Today's pick

The National Television Awards (8.00pm ITV) "The people's Baftas" reward popularity rather than what a coterie of critics deem to be of special achievement. This means that performers and shows which wouldn't normally have a look-in at prize-giving time, such as Michael Barrymore, Noel Edmonds and Stars In Their Eyes, are here transformed into hot favourites. Many acceptance speeches reflect this, pointedly thanking "you, the viewer" for your support (320,000 viewers bothered to vote, by the way). The most sought-after gong is for Most Popular Serial Drama (ie, soap; current holder, EastEnders), while there is a new category this year, for Most Popular Advertisement. You might like to know that Andrex (Little Girl on Potty) and Vauxhall (Astra Babies) didn't make the cut.

Animal People (7pm BBC1) In Britain, the most exciting wild animal one is likely to find in one's backyard is a badger or a fox. In the US, mountain lions, or cougars, are making a dramatic comeback from extinction, and they are beginning to hunt for food (children and dogs preferred) in the encroaching suburbia. Victims remain remarkably tolerant. "He was just hungry," says a 12-year-old lunch-that-got-away.