Get the party started
Ant & Dec are back with a bang for Saturday nights
It shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone to learn that Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are the kings of British light entertainment – after all, they have 20 Best Presenter gongs from the National TV Awards to prove it. But in case anyone was having doubts, you just need to look at their current dominance of Saturday night TV.
At the beginning of January, the pair launched Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win, the quiz show where, as the title suggested, there was no ceiling on the amount the contestants could take home.
Although there was some carping on social media and among critics, it seems the majority of viewers were won over – and so were ITV, who have already commissioned a second series.
Ant and Dec are understandably pleased that the show, which was their first new format in a while, will be coming back. Dec said: “We’re already preparing ourselves for another series of nail-biting drama, jeopardy and tension as we present more questions you can’t help but Google! We’re expecting more, and higher, dizzying climbs up the Limitless money ladder. We can’t wait.”
However, if you can’t wait for Ant and Dec to be back on our screens, the good news is that just two weeks after the first run of Limitless Win came to an end, they’re back again with a show that we know is a triedand-trusted success – Saturday Night Takeaway.
This is the 18th series (it would be even more if it hadn’t taken a four-year hiatus after the ninth season in 2009), so when ITV claim it will be the happiest 90 minutes of the week, we know that the channel can back up the claims.
As you’d expect, plenty of favourites will be returning, including Undercover and I’m A Celebrity…Get Out Of Me Ear, with Jeremy Clarkson and Oti Mabuse among the stars lined up to participate.
They aren’t the only bigname guests that viewers can expect to see dropping by, as Michael Buble and George Ezra have been pencilled in for the End of the Show Show.
There’s also a brand-new comedy mini-series, Polter Guys, which stars Ant and Dec as ghostbusters, with cameo appearances from Rob Delaney, Jo
Brand, Kadeena Cox, Tom Allen, Fred Siriex and Roman Kemp.
Takeaway regulars Fleur East and Andi Peters are also back, along with Stephen Mulhern, who will once again be putting the presenters through their paces with Ant v Dec.
All that plus viewer favourites On Air Dares, Singalong
Live and a chance to win the ads, as well as new children’s studio game, Kiddi-eoke, and you might be wondering whether 90 minutes is long enough for them to cram it all in.
The other news is that the studio audience is returning, which some viewers may take as a sign that life is starting to get back to something resembling normal. So, as promised, the show really will kickstart our Saturday nights.
Traces Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway ITV, Saturday, 7pm