EastEnders is a British soap opera that has aired on BBC One since 19 February 1985. It has been nominated for a variety of different awards. Its first award, for Favourite Programme, was given by the Anna Scher Theatre on 24 January 1986. At the British Academy Television Awards, EastEnders has won the Best Soap or Best Continuing Drama Award 11 times, as well as Best Drama Series once. The show has won in the Serial Drama category at the National Television Awards eleven times, as well as winning Best Soap at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards five times.
At The British Soap Awards, it has won Best British Soap 12 times, Best Storyline 5 times and Best Single Episode 5 times. In 2013, Adam Woodyatt won the British Soap Award for Lifetime Achievement for his portrayal of Ian Beale. His win has been followed by Rudolph Walker and Letitia Dean also getting the accolade at subsequent ceremonies. The show has won Inside Soap Best Soap Award 14 times since the ceremonies' inception in 2001. In March 2009, EastEnders won its third TRIC award in the category TV Soap of the Year, having also won similar categories at the British Soap Awards, National Television Awards, TV Choice Awards, and Inside Soap Awards within 10 months. EastEnders Executive Producer Diederick Santer commented that this was due to having "the most talented cast and crew in the business, and the most fantastic and dedicated audience." Several different EastEnders cast members have received acting award nominations for their performances in the show. June Brown is the only EastEnders actor to receive a nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and Patsy Palmer is the only one to be nominated in the Royal Television Society Programme Awards. Simon May won a TRIC award in 1986 for the EastEnders theme tune and co-creator Tony Holland and writer Tony Jordan have also been honoured.
EastEnders has also been awarded at various diversity and mental health-related ceremonies throughout its course. During the tenure of the Screen Nation Film and Television Awards, EastEnders was awarded 5 times, receiving varies other nominations and honourable mentions for their Black cast members. It has also seen 4 Best TV Character wins at the Asian Media Awards. The Mental Health Media Awards has awarded the show on numerous occasions, for storylines involving Kat Slater's (Jessie Wallace) rape and attempted suicide and the mental health of Stacey (Lacey Turner) and Jean Slater (Gillian Wright).
The All About Soap Awards (formerly the All About Soap Bubble Awards) were presented by All About Soap magazine and voted for by the public.
The British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA TV Awards) are awarded annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. EastEnders has received 24 British Academy Television Awards nominations and has won 11 of them. It won the award for Best Drama Series in 1997 and has been won the Best Continuing Drama or Best Soap accolade in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2025. June Brown was nominated in 2009 for Best Actress, the first time a soap opera actress was nominated in this category since Jean Alexander, who played Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street in 1988. She was billed the favourite to win the award, but lost out to Anna Maxwell Martin.
The British Academy Television Craft Awards are an annual accolade presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
The British Soap Awards began in 1999 and EastEnders has since won the award for Best British Soap 12 times. A select amount of awards are voted for by the public, including Best British Soap and Best Leading Performer, while the rest are decided by a panel. June Brown won the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 for her portrayal of Dot Cotton. Subsequent winners have included Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler), Pam St Clement (Pat Butcher), Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale), Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell), Rudolph Walker (Patrick Trueman) and Letitia Dean (Sharon Watts). In 2018, an award was given jointly for the first time, as the Scene of the Year accolade received equal numbers of votes for EastEnders and Doctors.
The Broadcast Awards are run by Broadcast magazine. They recognise and reward excellence in and around the UK television programming industry. EastEnders has won the Best Soap/Continuing Drama accolade once.
Entertainment website Digital Spy hosted the Digital Spy Soap Awards in 2008, where EastEnders won 7 of the 14 categories. From 2014, Digital Spy held the Digital Spy Reader Awards. In 2014, EastEnders won all five awards in the soaps category.
In 2019, Digital Spy celebrated its 20th year. So it held a vote for readers to choose the best of Film & TV from the last two decades.
The Inside Soap Awards are voted for by readers of Inside Soap magazine. EastEnders won the Best British Soap award ten years running from 1997 to 2006. It lost out in 2007 to Coronation Street but won the award again every year from 2008 to 2012. Lacey Turner has won the Best Actress award for her role as Stacey Slater four times.
The I Talk Telly awards were first awarded in 2015, where EastEnders won Best Soap. They won all three of the soap categories in 2016, with 32.9% of the vote for Best Soap. It has been hosted annually since and is voted for by readers of the entertainment website.
The National Television Awards were first awarded in 1995. EastEnders has won in the Serial Drama category 11 times. The most awarded cast member at the National Television Awards is Lacey Turner for her role as Stacey Slater, with a total of eight nominations and four wins.
In response to the cancellation of the British Soap Awards due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Radio Times launched its own soap awards in May of this year. It consisted of just five categories, all of which were decided by public poll and awarded online as in-person ceremonies were largely prohibited.
