The nominations for this year's British comedy awards were revealed this morning, and it was more intriguing to see who hadn't been included than who had.
With more of a focus on newcomers, such as BBC3's Gavin and Stacey, which walked away with seven nominations, it was the old timers who suffered the most. Geordie duo Ant and Dec were the main casualties, failing to garner a single nomination for the first time in five years.
The double act has featured in either the best comedy entertainment programme or best entertainment personality categories every year since 2002 and last year won the people's choice award.
This year, the pair have been usurped by another double act, Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins from Channel 4's Friday Night Project, who have been nominated in the two categories their ITV rivals used to dominate - best comedy entertainment personality and best comedy entertainment programme.
The turnaround begs the question, are these two the new, ruder and saucier Ant and Dec?
The fact that the main awards are decided by a jury of industry experts, with only one gong - the people's choice award - decided by the public, raises interesting questions as to why Ant and Dec might have been omitted.
It can't be because they lack popularity, because their shows such as I'm a Celebrity and Saturday Night Takeaway continue to pull in the ratings - much more so than The Friday Night Project.
So did it have something to do with the recent furore over the phone line rip-offs on Gameshow Marathon and Saturday Night Takeaway?
However, if the industry wanted to make examples of the pair, then the comedy awards are hardly the place to do it, seeing as the programme was also dragged into the participation TV crisis after allegations about one of their phone votes in 2005.
This incident wasn't covered as part of ITV's recent Deloitte report into phone irregularities, but is instead the subject of a separate probe by media law firm Olswang.
Because of this, ITV has said they won't show this year's awards for the first time in 17 years.
Barring a last minute change of mind, the comedy newcomers who have been nominated this year will miss out on exposure to the 5 million viewers who usually watch the ceremony.
Gavin and Stacey's huge haul is another success for BBC3's policy of breeding new comedy and following Little Britain, could it be its next major break-out hit?
The BBC pulled in 18 nominations in all while Channel 4 earned 10 and ITV three. Is this a fair appraisal of the different broadcasters' take on comedy?
