BRITISH Soap Awards viewers accused ITV of “cutting chants” for EastEnders’ Laura Doddington on a night when the BBC soap dominated its rivals.

Ironically, the alleged quieting of cheers for Laura came during the Best Newcomer gong, which was won by Hollyoaks’ Isabelle Smith.

While viewers accepted Francine Osborne actress Isabelle was a worthy winner, they were keen for popular Laura, who plays Nicola Mitchell, to get her flowers.

One person wrote on X: “ITVX cutting the chants for Laura is EVIL.”

Another said: “I was gutted Laura didn’t win this award but the huge (edited out) chants of “Laura! Laura! Laura!” from the audience hopefully made up for it.”

A third fumed: “Naw as if they cut out our chant for Laura Dodington…fuming.”

In total, Enders scooped eight awards on the night including the coveted Best Soap, Best Leading Performer and Scene of the Year.

The televised ceremony got off to a nightmare start when a tech issue forced it off air for seven minutes.

An apology message read: “We’re sorry for the disruption.”

Fans were quick to take to social media with their complaints.

One wrote: “What the hell is going on ? Will it ever come on?”

A second said: “Oh dear looks like we got major problems on ITV1.”

A third commented: “Well, I guess I am not watching The Soap Awards on ITVX. What’s going on?”

While other fans thought the broadcaster was deliberately sabotaging the awards in response to EastEnders’ big win.

One wrote: “British Soap Awards not on are ITV going to be sorry for the disruption for the next 2 hours just because EastEnders won almost everything.”

Coronation Street had a night to forget, bagging just the specially curated Outstanding Achievement Award which went to Roy Cropper star David Neilson.

The show failed to secure wins in any of the main panel or viewer-voted categories amid ITV’s ongoing cash crisis and the mass cast exodus at the soap over the past six months.