The inaugural RadioTimes Soap Awards were launched in 2024, despite having been previously awarded in 2020, also in response to the cancellation of that year's British Soap Awards.
The Royal Television Society Programme Awards ceremony takes place every March in central London. EastEnders has been nominated in the Soap category (Soap and Continual Drama from 2007 onwards) 11 times, and has won five times, in 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2024. In 2009, episodes were submitted to a panel from "Whitney Week", a week of episodes centred around the character of Whitney Dean, played by Shona McGarty. In 2011, Lindsay Coulson's portrayal of Carol Jackson was praised by the judges, following the death of her son Billie Jackson (Devon Anderson). Actress Patsy Palmer was also nominated in the Actor Female category in 1998 for her portrayal of Bianca Jackson.
The Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards are presented by the Royal Television Society to recognize technical achievements in British television. EastEnders has received four nominations winning one, which have included two nominations for the live episode in 2005.
The Screen Nation Film and Television Awards were an annual award ceremony devised to celebrate and award Black British and international film and television talent. In February 2009, actress Tiana Benjamin, who played Chelsea Fox, was voted Favourite Female TV Star. In 2011, EastEnders stars received five Screen Nation nominations, with Ellen Thomas (Grace Olubunmi) and Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Trina Johnson) receiving special mentions, and EastEnders itself received one nomination. In 2012, EastEnders and EastEnders: E20 stars received four nominations, with actress Modupe Adeyeye receiving a special mention.
The Smash Hits T4 Poll Winners Party was an awards ceremony which ran from 1979 to 1987 as the Smash Hits Readers' Poll, then on television from 1988 to 2005.
The Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) Awards were established in 1969. They are awarded annually and are voted for by members of the television and radio industry. EastEnders has won a total of 18 awards, including Best TV Theme Music in 1987 (awarded to Simon May), TV Soap Personality in 2007, 2011 and 2013 (awarded to Lacey Turner, Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie respectively), New TV Talent in 2004 (Christopher Parker), numerous wins for TV Soap of the Year and the TRIC Special Award in 2010 and 2017, presented to Barbara Windsor and June Brown, respectively.
The TV Choice Awards, awarded by TV Choice magazine, began in 1997 as the TV Quick Awards. Between 2005 and 2009 they were known as the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards. They are voted for by readers of the magazine.
The TV Now Awards were awarded annually by Irish magazine TV Now between 2006 and 2010. In 2007, actor Steve McFadden won in the Male Soap Star category and Lacey Turner won the Hot Young Talent award. In 2009, Barbara Windsor won the Soap Legend Award for her portrayal of Peggy Mitchell.
In the TV Times Awards, which began in 1969 and are awarded by TV Times magazine, actress Lacey Turner (Stacey Slater) won Favourite Soap Star in 2008 and 2009. EastEnders received a further three nominations in 2009 including Favourite Soap Star for Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell). Turner won and Windsor were nominated again in 2010. In 2022, EastEnders won both the Favourite Soap and Favourite Soap Star accolades, with Gillian Wright (Jean Slater) winning the latter.
In 1985, Simon May was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Theme of the Year, for the EastEnders theme tune. It failed to win, but in 1986 the song "Every Loser Wins", which was written by May for a storyline in the show involving the character of Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) and his band The Banned, won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Selling Single.
EastEnders has won four Mental Health Media Awards in the category Soaps and Continual Dramas for its portrayal of mental health issues. EastEnders was given an award in 1997 for the storyline of Joe Wicks (Paul Nicholls) developing schizophrenia. Jessie Wallace received the 2002 award for her portrayal of Kat Slater, a woman who had been raped by her uncle as a teenager and attempted suicide when he returned later in her life. The award was won again in 2006 for the storyline involving Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) and her mentally ill mother Jean (Gillian Wright). The show was nominated again in 2009 but lost to Pobol y Cwm, however, it won the 'Making a Difference' award. In 2010, EastEnders won in the soaps category again for a storyline involving Stacey. EastEnders has also won the Doing Media Differently in 2009 from the Royal Association for Disability Rights, for the number of characters portrayed with disabilities and illnesses.
In 2006, EastEnders received a Rose d'Or at the international television awards ceremony in Lucerne, Switzerland for its success for over 21 years. Actor Shane Richie also won a Rose d'Or in 2004. In 2006, Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler) was named Most Popular TV Personality at the Variety Club Awards. The award was voted for by readers of the Daily Express newspaper. At the 2009 Black International Film Festival and Music Video & Screen Awards, Rudolph Walker, who plays Patrick Trueman, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. At the same ceremony, EastEnders was nominated for Best UK Drama with a Black Cast.