Ant McPartlin news: Dec Donnelly's solo Saturday Night Takeaway success REVEALED
SATURDAY NIGHT TAKEAWAY was presented by a very nervous looking Dec Donnelly on his own for the first time in the show’s history, after Ant McPartlin bowed out of the final two episodes of the series.
This weekend’s episode of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway saw Dec putting on an incredible show, despite being left to helm it alone.
His co-host and partner Ant pulled out of the final two episodes of the series after his drink-drive charge.
Ant’s absence left Dec to host the show alone for the first time in the pair’s 13 years of presenting together.
And although Dec looked a little nervous stepping out onto the stage alone on Saturday, he needn’t have been.
It has been reported that Dec’s first solo outing was a complete success, raking in millions of viewers.
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ITV • WENN
Tellymix has reported that the show brought in an average audience of 7.7 million viewers.
What’s more, the show garnered a staggering 8.6 million viewers at its peak.
Achieving more than 400,000 viewers than the previous episode, the landmark episode was up over one-million viewers over last year’s series.
The episode slightly fell short of the series high of 7.8 million set by the 100th episode earlier on this month.
Dec will go on to present the series finale this weekend in Florida accompanied by actress Denise Richards and singer Craig David.
ITV
Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series
While last week's show was cancelled, Dec confirmed that he would host the final two shows of the series alone.
Posting on the Ant and Dec Twitter account, he told their 6.84 million followers: “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. Dec x.”
The episode came after the Saturday Night Takeaway bosses tweeted a photo of the show’s script for the evening.
They captioned the image: “Just a little photo to prove that we don’t just wing it, there is actually a script! #SaturdayNightTakeaway.”
ITV
The image of the script itself read: “Hosted by Declan Donnelly.”
Dec did briefly address the absence of his co-host during the opening of the show.
But he was not alone throughout the show, however, as he was joined by Davina McCall to present “This time next Takeaway".
The remainder of the show was full of its usual hijinks, including Stephen Mulhern receiving a swipe from the presenter.
Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway ends this Saturday at 7pm on ITV.