ITV confirms British Soap Awards have been cancelled next year

Next year's British Soap Awards have been cancelled, ITV has confirmed.

An ITV spokesperson said in a statement to Metro: "The British Soap Awards won’t be on air in 2024 but is set to return in 2025.

"The show was fantastically received in 2023, achieving consolidated figures of 2.9 million and doubling its audience year on year, so we look forward to the show’s return."

Last year's event was hosted by Jane McDonald, who stepped in to present after Phillip Schofield quit ITV after news that he'd had a relationship with a 'younger male colleague'.

Schofield said in a statement at the time: “The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.

“Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship.

"That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.”

Schofield insisted that his disclosure was not being ‘forced’, stating that no one had ‘issued an injunction’ about the relationship.

He added that neither he nor the unnamed colleague had been sacked over the matter.

However, the 61-year-old did make reference to this, adding that he felt it was necessary to discuss the relationship.

“My recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake, it is important for me to be honest now,” he told the publication.

He added that he was ‘painfully conscious’ that he ‘lied’ to his other colleagues, loved ones and his representatives.