Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway returns

It’s in its seventeenth year. It’s starting its fifteenth series. They’ve won the National Television Award for ‘Best TV Presenters’ seventeen years running, unbeaten. Yep, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway is back. Why is it that the British public cannot get enough of the Geordie duo? How can they continue to come back year after year drawing such large audiences?

The answer is actually quite simple. Ant & Dec are just very likeable. Despite having a career that’s risen to a dizzying height and despite the fact that their contacts include virtually every UK celebrity you can think of, they don’t come across as smug or superior. Rather, what people see in Ant & Dec is a couple of good-humoured lads having a blast whilst hosting a live show. Perhaps that is why it’s so appealing: you genuinely feel that the pair of them find the whole thing enormously fun, as they laugh, dance and sing through the show.

Not only that, I can’t think of any other show quite like it that’s still in our schedules. There is no show that so successfully caters for a ‘family’ audience. Few shows manage to remain so charmingly innocent, thus appealing to kids, whilst always appealing to the rest of the family with big names, laughs and the ability to make everybody watching imagine themselves either instigating or being victim to an Ant & Dec prank.

It’s maintained an impressive viewership, regularly attracting over 7 million viewers

Live shows and event TV of this sort simply aren’t as big as they once were, and in many ways, Ant & Dec have kept the tradition alive. Not only does their show continue a Saturday night television tradition, they’re also the hosts of the biggest UK reality show of the year (I’m a Celebrity) and the biggest UK talent show (Britain’s Got Talent). With so many UK citizens ditching live television for streaming services or utilising catch-up so as not to have to live life by television schedules, you’d think that shows like Saturday Night Takeaway would have declining ratings; on the contrary, it’s maintained an impressive viewership, regularly attracting over 7 million viewers.

So, I’m looking forward to another series of Saturday Night Takeaway, since it’s a show that’s a real escape from anything remotely unhappy. I hope to see plenty more pranks, more ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Out of Me Ear’ and more ridiculous end of the show shows. In fact, the show’s worst segment is actually the one from which it derives its name in which contestants get to ‘takeaway’ a whole host of prizes in ‘Win the Ads’.

Oh, and I’m disappointed that ‘Sofa Watch’ isn’t returning this year. It’s been replaced with the ‘Takeaway Express’ in which each week a rail station is selected to host a train that will take people to London to watch the show. So, just in case, make sure you’re ready to hop on the 12X to get to Coventry rail station on Saturday night…