TV’s leading industry event, the Edinburgh TV Festival, brought to you by Screen Scotland, has unveiled the shortlist for its prestigious TV Awards supported by Cast & Crew. This year’s shortlist features the best acting and producing talent from across the UK and international television industry. With a broad range of broadcasters and streamers nominated, Channel 4 leads the shortlist with 20 nominations across the broadcaster and individual talent categories. BBC amassed 17 nominations, ITV has got 13, Netflix have nine, Sky secured eight,  Apple TV+ get six, Disney+ secured two and Channel 5 received one. HBO Max has also secured its first award nomination only three months after launching in the UK.

As previously announced, this year’s ceremony will also see Davina McCall presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of her extraordinary and groundbreaking career. The awards will take place on Thursday 27 August at the EICC.

Taking the helm of this year’s voting procedure as 2026 Jury President, is multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, writer and author, Clive Myrie, who will oversee the juries which are made up of industry names. As the BBC’s Chief News Correspondent and Presenter of the News at Six and Ten, Myrie has covered almost every major international story including the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, reported on eight US Presidential elections and anchored the BBC’s coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel/Hamas war and most recently from the Middle East, the US/Iran war.

Myrie has made several travel documentaries for BBC One/Two, most recently around Italy, Africa and the Caribbean, which won him a BAFTA in 2025. Myrie is also the host of the toughest quiz on television, Mastermind, and his memoir Everything is Everything, is a Sunday Times best seller and was nominated for an Indie Book Award.

In recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the industry, Myrie has won four Royal Television Society Awards, a Peabody Award in America (the broadcasting equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize), been nominated for two news BAFTAs and two news Emmys and been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Television Society.

Myrie said: ”I am truly honoured to be taking on the role of Jury President for the Edinburgh TV Awards. Television has an extraordinary power to inform, entertain and bring people together through shared stories and experiences, and it is a privilege to celebrate the creativity, craftsmanship and dedication that continue to drive our industry forward.

The standard of television production has never been higher, and I look forward to working alongside my fellow jurors to recognise the programmes and talent that have made a lasting impact over the past year. It is a responsibility I take with great pride, and I am delighted to be part of an event that champions excellence in broadcasting.”

This year’s ceremony will be hosted by comedy powerhouse duo, Maisie Adams and Suzi Ruffell who co-host the hugely popular and award-winning Big Kick Energy football podcast together.

Having recently been crowned the winner of series 20 of Channel 4’s acclaimed Taskmaster and appeared in the second series of Amazon’s hit show Last One Laughing, Maisie has had a meteoric rise on the comedy circuit. A regular panellist on hit comedy shows, The Last Leg, The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year,  Have I Got News For You and A League Of Their Own, she is also a regular participant of ITV’s Soccer Aid for UNICEF and alongside Jill Scott, co-hosted Channel 4’s coverage of Women’s FA Cup football in Jill And Maisie’s Road To Wembley, and the FA Cup Final at Wembley in May.  

Suzi, with five sell-out runs at the Fringe and a critically acclaimed Amazon special, Dance Like Everyone Is Watching under her belt, has become a household comedy name; regularly appearing on Live At The Apollo, The Jonathan Ross Show, The Last Leg, Mock The Week, and There’s Something About Movies.

A radio host on Virgin radio, BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4, a Sunday Times Bestseller with her debut book Am I Having Fun Now? she also co-hosts the Like Minded Friends podcast with Tom Allen, and hosts OUT With Suzi Ruffell which celebrates the lives of LGBT+ people and ‘coming out’.

Maisie Adams and Suzi Ruffell said: “We are thrilled to be in Edinburgh to host the TV Festival awards and celebrate the brilliant TV we have seen over the last twelve months. And to be totally honest we are even more thrilled about the prospect of not having to spend the three hours running up to the awards flyering on The Royal Mile!”

After a long period of uncertainty and challenges, one thing that remains true about the TV industry: it steadfastly remains the bedrock of our shared experiences. Despite profound and rapid transformation – in the way we produce, fund, edit and consume – there is no doubt that despite continued innovation and change, the way we tell stories hasn’t lost its ability to connect us and shape our identity. Whether it’s drama that makes a nation collectively hold its breath, documentaries that make sense of the unimaginable, performances so powerful they have us in tears, or entertainment so joyful you forget the news headlines, our society is all the better for the work our nominees have produced and it is more vital than ever.

