National Television Awards 2016

The 21^st National Television Awards

Date: Wednesday 20^th January 2016

Venue: the O2 London, Peninsula Square, London, SE10 0DX.

Only the other week was I incredibly lucky enough to attend the 2016 National Television Awards. There was an email circulated round amongst the Event Management students at university from the Events Manager of Indigo Television seeking volunteers to be seat fillers! Being a live broadcasted event when the camera pans out onto the audience seat fillers are needed so the venue doesn’t look bare or empty when the celebrities go on stage to collect their award and go to press.

Of course my friends and I jumped at this opportunity and our names were added on to the security list. We were incredibly excited in the weeks leading up to the event. We tried our best to keep calm but it got to the point where we were so excited it almost sounded too good to be true!

The brief for the night was very vague, we were simply asked to come dressed and ready in black tie attire but with us girls to be in flat shoes as we needed to be on our feet and able to move into seats quickly.

Besides this the only other instructions we were given were:

“Before the show starts you will be taken to the entrance of the Nominees’ area and lined up. While the audience are coming in some of you will be asked to sit in the seats of nominees arriving late.

As winners go up on stage to receive their award you will be asked to fill those spaces.”

It sounded simple enough but at the same time it felt like we had such a big responsibility especially considering the event was being broadcasted live onto national television!

We arrived at the O2 incredibly early; we certainly did not want to be late for this event! Despite waiting outside the entrance of the O2 in freezing conditions being so early worked out very well in our favour as we were second in line out of all the seat fillers to be called up!

Simply just lining up watching all the celebrities arrive at the venue was incredible, everyone you could possibly think of on national television from The Great British Bake Off to Casualty walked by us and so many even said hello! Even Lee from Eastenders winked straight at me! I couldn’t quite believe it!

My friend Laura and I were then asked to jump into the empty spaces in the FRONT ROW just as the opening performance was about to begin. There were still a few celebrities running late and they couldn’t have the front row empty. I found myself sitting in Darcey Bussell’s seat, next to Anton du Bekke and the Floor Manager in front of the I’m a Celebrity cast – yes that’s right, Chris Eubank, George Shelley, Lady C, Vicky Pattinson, Ferne McCann were ALL right behind me! We watched Gloria Gaynor perform the opening act alongside Britain’s Got Talent soul singers Revelation Avenue and it was absolutely incredible.

Darcey Bussell showed up as soon as the performance had finished and so we had to quickly run off backstage. We thought we might not get to go back out into the audience but just waiting in the wings and seeing all the celebrities come and go to press and to the bar was exciting enough! Only about half an hour later the ITV This Morning cast (Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield and co) won the award for Live Magazine Show and we were then asked to jump into their seats. We had to move quickly as they were ready to film Dermot O’Leary walking right by us! Dermot was clapping us into the seats shouting, “Come on you unsung hero’s! Get in those seats!!” It really was quite surreal! Funnily enough they never returned and I got to watch the rest of the awards show from their seats…

I had my parents watching the show at home and I really don’t think they expected me to pop up on live television not once, but twice!!

When the awards finished everyone made their way to the exit, not knowing exactly where we were meant to head off to Laura and I found ourselves following the crowds and ended up in the Ladies toilets with all the Hollyoaks and TOWIE girls! They looked absolutely stunning! As the evening came to an end the celebrities all wandered off to the after party with their golden tickets in hand and us girls came back down to reality ending our night in Five Guys.

I really did have the most amazing evening. Seeing everything go on backstage was just as exciting as seeing all the celebrities and it’s seriously made me consider a career in the live events industry after I graduate.

Being a seat filler at the NTA’s 2016 is likely to be the most exciting volunteering opportunity I’ll have ever done. It really was an unforgettable experience and I will definitely be signing myself up to assist again next year!