Sky has received a record-breaking 13 nominations at the 2021 Royal Television Society Programme Awards.
The nominations beat the broadcaster’s previous best record of eight nominations received in 2020 and 2019. They include Male Actor for Lennie James for Save Me Too. James also serves as writer and creator on the thriller that is also nominated for Best Drama Series.
I Hate Suzie, starring Billie Piper as a former pop star who has her life upended when she is hacked, is also nominated for Best Drama and its writer, Lucy Prebble is nominated as Best Writer.
Cricket commentator Michael Holding is nominated as Sports Presenter, Commentator or Pundit following his personal live testimony of his experiences of racism and the need for education to end institutionalised racism during last summer’s Test series against the West Indies. Sky’s coverage of the 1st Test (Black Lives Matter), which also featured testimony for of Ebony Rainford-Brent – the first black woman to play for England – is also recognised.
Chair of the Awards, Kenton Allen, said: “The standard of entries has been outstanding and demonstrated the breadth of high-quality content that has informed, entertained and kept audiences going through what has been such a uniquely difficult time. We very much look forward to and hope everyone will join us on the 16th March to celebrate the nominees and winners and another outstanding year of television.”
The BBC leads the way with 40 nominations across the 28 categories, followed by Channel 4 with 17 and Sky with 12.
The winners will be announced during a live-streamed awards ceremony on Tuesday March 16 at 6.30pm via The Royal Television Society website.