The scripted categories this year showcase the breadth and depth of stories brought to life by the production teams behind the scenes and powerhouse performances on screen. Nominated for Best Drama are Dept Q, Prisoner 951, Riot Women, Slow Horses, Waiting for the Out and What It Feels Like for a Girl while in the Best Comedy category Changing Ends, How Are You?, It’s Alan (Partridge), How to Get to Heaven From Belfast, Man Like Mobeen, Pushers and Saturday Night Live UK will all compete for the top spot. 

The Best International Drama category nominations go to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, All Her Fault, Pluribus, The Last of Us, Your Friends & Neighbors, and The Pitt.

The performance categories are once again brimming with some the industry’s best talent, with the Best TV Actor Drama category showcasing career defining performances from Gary Oldman in Slow Horses, Malachi Kirby in A Thousand Blows, Narges Rashidi in Prisoner 951, Rose Ayling-Ellis in Code of Silence, Sheridan Smith in I Fought the Law and Stephen Graham in A Thousand Blows. For Best TV Actor Comedy, the nominations include Emma Sidi in Saturday Night Live UK, Lenny Rush in Finding Father Christmas, Oliver Savell in Changing Ends, and all three leads in How to Get to Heaven From Belfast are nominated Caoilfhionn Dunne, Roisin Gallagher and Sinéad Keenan.

The emerging stars of tomorrow nominated for Breakthrough Performance are Chenée Taylor in Just Act Normal, Ellis Howard in What It Feels Like for a Girl, Fehinti Balogun in Down Cemetery Road, Jessica Reynolds in A Woman of Substance, Osian Morgan in Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards and Posy Sterling in Dirty Business.

This year the unscripted categories include a mix of insightful and entertaining series. The nominations for Best Popular Factual Series include Celebrity Race Across the World, Educating Yorkshire, Girlbands Forever, The Assembly, The Jury: Murder Trial and The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy; in the Best Entertainment or Reality Series category, dynamic formats take the lead with nominations going to I Kissed a Boy, Rob & Romesh Vs…, Taskmaster, The 1% Club, The Celebrity Traitors and The Last Leg.

In the Best Documentary category, this year’s nominees include the powerful and hard-hitting titles Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War (Exposure), Flight 149: Hostage of War, Grenfell: Uncovered, Prisoner 951: The Hostages’ Story, See No Evil and The Dunblane Tapes.

The presenter categories showcase a wide range of onscreen talent with the shortlist for Best Entertainment Presenter featuring Claudia Winkleman for The Celebrity Traitors, Greg Davies and Alex Horne for Taskmaster, Rob Brydon for Destination X and Romesh Ranganathan for Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening. Best Factual Presenter nominations include Davina McCall for Standup To Cancer – Cancer Clinic Live, Martin Lewis for The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, Matt Shea for Dispatches: Palestine Action – The Truth Behind The Ban and Oobah Butler for How I Made £1 Million in 90 Days.

This year’s Climate Storytelling nominees feature some of the most important issues we’re facing today: After the Flood Series 2, Dirty Business, Famous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall, Guy Martin’s House Without Bills, The Plastic Detox and Under Salt Marsh.

The nominees for Best Branded Entertainment Award feature Cancer Detectives: Finding the Cures, Guy Martin’s House Without Bills, Where To Next?, and Win Win with People’s Postcode Lottery.

Nominees for the Agency of the Year include DBA, Insanity, InterTalent, LEODIS TALENT, Mirador Talent Group and The Foundry.

Production companies and broadcasters are also recognised. Nominated for Small Indie of the Year are Black Camel Pictures, Candour Productions and Walk on Air Films.

Production Company of the Year nominees include Clapperboard Studios, Hera Pictures, Quay Street Productions, Studio Lambert, Twofour and Wonderhood Studios and Production Group of the Year sees Banijay UK, BBC Studios, Fremantle UK, ITV Studios and STV Studios nominated for the coveted award.   

The nominations for Broadcaster of the Year include 5, BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Netflix and U.

The Edinburgh TV Awards Ceremony, supported by Cast & Crew, will be held at the EICC on Thursday 27 August. The full list of nominees is detailed below.