Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway 2024 was a bittersweet season because the duo decided to take a break from the series after this latest run.
Unsurprisingly, the TV legends went out with a bang with plenty of big surprises, where we also saw the return of regular segments like 'Ant vs Dec', 'Win the Ads' and 'Guest Announcer'.
It’s not the first time that the award-winning series, which debuted in 2002, has taken a break, though, because it was previously put on hold between 2009 and 2013.
A TV insider told us: "With the show being rested, the 20th series will be a combination of brand new ideas and games along with lots of nods to items from the past. There will be loads of brand new high-octane challenges, hilarious hidden camera set-ups, new studio games and live surprises, while also being a magical celebration of all things Takeaway from over the years."
If you missed Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway 2024, here's everything you need to know...
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway 2024 next episode
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway came to an end (for now) on Saturday, April 13 on ITV1 with a specially extended two-hour live extravaganza.
The finale, plus previous episodes, can all be watched on ITVX.
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway 2024 — what’s back and what’s new?
Here we take a look at what was packed into this season...
GUEST ANNOUNCER
Once again, each show will saw a celebrity introduce the show’s segments. In the past, stars including Olivia Colman, Michael Bublé, Toni Collette, David Tennant, Cuba Gooding Jr and The Muppets have stepped into the role of Guest Announcer.
Week one saw Stephen Merchant as Guest Announcer, and week two saw Matt Lucas in the role. Joe Lycett went on to be Guest Announcer for week three.
LITTLE ANT & DEC
One of the most memorable segments in Takeaway’s history was when two young lookalikes of Ant and Dec met celebrities and asked them questions no one else could get away with!
James Pallister and Dylan McKenna-Redshaw were two cheeky young chaps who were the original Little Ant and Dec, respectively. They appeared from the second series in 2003 to the fifth run in 2006, when they were no longer ‘little’.
Neil Overend and Haydn Reid appeared as a new Little Ant & Dec from 2013 to 2017.
This series we have a new Little Ant and Dec.
ANT VS DEC
Stephen Mulhern returns to oversee the segment which sees Ant and Dec go head-to-head in a number of themed challenges. The winner of each game earns a point, and at the end of the series the winner is the one with the highest score while the loser is forced to undertake a forfeit during the series finale. Last time, it was Ant. Who will it be this year?
UNDERCOVER
Ant and Dec take on various guises as they go undercover to prank more unsuspecting celebrities and the first of the series is Simon Cowell, who was the duo’s first target when they began this segment of the show in the second series back in 2003.
Back then they traveled to the US and turned up at an American Idol audition in Austin, Texas, where they disguised themselves as a pair of dudes called Scotty and Jimmy ‘from Denver, Colorado.’
This time, the pair went to Hollywood to get Simon during the filming of America's Got Talent. Below is a clip from the first episode that saw Simon get pranked once again...
GET OUT OF MY EAR: THE REVENGE
There was a special edition of 'Get Out Of My Ear', which usually sees Ant and Dec giving all sorts of crazy instructions to famous faces through a hidden earpiece. This time, a celebrity gets the chance to get their revenge on the lads…
Having been made to look like a fool by Ant and Dec in the past, the table is turned on the duo who are fitted with earpieces while the vengeful celebrity gets in their ears and issues them with all kinds of barmy commands!
Here’s Claudia Winkleman doing everything the boys say in a branch of IKEA!
END OF THE SHOW SHOW
It wouldn’t be Saturday Night Takeaway without the 'End of the Show Show' which sees Ant and Dec performing a musical number with a special guest. In the past these have included Kylie, Take That, McFly, Busted, Michael Bublé, Tom Grennan and George Ezra, to name but a few.
One memorable 'End of the Show Show' saw Ant and Dec donned their PJ and Duncan attire and performed their 1994 hit Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble.
Another one was when Ant and Dec performed with stars from Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK and appeared as their drag alter egos Lady Antoinette and Miss Donna Lee! Scroll to end for the video!
Here’s also one of our favourites from the 2018 series featuring Paloma Faith.
Q&A with Ant and Dec…
Here the lads chat about the latest series, pranking Simon Cowell, cheeky Geordie kids and why Dec is scared of Gordon Ramsay…
Why have you decided to rest Saturday Night Takeaway after this series?
DEC: "Working on the show is an all-year-round process. It’s like being on a hamster wheel. So we wanted a pause to catch our breath. Plus, our wives have said we need to be at home more!"
