The British Soap Awards has reportedly been ‘axed for good’ and will not appear on screens anymore. The show had already been shelved by ITV for 2026, but the channel is now said to have quietly dropped it for the foreseeable future amid their series of budget cuts.
The Soap Awards have been a staple of the British awards season since 1999, celebrating the best of UK soap operas, such as EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
The awards were last aired on TV in 2025, when they were hosted by Jane McDonald. This came after a one year break and 1.5million viewers tuned in for the show.
View 3 ImagesJane McDonald hosted the British Soap Awards in 2025(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
The 2026 edition has already been rested. But a source has now told The Sun that the awards will be rested permanently: “Sadly, the soap awards have had their day and won’t be returning. It’s a real shame but they no longer pull in the advertising or sponsorship money anymore. It won’t be back. It’s dead in the water.”
They added that rival shows like the BAFTA TV Awards or the National Television Awards already have soap categories and, as such, “they don’t need their own event anymore”.
The Soap Awards have been off air multiple times in the past few years. They took place annually from 1999-2020, when they were then paused for two years due to the pandemic. The show returned in 2023, but not for 2024, and came back again in 2025.
An ITV spokesperson told The Sun that “no decision has yet been made”, but the channel is facing a series of budget cuts at the minute. The budget cuts have already forced the daytime TV shows to move to a new filming studio and changed up the show schedules.
View 3 ImagesITV is facing budget cuts(Image: PA)
Lorraine was cut down from an hour to 30 minutes, while Loose Women is only airing for 30 weeks of the year instead of 52. The slash to the schedule made some fear the panellists would be seeing a shake-up.
But an ITV source previously told The Mirror : “We are not planning any radical changes to the panel. All of our Loose Women are hugely valued, and we celebrate each and every one and the experience and opinions they bring to the show every day.
“Many of our long-standing panellists have appeared on the show for the majority of its 25-year run on screens, and those stalwart, Loose legends are at the core of the show’s success and hugely popular with the audience.
“The show remains a big priority within our daytime slate, having secured a BAFTA nomination, launched a podcast and celebrated a milestone anniversary in the last year alone.”
Announcing the changes earlier last year, Kevin Lygo, Managing Director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, said: “Daytime is a really important part of what we do, and these scheduling and production changes will enable us to continue to deliver a schedule providing viewers with the news, debate and discussion they love from the presenters they know and trust as well generating savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget in other genres.
“These changes also allow us to consolidate our news operations and expand our national, international and regional news output and to build upon our proud history of trusted journalism at a time when our viewers need accurate, unbiased news coverage more than ever.”
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