Britain’s Got Talent back on air
Tom Bryant
TV duo Ant and Dec made a whopping £15,000 a day last year as they got their presenting careers back on track.
Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have been ITV’s kings of Saturday night, fronting their hit shows Britain’s Got Talent, I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here and Saturday Night Takeaway.
Their company Hurley Promotions Ltd – named after the dog Ant shares with ex-wife Lisa Armstrong – has seen profits increase to £5.5million for last year.
That is £1million up on 2018 when Ant, 44, took an extended leave of absence from TV screens to go into rehab after he crashed his car while over the drink-drive limit in March 2018.
He pulled out of the remaining episodes of that year’s Saturday Night Takeaway during the middle of the series, leaving Dec to present by himself.
Ant was also ruled out of I’m A Celeb, with Holly Willoughby taking over co-hosting duties.
But the pair have bounced back with a healthy balance sheet.
The Geordie duo have now sent out an
BRITAIN’S Got Talent will return to screens next week, ITV bosses said yesterday.
The show will go out on Saturday, April 11 at 8pm, with judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, David Walliams and Alesha Dixon presiding over the pre-recorded auditions.
It had already been announced that the live finals, due to be hosted by Ant and Dec, will be broadcast later in the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The auditions were filmed before social distancing measures were put in place.
Last week Amanda said postponing the live finals was “for the best”, adding: “I important message concerning the coronavirus outbreak. The stars have pleaded with fans to stay indoors to help protect cancer sufferer Mila Sneddon, four.
They have shared a video to highlight the importance of staying at home for those at high risk from Covid-19.
Ant and Dec threw their support behind little Mila, who has a vulnerable immune and, as
Lucy Mapstone
think our show would suffer quite badly from not having a proper audience.
“I would say it might be later than September but it’s quite a competitive time of year as well so, I’m hoping we can still strip it.
“Strip means we do it every single day like we used to, or we might end up doing it over the weekends.
“Audition shows are definitely coming and they are better than ever, so I hope everyone loves that.”
system and is currently undergoing cancer treatment, in the clip shared online. In the video, which shows the stars sitting separately, the pair beg for everybody to stay at home.
Ant said: “Hi everybody. Ant and Dec here, not together, because we’re at home like everybody should be.”
Dec added: “Absolutely, we
heard, Mila wants us to tell everybody to stay at home so we can protect her and thousands and thousands of people like her.”
Ant and Dec first performed together as actors on children’s drama Byker Grove in the early 1990s, before becoming Britain’s best-known TV double act with a string of hit shows.