BGT hosts Ant and Dec are two of the most beloved stars in the UK, but their career was almost brought to an end nearly two decades ago.
The Britain’s Got Talent stars were left fearing that their careers were in shambles following a huge ITV scandal.
In 2007, ITV found itself at the centre of controversy when it was revealed viewers had wasted near £8m on programme voting.
Viewers believed they were influencing their favourite programmes, including those featuring Ant and Dec. The pair’s shows were the biggest culprit, costing fans £6.5m in total.
However, their votes were simply ending up in thin air. The full bill for the scandal ended up running up to a whopping £18m.
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Ant and Dec worried their career was over
At the time, ITV was forced to halt all voting by text message and the red button. As a result, Ant and Dec were left fearing at the time that viewers could turn against them and their future shows.
I thought that was going to be it.
Speaking on Desert Island Discs, Ant said in 2013: “It was the worst part of our career. I think our audience trust us but we were really worried that that trust had gone.”
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“I thought that was going to be it,” said Dec. “We couldn’t comprehend how it was allowed to happen. If that had been the end, I don’t think we could have had many complaints.”
Thankfully, ITV rushed to confirm at the time of the scandal that the duo were just as clueless as viewers had been.
“We have been fully supportive of this review and are extremely disappointed to discover that these irregularities have occurred,” Ant said at the time.
In the end, ITV was fined more than £5 million following an investigation into the matter. The amount was almost £2m more than ITV was expecting and almost treble the previous biggest fine.
Ant and Dec managed to navigate the scandal, and have since gone on to become two of the biggest names on UK television.
Britain’s Got Talent next airs on ITV on Saturday May 7 at 8pm.
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