The 2026 BAFTA Television Special Award will go to consumer finance expert Martin Lewis.
BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip revealed the news on the South Bank of the River Thames in the British capital just days after the BAFTA Television Craft Awards 2026 ceremony in London on Sunday, which saw Netflix drama Adolescence win big.
Lewis, a high-profile financial journalist and campaigner, has long been a staple of British daytime television. He advises the general public on best ways to save, spend and increase their finances. The Television Special Award is given to an individual or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to television, in recognition of a remarkable body of work that has had a significant cultural, social, or industry impact.
BAFTA said of the decision to honor the 53-year-old: “Through his consumer website MoneySavingExpert.com, his long-running ITV series The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, his role as presenter and expert on Good Morning Britain, and his position as resident expert on This Morning, he has empowered millions of people with the financial knowledge and confidence to take control of their lives.”
Lewis added: “For many years, people assumed I was a financial adviser. I’m not. I never have been. I am, proudly, a broadcast journalist… That is why this level of recognition at BAFTA’s TV Awards feels so meaningful. If someone had told the young man retraining in 1997 for a postgrad in broadcast journalism that this would happen, his jaw would have dropped, he’d have smiled in disbelief, and asked: ‘What on earth for?’ And, truthfully, I still feel a bit like that today.”
“Campaigning journalism does not just mean exposing stories,” he continued. “It can also mean engaging viewers to take action. I’m incredibly grateful for the privilege ITV has given me over the past 14 years, inviting me into people’s sitting rooms, in the evenings, with a platform to share information that I believe can help improve people’s quality of life.”
Lewis shared during a BAFTA Q&A in London on Wednesday that he focuses not on what consumers, viewers and readers want but what they need. TV is “an industry in decline,” with profitability down, he also highlighted, warning that the industry must be “very, very careful” amid cost-cutting pressures about fulfilling its roles, such as “providing a window on society.”
The broadcaster also said that while his work is “innately political,” he focuses on staying “a-party political.” Though he acknowledged the responsibility of the job means his anxiety levels are “always high,” he told fellow journalists in the room he was “pretty angry” with social media companies when discussing deepfake AI videos that are still using his likeness.
Could U.K. audiences ever see Lewis doing other work on TV? “I love game shows and quizzes,” he replied. Lewis swiftly ruled out a career in politics, but was visibly emotional when talking about the lives he’d changed through lobbying the government.
More TV awards, including this one, will be handed out during the BAFTA TV Awards ceremony on Sunday, May 10, at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Comedian and Taskmaster star Greg Davies will host the event. Adolescence leads with 11 nominations, followed by Disney+’s A Thousand Blows with seven.
