Emmerdale took home the top gong at this year’s British Soap Awards 2022, scooping the Best Soap Award in the ITV show.
The live awards ceremony – presented by Phillip Schofield – took place at the Hackney Empire in London, with the soaps battling it out to win recognition for their work.
The soaps nominated were Coronation Street, Doctors, EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks – with the Dales coming out on top.
Over the last two years, the awards do has been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
Thankfully, much to the relief of soap fans across the country, the ceremony returned for 2022 with the celebs back on the soapland red carpet.
But a number of ITV viewers were left unhappy with the decision and some took to Twitter to label it a "fix".
One wrote: "The real winner tonight is ITV and their advertising revenue. My winners were Gillian Wright and Eastenders."
A second posted: "This is a bigger fix than yesterday's episode of The Chase," as a third wrote: "EastEnders should of won that!!!!!!! The best Soap of the year by a country mile."
This comes after Coronation Street beat rivals Emmerdale, Holby City and Casualty to win best soap at the BAFTAs earlier this year.
Actress Sally Dynevor, who plays Sally Webster, accepted the award on stage and dedicated the award to tragic Sophie Lancaster and her mother Sylvia.
The ITV soap worked with Sylvia for Seb and Nina's tragic hate storyline, which saw Roy's granddaughter viciously attacked for being a goth.
She said: "We weren’t expecting this tonight, we really weren’t, so thank you so much Bafta for this award. Working on this show is just a privilege – and the drama and the comedy go so well on Corrie.
“And one of the most important stories we have told this year was the hate crime story. So we would like to dedicate this to Sophie Lancaster and her mother Sylvia Lancaster.”
Traditionally, the ceremony takes turns being hosted in London or Manchester in recognition of where the soaps are set, and this year it's London's turn as the Hackney Empire welcomed stars of the small screen to celebrate.
The show was in safe hands as experienced live TV presenter Schofield has been the host since 2006 and worked solo since 2009, having co-hosted from 2006 to 2008 with his former This Morning colleague Fern Britton.
Previous hosts have included Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, Matthew Kelly, Melanie Sykes and Des O'Connor, and Paul O'Grady.
The annual British Soap Awards returned on ITV with a brand new public-voted gong for Best Family awarded at the event.
The British Soap Awards 2022 airs live on ITV and ITV Hub from 8pm
