No wonder they're stepping away from their 'Saturday Night Takeaway' - these days we like our celebrities earnest and manifestly niceAnt & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeawayto the knockabout lark/most annoying TV show of all time so that they can “turn the page” and “reflect”.is on air. You need to be away from it”. McPartlin has also stated that he wants to spend more time with his wife, Anne-Marie Corbett, with whom he is expecting his first child.
Whatever the presenters may feel about it, the viewing public certainly seems keen to “be away” from the show, which has suffered plummeting ratings in recent years. Having peaked as recently as March 2020, when it drew in a knockout 11.1 million viewers, the series’s audience has since declined precipitously – falling to just 5.7 million in 2022. This takeaway was ready to be closed even before Ant and Dec decided to pull down the shutters.
Thirty years later, however, we have had our fill of cheekiness. Look at the celebrities we are obsessed with – and consider how earnest they are. You could safely leave Taylor Swift in charge of your drinks cabinet – she’d probably rearrange all the bottles chronologically and give them a light dusting.root their appeal in a sort of blockbusting niceness – they are positive and chummy and will never ever dissolve into the blokey giggles that are an Ant and Dec staple.
In other words, we are still open to a little Ant and Dec in our lives while anxious to avoid full exposure. The only possible takeaway is that their time as giants of light entertainment is winding down. We are living through the twilight of the cheeky chappies – and for Ant and Dec, the immediate challenge will be finding a new way of staying relevant in the strange and earnest new world that beckons.