Ant McPartlin news: ITV SLAMMED for ‘ill-advised’ Saturday Night Takeaway replacement

Ant McPartlin since vowed to return to a rehabilitation centre following last week’s incident which saw him crash his black Mini into two other cars. 

Since then, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway was thrown into turmoil and ITV promptly pulled it from the schedule this week. 

It will go ahead as planned for the final two shows, with Declan Donnelly set to present alone for the first time in his career. 

Naturally, fans were disappointed their beloved show wouldn’t air tonight but it seemed they had a major problem with what was replacing it. 

ITV decided to bring forward The Voice an hour and then follow it with an episode of Keith Lemon’s Through The Keyhole. 

At 10pm, the broadcaster would be airing Fast and the Furious’ fifth outing, Fast Five. 

The franchise is heavily linked to high-octave car racing and dangerous manoeuvres.

Naturally, given the nature of Ant’s arrest, some viewers felt the choice was a little out of odds.

One posted on Twitter: “Given the circumstances, replacing #SaturdayNightTakeaway with Fast and Furious 5 seems a wee bit ill-advised.”

A second agreed, adding: “Oh the irony of #SaturdayNightTakeaway being cancelled and ITV playing the fast and furious on the same night ahahahahahaha you couldn’t make it up.”

Another posted: “So they take off #SaturdayNightTakeaway and instead they replace it with Fast & Furious 5 and #ThevoiceUK  Well Done @ITV - talk about car crash television.”

A fourth said: “As if @ITV have put Fast & the furious on in place of #SaturdayNightTakeaway  some1 is taking the living p**s there like!”

Despite the controversy around the replacement decision, the Fast and Furious instalment was always planned to air tonight. 

It was merely brought forward by 30 minutes to avoid any further disruption to the schedule. 

Meanwhile, Dec is said to have had Ant’s “blessing” to present alone. 

Saturday Night Takeaway will return to ITV on March 31.