Saturday Night Takeaway’s live show will not take place next week amid coronavirus fears.
Hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly presented the much-loved family entertainment show last night without a studio audience, as the health crisis disrupts and threatens lives life across the world.
And now ITV bosses are taking even more precautions in a bid to continue as cases of those with COVID-19 continue to rocket up and down the UK.
They will pre-record the show before it airs next Saturday night, as was announced during an emotional self-isolation-themed End Of The Show Show finale lead by singer Olly Murs.
As he belted out hit Dance With Me Tonight in the scaled-back studio, submitted video clips showing fans dancing to the upbeat song were screened, including NHS workers.
Last night’s episode had the show’s biggest ever audience since it first ran in 2002, with an average of 9.5m viewers and almost half of all TV viewers watching.
It was also the biggest overnight audience on any channel so far in 2020, with the peak of 11.1m the highest on any channel since the fireworks on BBC One on New Year’s Eve 2019.
Dec said: “Thanks to our incredible crew for getting the show on tonight. Thank you to all the key workers who are keeping this country going.
“We will be back next Saturday at 7pm. We won’t be live but we will be here with the finale of Men In Brown. Stay safe everybody, goodbye.”
Earlier in the evening, nursing associate apprentice Natasha took part in the Win The Ads segment, and was delighted to win a batch of loo roll for the Saturday Night Takeaway crew among her batch of prizes.
“This must be the first time anyone’s EVER been excited about winning toilet roll on Win the Ads,” tweeted the show.
Ant told her: “Can we say on behalf of us and the entire nation thank you so much for all of the hard work you and your colleagues are doing.
“We really do appreciate it.”
Saturday Night Takeaway was filmed without a studio audience in line for the first time following the government’s plea for the nation to practice social distancing in order to delay the further spread of the potentially deadly coronavirus and viewers were emotional as they watched.
A chipper Ant and Dec bounced onto the stage as usual but admitted that it was “a little bit weird” to not have a studio audience.
“But we’re going to try and have fun,” they reassured.
Today, ITV bosses announced filming will stop on Coronation Street and Emmerdale, while daytime TV shows Loose Women and Lorraine will not be airing from tomorrow.
Producers announced earlier today that cameras will stop rolling amid the coronavirus crisis.
The news had been expected and comes after Eastenders filming was halted last Friday.
ITV’s popular daytime shows will be axed from screens from Monday, March 23 but Good Morning Britain and This Morning will continue, with skeleton crew and presenters on set for the past week.
The Mirror reports the move is a bid to protect both of the flagship daily series.
Lorraine Kelly will now joins Piers Morgan, who is solo in the absence of Suzanna Reid while she self-isolates, in the GMB studio for the last hour of his show before handing straight over to This Morning.
