With voting for the British Soap Awards due to go live on Monday, organisers have decided to axe the 'Sexiest Male' and 'Sexiest Female' categories.
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This will mark the first time in the ceremony's 16-year history that viewers won't be able to vote for the soap stars that get them hot under the collar, because certain actors are reportedly "embarrassed" by the title.
A source told the Daily Star on Sunday: "We’ve had great fun celebrating the soap world’s sexiest for the last 16 years but it was time to make a few changes.
Last year's winner, Michelle Keegan
“The awards will still be a big, fun celebration but we’ve found a lot of the actors and actresses are a bit embarrassed by the ‘sexiest’ tag."
Last year, 'Coronation Street' actress Michelle Keegan was crowned Sexiest Female for the sixth year in a row, while 'Hollyoaks' hunk Danny Mac was named Sexiest Male.
Instead of the "sexiest" title, awards show bosses have decided to introduce a category honouring the storyline which best handled a tricky real-life issue.
Danny Mac
There'll be plenty of those to choose from - in the past 12 months we've seen 'EastEnders' garner praise for actress Kellie Bright's role in a hard-hitting rape storyline, while over on 'Corrie' Simon Gregson's character, Steve McDonald, has been suffering from depression, which has turned his whole life upside down.
A spokesperson for the awards show confirmed to the newspaper: "We’ve refreshed some of the voting categories to ensure the awards remain as relevant and popular as the soaps.”
The long list of nominees for this year's British Soap Awards will be revealed on Monday at britishsoapawards.tv.
