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Ant and Dec want to give back award after phone vote was rigged because Robbie Williams wanted them to win
Last updated at 22:37pm on 09.05.08Comedy duo Ant and Dec have vowed to hand back a prestigious award after they found themselves at the centre of a television phone-in scandal.
It emerged that singer Robbie Williams was told Ant and Dec would win a British Comedy Award weeks before a "live" viewers' vote was carried out.
In fact, the public voted for the BBC's Catherine Tate Show as its favourite.
But the award duly went to the Geordie presenters.
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Wrong gong: Ant and Dec receive the People's Choice prize from Robbie Williams only after he was promised the comedy duo would win
Two devastating reports into rip-offs by ITV also uncovered that viewers of two of their shows were conned in separate incidents.
Last night the pair said they would give back the award - but only as ITV was fined nearly £6million.
A spokesman for Ant and Dec said the duo were "appalled" they had won an award which had been fixed.
The spokesman said: "They are so upset and completely appalled.
"They have been lucky to win many awards and would never want to win an award in this way."
Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and Gameshow Marathon were among several programmes found by the television watchdog Ofcom to have fleeced viewers out of millions in faked votes.
Real winner: Catherine Tate received the most votes
Ofcom said ITV had shown "total contempt" for its audience and fined it a record £5.7million.
Politicians branded yesterday's revelations the "final straw" in TV fakery, saying the British public would not accept any more cons by broadcasters.
There was also anger that ITV has still not fired anyone for the shabby treatment of its viewers.
The first report was carried out by the law firm Olswang into the apparent fixing of the British Comedy Awards on ITV in 2005.
According to the independent report, Robbie Williams said he would be prepared to appear on the show only if it was to hand an award to Ant and Dec, with whom he is friends.
Organisers of the televised awards made the deal with Williams weeks before the public voted on it.
On the night the pair were handed the People's Choice prize, which rightfully should have gone to Catherine Tate, before the public vote had even been concluded.
Organisers of the event gave the award during a news break, but did not tell viewers who thought they were still influencing the outcome.
Olswang's report found that Williams and presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly were all unaware of the situation.
The second investigation was by Ofcom into a string of phone-in scandals.
It found that viewers of ITV hit shows including Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway wasted almost £8million on some 10million telephone calls.
They had no chance of winning as competition finalists were repeatedly chosen before phone lines had closed.
Winners were chosen on the basis of where they lived or how they would appear on screen.
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ITV fixed the result after Robbie Williams refused to turn up at the show unless Ant and Dec won the comedy award
Ant and Dec's programme Saturday Night Takeaway was one of the shows that took money from callers after competition lines had closed
Ofcom said programme makers had "made money from misconduct" and their actions had been "absolutely reprehensible".
The broadcaster will now be forced into the humiliation of broadcasting the watchdog's findings numerous times in the coming weeks on ITV1.
By far the biggest culprit was Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, which was responsible for half of the wrongly taken cash, about £4million. It was fined £3million.
Another show from Ant and Dec, Gameshow Marathon, was hit with a £1.2million fine, and Soapstar Superstar, a celebrity singing competition, was fined the same amount after it finalised results before lines closed.
Viewers' song choices were overidden by producers and viewers' votes were ignored. Wrong participants were put forward for eviction.
The digital channel ITV2+1 was fined £275,000 after it repeated programmes an hour later without telling viewers the competitions had closed.
Other shows found to have breached rules, but not fined, included I'm A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! People's Court and ITV Playalong.
Ofcom's report criticised ITV for failing to take "significant" disciplinary action against staff who were involved in the scams.
Junior members of staff on Soapstar Superstar were said to have been "firmly sat upon" by executives after raising concerns about manipulating votes.
The executive producer of Saturday Night Takeaway was said to have "turned a blind eye" to the deception.
Conservative MP John Whittingdale, chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, said: "It is extraordinary that they ever thought this type of behaviour was acceptable."
Liberal Democrat Culture spokesman Don Foster said: "To hear that a major awards show has been potentially fiddled comes as the final straw with the public's confidence in broadcasting."
Ofcom's findings came after city firm Deloitte was called in by ITV to carry out an audit of its programmes. Its findings were published in October.
ITV chairman Michael Grade restated the channel's "unreserved apology to the public for breaches that took place between 2003 and January 2007".
He added: "For anyone who cares about British broadcasting, the Ofcom findings and the Deloitte review make for sorry reading."
Mr Grade said ITV had "gone further than any other broadcaster in instigating an independent, systematic and comprehensive investigation into all allegations around premium rate services in its programmes".
The latest findings come after a year of revelations and admissions that have disgraced the broadcasting world.
Last year GMTV was found to have duped viewers out of up to £40million over four years and was fined £2million.
The BBC is facing a hefty fine from Ofcom over a dozen phone-in rip-offs involving shows such as Comic Relief, Children in Need, Blue Peter and Sport Relief.
It has already been fined £50,000 for a previous incident on Blue Peter, in which it faked a competition winner.
Reader views (6)
Here's a sample of the latest views published. You can click view all to read all views that readers have sent in.
Surely the best way to get the broadcasters to notice is to revoke their licence. A week or two off air with nothing but a written apology as a test card would make them sit up. This should be done on top of the fine.
- Ian, Brighton
These programmes, their producers, all the production companies and the individuals (with authority and/or responsibility) associated with them - should be "banned for life" from UK television.
Interesting to note that the BBC "only got a slap on the wrist" compared with ITV's "massive fine" . . . Why was that?
- Fraser, Telford Park
So they scammed people out of £40 million and get fined £2 million.. That's a good deal..I could live with that deal. They will never catch them doing that in the USA..here they are much sneakier, and better at hiding it, or maybe it's that nobody is looking
- Dave Robinson, Schuylkill Haven USA
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