By Asyia Iftikhar
Copyright metro
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Ant and Dec congratulated Gary Lineker after he beat them to the best TV presenter award at the NTAs after a 23-year winning streak.
The former Match of the Day host celebrated the shock victory with an emotional speech, which was praised by fans.
Declan Donnelly said: ‘Good morning from sunny South Africa, it’s us. We just wanted to jump on here and say a huge, huge thank you to everyone who voted for I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here last night.
Ant McPartlin added: ‘Yes, thank you very much, everyone here is very, very happy.
‘Also thank you to everyone who voted for us for the best presenter category, even though we couldn’t get it across the line this year. We were beaten by an up-and-coming new guy, 64-year-old whippernsapper, Gary Lineker.
‘Well deserved, congratulations Gary, great speech too,’ Ant said while Dec shared: ‘Lovely speech, thoroughly deserved.’
He made a poignant speech as he collected the award (Picture: Getty)
The pair then happily quipped that they were heading to hang some celebrities off a cliff.
They are currently filming the new season of I’m A Celebrity (which won best reality competition last night), so they couldn’t attend the awards show in person last night.
As Gary accepted the award, he said: ‘Blimey, I’ve won the Ant and Dec trophy! Alright, what to say, firstly, of course, thank you, thank you to everybody who voted for me, hugely appreciated, it’s amazing.
‘I remember when I first started to present Match of the Day about two centuries ago, and there were two young Geordies just making a name for themselves, and I thought “These boys are going to win the NTA presenter award every single year until Newcastle win a trophy.”‘
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The TV hosting duo are all too used to scooping up this award (Picture: Joe Maher/Getty Images)
In his acceptance speech, he also seemed to refer back to his exit from the BBC after he was removed for sharing a post about the Israel-Palestine conflict featuring a rat emoji, which has been historically used as an antisemitic trope.
At the time, he issued an apology saying it was a ‘genuine mistake’.
Speaking on stage at the awards, he continued: ‘It’s not lost on me why I’ve won this award…I think perhaps it demonstrates that it’s okay to sometimes use our platform to speak up on behalf of those who have no voice. So thank you, it means the world.’
The moment marked an end to Ant and Dec’s record-breaking string of NTA wins, with last year marking their 23rd prize.
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‘It’s really hard to put into words just how this feels and what it means to us that you take the time to vote for us,’ they told the public when they scooped up the award in 2024.
In an interview backstage, after the victory, Gary offered some small consolation, joking ‘at least Newcastle won the cup’.
Before more sincerely adding: ‘They’re brilliant, it’s an honour to follow in their footsteps and be the first one to win it.’
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