The National Lottery Results (previously The National Lottery Live, The National Lottery Draw, The National Lottery Stars and The National Lottery Draws) is the television programme that broadcasts the drawing of the National Lottery in the United Kingdom.
History
The programme launched on 19 November 1994 on BBC One, and was initially broadcast live on Saturday nights, before expanding to Wednesday nights in 1997 and Friday nights in 2008. From January 2013 to December 2016, the programme aired only on Saturday nights. Since January 2017, the live draws are no longer broadcast on television and are available to watch online at the National Lottery website and YouTube.
Since April 2018, a new show called The National Lottery Lotto Results has aired on ITV on Wednesday and Saturday nights during commercial breaks. Presented by Stephen Mulhern, the show features that night's winning Lotto numbers, and spotlights a National Lottery-funded location. The actual Lotto draw itself is not broadcast, and remains online.
Presenters
The first show was presented by Noel Edmonds. Afterwards, it was co-presented by Anthea Turner and Gordon Kennedy, later replaced by Bob Monkhouse, all of them assisted by the psychic Mystic Meg and numbers expert Sam Weren. Carol Vorderman had a segment during the early years of the show whereby, she would use mathematical techniques to predict the winning numbers. When Gordon left, Anthea remained as solo host and was followed by a number of presenters over the years.
Commentary on the draws has, since 1995, been provided by Alan Dedicoat, who earned the nickname The Voice of the Balls. During the live show era, in the event of Dedicoat being unavailable, commentary was provided by fellow BBC Radio 2 announcer Charles Nove.
Richard Madeley
John Cleese
Jane Moore
Kaye Adams
Dale Winton
Gaby Roslin (2014–16) Kate Garraway (2014–16) Ore Oduba (2015–16) Sonali Shah (2015–16) Connie Fisher Anthea Turner (1994–1996) Gordon Kennedy (1994–95) Bob Monkhouse (1996–98) Noel Edmonds (First show, 1994) Ulrika Jonsson Carol Smillie Bruce Forsyth Terry Wogan (1998) John Partridge Brian Conley Jenni Falconer (2006–2015) OJ Borg (2009–2013) Duncan James (2006–2008) Kirsty Gallacher (2007–2009) Gethin Jones (2008–2010) Christopher Biggins (2009) Myleene Klass (2006–2013) Scott Mills (2007–2013) Christine Bleakley (2009) Matt Johnson (2012–13) Chris Evans (2013)
Draw masters
Paul Van Den Bosch
Matthew Chamberlain
Jeff Brewin
Julie Hamilton
John Willen
Martin McClure
Mick Lawes
Paul Cartwright
Louise Walters
Stand-in presenters
Carol Machin
John Barrowman
James McCourt
Sarah Cawood
Michael Ball (2007) Jenny Powell (2010) Bradley Walsh (2007) Tim Vincent (2007) Tim Lovejoy (2009) Lisa Snowdon (2011)
Current shows
Saturday night draws
From 1998 to 2016, the Saturday night draws were usually presented as part of a game show that is shown to be associated with the lottery branding. Most of the game shows were previously broadcast live, with the game show host also presenting the lottery draws, though since 18 May 2002, there would also be a draw presenter that would tell the viewers about how to play the draws and what the Lotto jackpot is, etc. Since 23 September 2006, most of the game shows were pre-recorded, with the live lottery draws included as a separate segment with a different presenter. The draws on Saturday night consisted of "Thunderball" followed by "Lotto" a few minutes later, though in the past "Lotto Extra" and its replacement "Dream Number" would also be shown too; both now retired draws. Since 2014, "Lotto Raffle" is no longer featured during the draws. These gameshows usually aired at about 8.00pm, meaning the draw was a lot earlier than when there is no gameshows, when the draw was around 10.00pm. A new gameshow has been released every year, except 2010, 2012, and 2016.
Gaby Roslin hosted the final live draw on 31 December 2016, with Alan Dedicoat joining her in vision to close the show. From 7 January 2017, with the move to the BBC iPlayer, the programme featured no presenter with Dedicoat continuing to announce the draws using pre-recorded commentary. This lasted until April 2017.