ITV have apologised after Adele‘s acceptance speech for the ceremony’s marquee British Album prize was cut short last night (February 21st).
As ever, the night was consistently interrupted for television network commercial breaks, while most previous winners on the night were allowed to spend as long as they wished at the podium after receiving awards.
As a result, and despite the category being teased throughout the night with a special VT for each nominated act, with Blur being promised the longest performance window in Brits history, host James Corden was forced to interrupt Adele after she had landed the British Album gong for the hugely successful ‘21‘.
Now, in a somewhat curt statement, ITV have simply said: “The Brits is a live event. Unfortunately the programme was over running and we had to move on. We would like to apologise to Adele for the interruption.”
While Brit organisers have been more apologetic in their own response, commenting:
“We regret this happened and we send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short this evening due to the live show over-running. We don’t want this to undermine her incredible achievement in winning our night’s biggest award. It tops off what’s been an incredible year for her.”
Speaking on ITV’s sister-station ITV2 shortly after the night’s official festivities had finished, host Corden admitted being asked to cut short Adele’s speech had put a dampener on the night for him.
“I was having the best night of my life and then I had to cut Adele off before she’s even had chance to say thank you,” he said. “She’s the biggest star in the world. I don’t understand what happened but I’m upset about it.”
Earlier, Adele had also picked up the Brit Award for British Female.