ANT: "We just thought it was the perfect time with series 20. It seemed a natural point to take a pause. We have rested Takeaway in the past and reaching series 20 felt like it was a good time to take a break and look at how we want the show to look in the future. You can’t reimagine it in a different way when you’re in it. So we wanted to come away for a bit and see how we felt. First and foremost we just needed a bit of a break from it."
The show went on hiatus from 2009 to 2014. How long do you think it will be away for this time?
DEC: "It’s really difficult to say. The last time we did it, we were away long enough to really miss it and come up with loads of ideas so we got to a point where we went into ITV and said ‘We’re ready to bring it back.’ So we need to get that level of excitement back. And I don’t know how long that will take. I think we’ve just got to go away and see how we feel about it once it’s over."
ANT: "It’s hard work. Someone said to me recently, ‘When you do Saturday Night Takeaway, what do you do for the rest of the week?’ So I said ‘Takeaway!’ In a way, it’s nice that people think we just turn up and make it up as we go along because we want it to feel like that, but making TV is harder than people think."
What have you got planned for the new series?
ANT: "We thought it would be nice to look back at some of the things we've done in the past whilst mixing it up with some new stuff as well."
DEC: "The series as a whole will be looking back over 19 series and things we’ve done before and doing some of them again, but with a twist or in a bigger way or a different way so there will be a bit of nostalgia, a bit of a look back, some new items and really celebrating the ‘liveness’ of it. Everybody loved Little Ant & Dec so we’re bringing them back one more time."
Tell us about the new Little Ant & Dec…
ANT: "We’ve looked back on all the last 19 series and we’ve talked about stuff we liked doing and what the viewers liked. Little Ant and Dec were a big hit the first time around, so we decided to bring them back.
"The original Little Ant & Dec obviously got older and were no longer little and then the same thing happened with the second incarnations. So we said we’ve got to cast again and get a new pair of cheeky little Geordies who can go and interview celebrities and cause havoc wherever they go. So we’ve found a new Little Ant & Dec and they are as cute as hell!"
Will you be playing pranks on members of the public as usual?
DEC: "Yes. We like to do pranks around things that people need to do really quickly, like ticket machines or coffee stops. It’s infuriating for people when we come in and secretly make it really complicated, but it's hilarious for the rest of us."
ANT: "They are so unpredictable. We grew up loving these kind of items, watching Beadle's About and Game for a Laugh and all of those really good Saturday night TV shows. So we wanted to bring a little bit of everything that we loved growing up and put it in to Takeaway which is why is looks like the way it looks."
Tell us about Get Out Of My Ear: The Revenge…
DEC: "When we talked about 'Get Out Of My Ear' for the last series, we said, ‘How about giving the celebrities a chance to get their revenge?’ So the team went to make some calls and EVERYBODY they contacted said yes. We don’t know who it is yet, we’ll find out when we hear them talking in our ear for the first time. The one I’m really frightened of is Gordon Ramsay. He was the one where I thought I would get a smack in the mouth!"
ANT: "There’s a very long list of enemies we’ve made over the years, but I’m sort of looking forward to it!"
And what about the undercover pranks on celebrities? Will there be more of those?
ANT: "We decided to end our celebrity pranks in the way we started it. The first undercover prank we did was on Simon Cowell, where we auditioned for him on American Idol. So we thought the only way to end it was to audition for Simon on America’s Got Talent."
DEC: "He wasn’t particularly happy about being done for a second time, though!"
When you started the show in 2002, did you think you would end up making 20 series?
ANT: "I am amazed actually. When we first started Takeaway, I remember sitting in the audience seating while the set was being putting up for the first time and we thought, imagine if this runs for 10 years. And here we are 20 odd years later. It’s beyond our wildest dreams. We feel very privileged. "
DEC: "It’s kind of mindblowing. We always wanted to do live Saturday-night TV. That was our dream. We feel incredibly proud to have reached series 20."
You always have great guests. Is there anyone you’d like to see on the show?
ANT: "We’ve always wanted Sir Elton John to come on and open with Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, but he’s always told us very politely to bog off, but you never know. We’ll keep trying! Let’s hope we can finish the series with him on the piano!"
What are your most memorable moments from the show?
ANT: "I loved it when we performed as PJ & Duncan again, that was so much fun. We’ve been very lucky over the years, we’ve danced and sang with so many wonderful people."
DEC: "When we became drag queens Lady Antoinette and Miss Donna Lee was a particular highlight. We’ll take away some incredibly special moments and memories. We will certainly miss it. There will definitely be tears!"
