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Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway nominated for TV BAFTA

The glitzy awards ceremony will be held in London in May

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Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway has been nominated for a BAFTA, just a few days after Dec Donnelly hosted the show solo for the first time.

The primetime series has been recognised in the Best Entertainment Programme category, where it will go up against another of the duo’s shows, Britain’s Got Talent.

Also nominated in the same category are The Voice UK and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show.

The BAFTA TV nominations were announced just four days after Dec, 42, fronted Saturday Night Takeaway by himself, for the first time in his career.

Read more: Scarlett Moffatt shares first look as Saturday Night Takeaway heads to Florida

Telly partner Ant, also 42, has stepped down from current TV work, as he returns to treatment after a drink-drive charge.

Ant was not completely absent from the programme, as he appeared in the opening titles and also in the continuation of pre-recorded sketch Saturday Knight Takeaway which also starred Joanna Lumley in her regular role.

ITV
Ant appeared with Dec in a pre-recorded sketch (Credit: ITV)

Dec’s solo Saturday Night Takeaway was watched by 7.7 million viewers with a 39% share of the audience, ITV has said.

The show peaked with 8.6 million viewers.

The episode was the second most viewed of the series, bested by the 7.8 million that watched the show’s 100th episode on March 3, but bagged the biggest audience share of the series, the broadcaster said.

Dec hosted the last Saturday Night Takeaway solo (Credit: ITV)

Saturday Night Takeaway’s highest audience share before Dec’s solo night was on February 24, when it pulled in 37%.

Dec was widely praised by viewers and critics for running a smooth 90-minute show, which saw appearances from Davina McCall, The Script and Paloma Faith, as well as Special Guest Announcer Stephen Merchant.

He thanked everyone for their support just before the programme ended. He also joked he had “twice the amount of work to do”, and at one point said: “I’ll have to do it myself, like everything else this week.”

Stephen and Scarlett were on hand to support Dec (Credit: ITV)

The show will broadcast from Universal Orlando Resort in Florida on Saturday evening, where Dec will be joined by show regulars Scarlett Moffatt and Stephen Mulhern.

Many details of the episode have been kept under wraps so far, but ITV has promised “incredible stunts and superstar guests”.

The Rembrandts – famous for the Friends theme song – will perform in Singalong Live, while Stephen will host a special US version of In For A Penny.

Dec will host the final Saturday Night Takeaway live from Florida this weekend (Credit: ITV)

The final episode of mini sketch series Saturday Knight Takeaway will also air, along with the regular ‘Win The Ads’ competition.

Meanwhile, Black Mirror, Line of Duty, The Crown and Three Girls were all nominated in three categories at the TV BAFTAs.

Love Island is among the shows competing in the reality category, while Stormzy’s cameo got the show another nod in the best TV moment of the year list.

The full list of nominations is:

Comedy entertainment programme:
Murder In Successville
Taskmaster
The Last Leg
Would I Lie To You?

Current affairs:
Raped: My Story
Syria’s Disappeared: The Cast Against Assad (Dispatches)
Undercover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets (Panorama)
White Right: Meeting The Enemy (Exposure)

Drama series:
Line of Duty
Peaky Blinders
The Crown
The End of the F***ing World

Entertainment performance:
Adam Hills – The Last Leg
Graham Norton – The Graham Norton Show
Michael McIntyre – Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
Sandi Toksvig – QI

Entertainment programme:
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
Britain’s Got Talent
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
The Voice UK

Factual series:
Ambulance
Catching A Killer
Drugsland
Hospital

Female performance in a comedy programme:
Sian Gibson (Peter Kay’s Car Share)
Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland)
Daisy May Cooper (This Country)
Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe)

International:
Big Little Lies
The Handmaid’s Tale
Feud: Bette And Joan
The Vietnam War

Leading actor:
Jack Rowan (Born To Kill)
Joe Cole (Hang The DJ/Black Mirror)
Sean Bean (Broken)
Tim Pigott-Smith (King Charles III)

Leading actress:
Claire Foy – The Crown
Molly Windsor (Three Girls)
Sinead Keenan (Little Boy Blue)
Thandie Newton (Line Of Duty)

Male performance in a comedy programme:
Asim Chaudhry – People Just Do Nothing
Rob Brydon – The Trip To Spain
Samson Kayo – Famalam
Toby Jones – Detectorists

Reality and constructed factual:
Love Island
Celebrity Hunted
Old People’s Home For Four-Year-Olds
The Real Full Monty

Scripted comedy:
Catatrophe
Chewing Gum
Timewasters
This Country

Soap and continuing drama:
Casualty
Coronation Street
Emmerdale
Hollyoaks

Supporting actor:
Adrian Dunbar (Line Of Duty)
Anupam Kher (The Boy With The Topknot)
Brian F O’Byrne (Little Boy Blue)
Jimmi Simpson (USS Callister – Black Mirror )

Supporting actress:
Vanessa Kirby (The Crown)
Anna Friel (Broken)
Julie Hesmondhalgh (Broadchurch)
Liv Hill (Three Girls)

Virgin TV’s Must-See Moment:
Blue Planet II – Mother pilot whale grieves
Doctor Who – The thirteenth Doctor revealed
Game Of Thrones – Viserion is killed by the Night King
Line Of Duty – Huntley’s narrow escape
Love Island – Stormzy makes a surprise appearance
One Love Manchester – Ariana Grande sings One Last Time

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

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