SCARLETT Moffatt has spoken for the first time about her axing from Saturday Night Takeaway.
The TV star insisted she had no hard feelings and said the next series will be “amazing”, during an interview on Matthew Wright’s Talk Radio show this afternoon.
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When quizzed about being dropped, she said: “I don’t know why this is a big story because it hasn’t been on for two years. It’s not like a rolling contract.
“They are just changing the format of the show. My bit was like challenge Anneka, and they have taken that out. It will still be amazing with Ant and Dec and Stephen, what a trio of men.”
Yesterday ITV announced Scarlett wouldn’t be returning to the programme next year.
She previously starred on the show in 2017 and 2018, while the programme was rested this year as a result of Ant McPartlin’s break from the limelight as he recovered from painkiller and alcohol addiction.
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On today’s radio show, a producer asked her: Do you think it was too ‘Newcastley’ (Ant, Dec and Scarlett are all from the north east)?
She replied sarcastically: “Yeah because no one on the TV is from south!”
ITV announced the 29-year-old star “won’t feature as a contributor” on the next series of the show, which she has appeared on alongside Ant, Dec and Stephen since 2017.
A spokesman said: “Scarlett Moffatt won’t feature as a contributor in the 2020 series of Saturday Night Takeaway.
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“We thank Scarlett for all of her hard work on the show and will announce details of the new series nearer transmission.”
The Mirror quoted a station source as saying: “Show bosses are planning lots of new and exciting features for the 2020 series alongside the return of viewer favourites.
“Scarlett Moffatt won’t feature in the new series but she’s not being replaced. It will be just Ant and Dec and Stephen Mulhern who will return to host Ant vs Dec.”
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Scarlett, who found fame on Gogglebox before being crowned Queen of the Jungle in 2016 , was announced as one of the co-presenters of Saturday Night Takeaway in 2017.
She said at the time: “I’ve watched Saturday Night Takeaway with my family for as long as I can remember, I’m such a huge fan, so to be part of one of the biggest entertainment shows out there, with two of my all-time TV heroes Ant and Dec, is an absolute dream.”
This year, she and Joe Swash were replaced as the hosts of I’m A Celeb spin-off Extra Camp by Emily Atack and Adam Thomas.
She tweeted: “For three years I have enjoyed a jungle life, being crowned Queen of the Jungle and having the greatest time presenting Extra Camp with Swashy and Joel who I now class as best friends.
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“But I have got a project that I’ve been working on (alongside my family) that I am very very excited to announce soon. And because of this, unfortunately, I will not be presenting this year’s Extra Camp but I will certainly be tuning in. LONG LIVE THE JUNGLE.”
That project was The British Tribe Next Door, where Scarlett went to live with the Himba tribe of Namibia.
Scarlett later insisted she quit the jungle spin-off because it ruined Christmas with her family.
She said: “It was a conscious decision because I’ve been in Australia for the past three years and you only get back home a couple of days before Christmas.”
And she stuck up The Tribe Next Door, which some viewers accused of being “exploitative”, in today’s radio appearance.
“We always knew there would be a bit of criticism,” she said. “I feel like when you do something new it shocks people.
“We knew that once people watched the show they would understand how heart warming it was. I think as westernised people we are so self-obsessed and absorbed. In fact, they hated everything in our house.”
