The British Soap Awards have been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The annual British Soap Awards were due to take place later this year, however the ceremony has now been cancelled due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
In a statement a spokesperson for ITV confirmed: "In light of the latest government health guidelines and in line with our priority of safeguarding the wellbeing of everyone involved in our programmes, production of The British Soap Awards will not go ahead as planned."
The ceremony, which is usually held at the beginning of June, celebrated its 20-year anniversary last year.
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This will be the first time in the ceremony’s 21-year history that it will not be aired.
Since 2006, the awards show, which celebrates the best in British soap operas, has been hosted by This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield.
"The awards ceremony will return in 2021," continued the ITV spokesperson. "In the meantime, a brand new 60 minute programme called The British Soap Awards Celebrates 21 Years will air this spring, narrated by Phillip Schofield."
The national awards ceremony sees major British soaps, including EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Doctors as well as number of the show’s stars and crew, go head to head in a selection of categories.
The soap awards also took to their Twitter page to confirm the news to their over 52,000 followers, writing in a statement: "Due to the evolving coronavirus pandemic we are extremely sad to confirm that The British Soap Awards 2020 cannot go ahead as planned.
"We will return bigger and better in 2021. Keep watching all of your favourite Soaps and look out for out special documentary celebrating 21 Years of the Soap Awards later this Spring".
This isn't the first major TV event to be cancelled in light of the pandemic, as this year's Eurovision Song Contest was already put off.
'It is with deep regret that we have to announce the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam,' they revealed on Twitter.
'Over the past few weeks we have explored many alternative options to allow the Eurovision Song Contest to go ahead'.
