Celebrity Traitors and Clarkson’s Farm Lead the Winners at the 2026 National Television Awards

The Celebrity Traitors continued its success by winning the Reality Competition award following the first celebrity edition of the BBC phenomenon.

The series saw Alan Carr ultimately revealed as a Traitor after making it all the way to the dramatic finale alongside Nick Mohammed and David Olusoga.

Charlotte Church accepted the award alongside cast members and praised the finale and its three remaining players.

The win further shows how successfully the Traitors format has moved beyond its original series.

What began as a word-of-mouth television hit has grown into one of the BBC's most valuable entertainment properties, and its celebrity spin-off has now added an NTA to that success.

Carr’s evening wasn’t finished with the Reality Competition victory.

The comedian and presenter was also surprised with the National Television Awards’ Special Recognition Award.

The presentation brought together Amanda Holden, Paloma Faith, Kate Garraway, Charlotte Church and David Olusoga, while Stephen Fry also contributed to the celebration.

Carr apparently didn’t immediately realise the elaborate tribute was actually for him — only figuring it out as the presentation unfolded.

It turned an already successful evening for The Celebrity Traitors into a particularly memorable one for Carr.

Clarkson's Farm also added another trophy to its growing collection.

The Prime Video programme won the Reality Docuseries category, beating competition that included At Home With The Furys, Stacey & Joe and Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.

Jeremy Clarkson described the victory as a “thrill” and suggested that viewers weren't simply voting for the programme — they were showing their support for farmers and recognising the difficulty of the work they do.

That's become an increasingly important part of the show's appeal.

Although Clarkson's Farm began as the novelty of watching one of Britain's most famous television presenters try to run a farm, the programme has gradually become a platform for the realities facing British agriculture.

Sir David Attenborough was named TV Presenter at the ceremony, although he wasn’t there to collect the award personally.

A speech was instead read on his behalf in which the veteran broadcaster used the moment to draw attention to humanity’s responsibility to protect the natural world.

Even after decades on television, Attenborough’s ability to connect with audiences remains extraordinary.

The award puts him alongside a mixture of newer television phenomena and long-running favourites that dominated this year’s results.

Elsewhere, Call the Midwife was named Returning Drama, repeating its 2025 victory.

I Fought The Law, starring Sheridan Smith, won New Drama, while Vicky McClure received the Drama Performance award for her work in ITV's Trigger Point.

Emmerdale enjoyed a particularly strong evening in the soap categories.

The ITV programme was named Best Serial Drama, while Jeff Hordley won Serial Drama Performance for playing Cain Dingle.

This Morning took the Daytime award after reclaiming the category in 2025, continuing a remarkable relationship with the NTAs that previously saw the programme win for 12 consecutive years between 2011 and 2022.

Meanwhile, Strictly Come Dancing won Best Talent Show, Gogglebox took Factual Entertainment and Mrs Brown's Boys was named Best Comedy.

What makes the National Television Awards particularly interesting is the audience’s role.

Rather than functioning purely as an industry vote, the awards give viewers a direct say in which programmes and performers take home the trophies.

That can produce a very different picture of television from traditional industry awards.

Prestige drama sits alongside daytime television. Reality shows compete for attention with documentaries, soaps and Saturday-night entertainment.

And the 2026 results show that familiar television institutions remain powerful even as newer programmes such as The Celebrity Traitors establish themselves.

The ceremony ultimately celebrated both sides of British television: programmes audiences have watched for years and newer shows rapidly becoming institutions themselves.

For The Celebrity Traitors, the transformation from spin-off to award winner hasn’t taken very long at all.