Now Dec goes solo
DECLAN Donnelly will present the final episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway alone, after insisting the show must go on.
Donnelly, 42, said he owed it to fans to see the series through after ending up in a position “I never thought I’d be in”.
The star has been tormented as he faced “an impossible dilemma” over breaking a pact with McPartlin that they would always remain together.
But yesterday Donnelly announced: “Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series.”
The announcement came after crunch talks between Donnelly, ITV and the production team.
Saturday’s episode has been pulled from the schedule and ITV announced it was “reviewing options” over the final two episodes due to be screened on March 31 and April 7.
Plans had been made to broadcast the season finale live from the Universal resort in Orlando, Florida, with 200 fans flying out in a specially-chartered plane.
Speaking for the first time since the crisis erupted, Donnelly said: “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.”
ITV said: “Saturday Night Takeaway, presented by Declan Donnelly, will return to ITV on March 31, and the series finale will be taking place at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida a week later.”
Ant and Dec have been a double act since they were in children’s TV show Byker Grove in 1990.
In their 2010 autobiography, Dec said: “We’ve always had one constant that’s kept us sane – each other.” Ant wrote: “We made an agreement. Neither one of us would ever be on our own out there.”