Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway will go out with a bang next year, mixing old-school thrills with brand-new segments.
This insight was provided by Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly themselves while speaking backstage at this week's National Television Awards – where they'd just won the Best TV Presenter award for the 22nd year running.
"We want it to be the biggest send-off because we're resting it for a while," McPartlin said to press including Digital Spy, after the show was confirmed to be ending earlier this year.
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"So everybody that we haven't managed to get on in the last few years, we're gonna try our hardest to get on.
"It's going to be a massive celebration of the last 20 years as well, because it's been running for 20 years, so we're gonna bring old things back, we've got brand-new stuff, we've got lots of things planned and we're gonna have a lot of fun doing it.
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"We love it. It's gonna be sad, but we're gonna have fun until we get to the final episode."
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Asked which celebrities previously turned down Takeaway, Donnelly wouldn't name names, but did say: "A lot of the time it's not just because they don't wanna do the show – it's diaries, it's stuff like that, so we've gone very, very early this year with a lot of people.
"We've put a lot of calls out," he reiterated.
"A lot of people said yes, which is very good. It's gonna be a huge celebration, of not just the 20 series but also brand-new stuff, we wanna go out on a high."
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway returns for its 20th and final series next year.
Reporter, Digital Spy
Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
