7.30pm Dermot: I still get nervous
IT’S the biggest big TV awards show on the b box – and Dermot O’Leary has been the man picked to host it eight times. But the TV fav favourite admitted he is still nervous as he prepares to step out in front of thousands thou of people for Tuesday’s event at the O2 in London. Dermot, 44, said said: “The first three or four minutes when you’re live – that’s terrifying. You walk wal out and there’s six, seven thousand pe people and you’re just going, ‘Holy s**t’. “But then you’ve gotta go, ‘Right. I sort of know what I’m d doing’. “You let all that in insanity play out. And actually it makes you very comfortable in your own skin when stuf stuff does go wrong.” Dermot is also thrilled pal Ant McPartlin is up for four gongs with Declan Donnelly. It follows Ant’s stint in rehab and the breakdown of his marriage. Dermot said: “It’s great to see the boys back on, back working together. I text both of them a fair bit – but it would be ungallant for me to share those.” The Geordie duo have been crowned Best TV Presenter 16 times.
They face competition in the category from Bradley Walsh, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, who have been pitted against each other for the first time.
The Entertainment Show category has been named The Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award in honour of the late star. “That’s that, now, in perpetuity – it’s lovely,” said Dermot.
His fondest memory of the NTAs is Chilean mine disaster survivor Luis Urzua presenting the Most Popular Drama award in 2011.
He said: “This guy rocks up and gets this amazing standing ovation. He opens the winning envelope and – obviously doesn’t know any of these awards from any of these shows – and goes, ‘Ohhh’, then pauses and goes, ‘Waterloo Road’, then chucks the envelope.”
The X Factor host Dermot, who this week confirmed Cheryl Tweedy will return, refused to guess the rest of the judging line-up.
He added: “I just worry about my own contract. I hope Nicole’s coming back. But I hope everyone’s coming back.
“It would be a nightmare for me, but I’d make it a big old judging panel. They’re like wines. You’ve got your 2010 vintage which was a very different vintage to 2012.
“But they’ve still got their strengths.”