DEC GOES IT ALONE
AS ANT IS CHARGED WITH DRINK DRIVING, PARTNER WILL HOST TV SHOW SOLO
FOR all of his presenting career, he has had Ant McPartlin by his side.
Now Declan Donnelly is to face new territory – hosting Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway alone.
It comes after his troubled co-presenter McPartlin was charged with drink-driving yesterday following a car crash in Southwest London on Sunday. He will appear in court next month.
Last night McPartlin left his home in Chiswick to re-enter rehab, having spent time in treatment last year for an addiction to painkillers following knee surgery.
Although the next episode of Saturday Night Takeaway has been cancelled, Donnelly announced yesterday that he will front the two remaining shows in the ITV entertainment series by himself, including the live finale in Orlando, Florida.
It marks a major move for Ant and Dec, both 42, who have been a double act since the early 1990s and have often vowed that they would never work separately.
In their 2010 autobiography Ooh! What A Lovely Pair, they wrote: ‘Neither one of us would ever be on our own out there.’
In 2015 Donnelly told The Times newspaper they had ‘never seriously considered’ any solo projects ‘because we got to a point where we had a very clear career path we wanted to follow’.
Explaining his decision yesterday, Donnelly wrote on their joint Twitter account: ‘Whilst I never thought I’d be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we’ve decided that the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead.
‘We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honour that.
‘Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series.’
Yesterday Donnelly visited McPartlin for the first time since his costar’s car was in a collision with two others on Sunday afternoon.
Although he smiled on entering the house where McPartlin is living with his mother, a short while later he left wearing sunglasses and looking emotional. McPartlin emerged later to go to rehab.
ITV, which reportedly has a £30million ‘golden handcuffs’ deal with the duo, had been holding crisis talks about what to do with Saturday Night Takeaway, which is one of its biggest hits, drawing an average of seven million viewers this series.
It is understood there is yet to be a decision about how it will broadcast Britain’s fronted by Got Ant Talent, and Dec. which The is talent also show’s auditions have already been filmed, with the presenters playing a key role, and these will be broadcast as normal. But it remains to be seen if either presenter will be involved in the live shows, which start in May.
McPartlin was pictured outside Kingston police station yesterday wearing a black jacket, jeans and black boots, before being charged with drink-driving last night. A police spokesman said he would appear before Wimbledon magistrates on April 4.
McPartlin spent almost ten hours in police custody on Sunday after his Mini collided with two other cars after he took his dog for a walk in Richmond Park. A three-year-old girl was taken to hospital after the crash. McPartlin’s mother is understood to have been in the vehicle with him, but both escaped without injury. The presenter has had a string of personal setbacks over the past year, including his spell in rehab for his painkiller addiction. Friends say he’s also been hit ‘hard’ by his impending divorce from his wife of 11 years, make-up artist Lisa Armstrong, which he announced in January. Yesterday Ms Armstrong ‘liked’ a tweet written by the ITV press office which confirmed Donnelly would be presenting on his own.