Alan Sugar smelled a rat after the Apprentice lost out at the NTAs and Paul Sinha’s comeback deserved a gong of its own
It was the National Television Awards on ITV on Wednesday night – woohoo! – and Strictly Come Dancing and Mr Bates vs The Post Office were among the big winners.
BBC1’s The Apprentice wasn’t, by all accounts, and was Alan Sugar happy about it? Of course he wasn’t. And not only that, he smelled a rat. A big one!
Double award for Ant and Dec. This NTA’s is an ITV show . Coincidence or not ?
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) September 11, 2024
The Chase another ITV show. Who counts the votes ? coincidence !
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) September 11, 2024
Kate Garraway it is truly a very sad story. ANOTHER ITV award to one of their employee’s
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) September 11, 2024
And when people took issue with his suggestion …
I hate to tell you this Sugar old boy but these awards are voted for by the viewers not ITV or BBC nor any other channel.
— cliff cook (@cliffc100) September 11, 2024
… He didn’t hesitate to double down.
You are deluded. There are ways to fiddle votes. ITV got done 10 years ago for fiddling the prize competitions
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) September 12, 2024
And indeed triple down.
Actrualy for the record the Apprentice has won every other TV award except NTA. COINCIDENCE !
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) September 12, 2024
Which is probably the point we should say there’s no evidence that the NTAs are fixed but voted for by viewers.
But we mention it because Paul Sinha’s response – The Chase won best daytime programme, since you ask – deserved a gong all of its own.
Bridgerton, Sort your life out, Strictly, Traitors, Mrs Brown’s Boys, David Attenborough. The balance was tipped by Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
Which like the Apprentice outlined a sordid catalogue of unchecked greed and corruption. Only with better writing and performances. https://t.co/igCIUHGW5a— Paul Sinha (@paulybengali) September 12, 2024
Boom.
Yeooooooooow get him Paul
Personally I am a huge fan of both the apprentice and the chase. But I cannot deny that reply is top tier
— A n g e l a (@AngelaK8x) September 12, 2024
And because we’re talking Paul Sinha – second time in a week! – it reminds us of this fabulous Andrew Tate takedown a few days back.
There's a specialist room where we spend hours every day training our muscles to look as photogenic as possible, to inspire our male fanbase to keep funding us. But there are no gay ornaments. I repeat, no gay ornaments. pic.twitter.com/F2QD3USGvE
— Paul Sinha (@paulybengali) September 4, 2024
Follow @paulybengali here!
And congratulations to The Chase …
The winner of the Daytime award goes to @ITVChase! #NTAs pic.twitter.com/MqCSIhm0xh
— National TV Awards (@OfficialNTAs) September 11, 2024
Source @paulybengali
