IT’S BEEN A stressful week for everyone involved in Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
After being arrested for drink-driving following a three-car collision in London on Sunday, it has, this evening, been confirmed that Ant McPartlin has been charged, and will appear in Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court in April.
The incident placed the final two episodes of the much-loved ITV series in jeopardy as TV execs deliberated over whether to proceed with original plans to broadcast the finale from Florida.
Today, Ant’s presenting partner, Declan Donnelly, confirmed that a decision had been made, and he would be fronting the show by himself in the aftermath of Sunday’s incident.
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.
Reiterating the point, ITV released a separate statement.
We can confirm that 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.
Unsurprisingly, Ant’s colleagues have been the subject of considerable scrutiny in the days that followed Sunday’s collision, and it seems like the attention is taking its toll on Scarlett Moffatt.
The former Gogglebox star, who works alongside the Geordie hosts, took to Twitter today to berate the photographers who have set up camp outside her home.
While the I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here winner chose to delete her original tweet, she did reply to a follower who suggested she closed her curtains if she wanted to avoid the glare of the cameras.
Yesterday, This Morning’s Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield came under fire for their muted response to Ant’s arrest.
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