Steven Moffat had a very good 2010. There was the wild success of Sherlock, named by many as their drama of the year, and a rapturous response to his first series as lead writer on Doctor Who – not to mention Matt Smith as the Doctor himself. So few would have bet on Moffat losing the best drama award at the National Television Awards last night. Particularly not to Waterloo Road.

Waterloo Road? Sometimes I do wonder whether the people who vote for the NTAs are completely bonkers. Waterloo Road is fine. A decent middle-of-the-road programme. But not something you'd wait for with anticipation – let alone actually vote for. But there it is, Britain's most popular drama programme, apparently. Unseating Doctor Who, which has won the category every year since 2004, in a year in which Moffat's show has been on sparkling form, and beating Sherlock to boot. It's bizarre.

Louie Spence and Lacey Turner celebrate EastEnders' NTA win. Photograph: Doug Peters/Empics Entertainment

Also bizarre: EastEnders winning the serial drama award – cot death fury and Phil's improbably rapid, red-faced slide into drug addiction apparently trumping Corrie's tram crash and 50th anniversary episodes. And Benidorm taking best comedy show ... sorry, most popular comedy show (there's a hint of an excuse in that category name, no?).

Things are admittedly not as bad as last year, when Loose Women won the factual category, making me far crosser than one should ever be about the NTAs. Then, I thought the answer was to overhaul the categories to ensure that decent documentary-making didn't get pushed to one side by the lunchtime show's shouty demands for its viewers to vote for them. Now, I don't think I could be bothered with the fuss. It's all got too ridiculous to care.

Every year the NTAs seem to get less relevant to anyone apart from ITV, which broadcasts them, and Ant and Dec, who without fail win them. If they really want to know what the "most popular" anything is on TV, they could just look at the ratings. Everybody could be saved a lot of bother, nobody would need to vote for anything, and world supplies of fake tan and eyelashes would not finish January in states of near critical depletion.

We were at least spared the spectacularly ludicrous celebrity-goes-on-holiday-and-makes-a-programme-about-it category this year, but that's pretty much all there is to recommend the NTAs unless you have a particular love of tight satin and big hair. If you do, of course, it is a veritable feast of brilliance. Let us commence discussion of Cheryl Cole's tattoos at once.