Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway is officially halting after the 2024 series.
The show first hit screens back in 2002 and viewers have been loving the antics of Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly ever since. The dynamic duo have had their fair share of wild antics since taking part on the show – and it hasn’t slowed down since its launch.
While the show is making a comeback on ITV this Saturday (24 February), it has been confirmed that the two presenters won’t be returning to screens next year as they plan to step-back to spend time with family. In an interview with Fault Magazine, Ant and Dec opened up on their bold career decision.
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Ant said: “On a more personal level, part of the reason we’re pausing Takeaway is we need a break ourselves, and we need to spend some time with our family. We’ve both got children we need to spend time with for a little bit.”
(Image: ITV/Kieron McCarron/Shutterstock)
In the same interview, Dec added: “I think what happened when we took a break last time, we started to miss it. We started coming up with lots of ideas and going, ‘Oh, that would be amazing’. We want to give ourselves that same opportunity this time to miss the show and just see how we feel and where that takes us.”
As the iconic series is stopped in its tracks, we have looked back at some of the stints on the show which caused public outrage.
Empty planes to Florida fury
Ant and Dec came under fire last year after it was revealed the programme had been flying empty planes over the Atlantic for the series finale. The broadcaster was labelled as “hypocritical” after they’d flown the flag for environmentally-friendly polices.
At the time, it was reported that an empty passenger plane left Florida and arrived back to Heathrow the following day. It was also claimed that another empty jet departed London to collect those it had shipped off to the American Walt Disney Land.
British Airways and ITV were slammed for travelling more than 8,000 miles with nobody on-board. An insider told The Sun: “While the planet is heating up, it’s incredible anyone would allow a huge plane to be flown empty across the Atlantic. It’s environmentally irresponsible.”
An ITV spokesperson responded at the time: “Our partnership with British Airways Holidays covers the outbound and inbound flight that seats all our place on the plane winners and crew. ITV shows aims to achieve the highest standards of sustainability both on and off screen and our efforts have been recognised by achieving BAFTA’s ‘albert Certification’ standard which is the TV industry standard kitemark for sustainability in the UK and is a requirement for all ITV shows.”
Ant and Dec almost killed
(Image: ITV)
The dynamic Geordie duo faced a near-death experience during a head-to-head Monster Jam truck challenge on Ant Versus Dec. The trial run got out of had, with the pair competing hard to finish in top spot against one another.
Ant and Dec were both driving £100,000 trucks as they raced in a nearby car park close to ITV studios when they both lost control of their vehicles, causing them to veer off course and crash into shipping containers.
Speaking about the frightful ordeal, Dec revealed: “We had to give it a go earlier and we both crashed quite badly. It’s big and dangerous. It’s gone really badly so far.”
Other than the TV hosts lives being at stake, another factor was the cost to ITV with the pair crashing the expensive machinery. Ant added: “Each truck costs £100,000 so no more crashes!”
‘Distasteful’ prank sparks Ofcom complaints
(Image: ITV)
Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway was once slapped with a whopping 130 Ofcom complaints from angry viewers.
Fans were not amused over a prank which included a baby scan. Hosts Ant and Dec revealed on the episode in question they’d been in touch with a young couple for a year, also for their prenatal scans of their first child.
When guest Liam attended a 4D scan, he was unaware that he was being watched on camera by millions. His wife Amy and the two hosts were clearly in on the gag.
Liam was unaware he was being watched on camera when he went to a “4D scan clinic” with his pregnant wife Amy, who was in on the “joke” with the show’s hosts.
However, the scan and everything was fake and completely set up as joke for TV entertainment which didn’t sit right with fans at home. One angry viewer said: “That has got to be the worst television I’ve ever seen as yous call it Saturday entertainment. Please think of all the beautiful families that never got to that stage. Pure sick and definitely not entertainment #SaturdayNightTakeaway.”
Another agreed: “Whoever signed this prank off needs to be fired. #SaturdayNightTakeaway don’t get it, not very tasteful.”
Stephen Mulhern’s brutal fall
(Image: ITV)
Ant and Dec were forced to halt one show to update on Stephen Mulhern after he suffered a frightful fall.
The ITV star took a painful dive on the stage after he’d accidentally slipped in whipped cream after he’d stuck a pie in the face of Ant.
During the Ant versus Dec game, Stephen who hosts the event often likes to get in on the action. But this time it was to his detriment.
After swatting Ant with a huge pie, Stephen tripped over on stage in front of the live audience in Florida. The two hosts later returned to screens to let everyone know that Stephen was fine and had just been “hot on his knees” due to the warm weather.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
