{"id":129541,"date":"2025-09-11T08:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129541\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T08:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:51:09","slug":"gary-lineker-addresses-cancellation-as-he-breaks-ant-and-decs-23-year-ntas-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129541\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker addresses \u2018cancellation\u2019 as he breaks Ant and Dec\u2019s 23-year NTAs streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Match of the Day<\/a> host Gary Lineker<\/a> has won the TV Presenter<\/a> prize at the National Television Awards, breaking the 23-year streak of Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.<\/p>\n

Lineker, 64, was shortlisted for the award just months after his early exit from the BBC<\/a> show in May, which followed a row regarding a post he shared on social media about Zionism<\/a> that included an image of a rat \u2013 historically an antisemitic insult.<\/p>\n

Collecting the award, he said: \u201cI think it demonstrates that perhaps it\u2019s OK, sometimes, for us to use our platform to speak up on behalf of those who have no voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remark was met with loud cheers and applause from the live audience at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Lineker also said that Ant and Dec<\/a> are \u201cbrilliant\u201d, and added that \u201cit\u2019s an honour to follow in their footsteps\u201d when he was questioned at the winners\u2019 press conference.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019m doing great. I\u2019m enjoying having weekends off for the first time in my adult life, which has been great fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still watching loads of football, still doing the same sort of things, and I\u2019ve got a new show coming up for ITV, which I start filming next week \u2013 The Box, which goes out, I think, probably next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GaryGary Linker collecting his award for best presenter (ITV)<\/p>\n

Asked if the award proves he has not been cancelled, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone seriously thought that I was cancelled at any point. It was obviously just a mistake and an oversight. And I think everyone saw it for that. So I was never in the slightest bit concerned for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lineker had headed up Match of the Day since 1999, when he took over from Des Lynam.<\/p>\n

The former footballer also beat competition from The Traitors host Claudia Winkleman, This Morning\u2019s Alison Hammond, and TV presenter and reality TV star Stacey Solomon.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, comedian Michael McIntyre said he would like to win three NTAs following an early victory at the ceremony on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Collecting the Bruce Forsyth entertainment gong for Michael McIntyre\u2019s Big Show, he said: \u201cI\u2019ve sat in the front row many, many times with my feet on the bottom stair and never won this prize. This is an excellent turn of events.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the winners\u2019 press conference, he added: \u201cI would like to win three National Television Awards, actually, tonight. I doubt that\u2019s going to happen, but we are nominated for another two awards, so that\u2019s good. That would be a start, but I doubt that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIntyre was also nominated in the quiz game show category for Michael McIntyre\u2019s The Wheel, but lost out to The 1% Club, hosted by Lee Mack.<\/p>\n

The comedian was also nominated for Michael McIntyre\u2019s 25th Year Stand-Up Special, but it lost out to sitcom Gavin and Stacey: The Finale, which brought the popular BBC series to an end on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Ruth Jones, who co-wrote and co-starred in Gavin and Stacey alongside James Corden, told the audience: \u201cAll right, calm down. I\u2019m going to the bar now for a pint of wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the winners\u2019 press conference, she paid tribute to her co-star and co-creator Corden, who was unable to attend the event.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Clarkson said he was \u201cgenuinely thrilled\u201d as Clarkson\u2019s Farm won best factual entertainment show at the ceremony. Speaking in the winners\u2019 room, he said: \u201cI\u2019d like to think that this is for farming, because it demonstrates that people who watch the show go, \u2018Bloody hell, farming\u2019s difficult\u2019, and have voted for this show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Call the Midwife was named best returning drama, and EastEnders actor Steve McFadden won the award for serial drama performance.<\/p>\n

Another award went to I\u2019m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! for best reality competition, with This Morning picking up best daytime show.<\/p>\n

The London ceremony, held at the O2 and hosted by comedian Joel Dommett, saw appearances from a number of stars including The Inheritance host Elizabeth Hurley and US country star Billy Ray Cyrus, to whom she has been romantically linked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-129541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}