its soaps winning bugger all at the Soap Awards is hilarious,” one user said while sharing a photo of ITV’s disruption.

“ITV doesn’t want to air #BritishSoapAwards because they know how [bleep] Corrie did,” another insisted.

“ITV hasn’t had any of these disruptions in god knows how long but the night EastEnders sweep it starts lagging. [Bleep] off!” a third remarked.

“Obsessed with the Soap Awards being on ITV and EastEnders (BBC) and Hollyoaks (C4) doing the best out of the two soaps on ITV,” a fourth said.

“Can’t believe ITV cancelled the Soap Awards altogether last year because they were worried about EastEnders sweeping only for EastEnders to sweep anyway lmaoooo. ITV are you not embarrassed this is so embarrassing,” a fifth user shared.