By Ruth Comerford
BBC News
More than four million viewers watched the finale of ITV1’s Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, who said they would be taking a break from the show last year, were joined by a host of stars for the two-hour show.
Hosting the series had been an “honour and a privilege”, McPartlin said, while Donnelly said they “truly adored every second of making the show”.
The episode averaged 4.6m viewers, up on the 2023 finale which averaged 4.3m.
But more people tuned into this series’ launch episode than Saturday’s finale, figures show.
The first episode of the series aired on 24 February, and was watched by 4.9m people on average.
A star-studded cast appeared in the finale including Holly Willoughby, Rylan Clark, Olly Murs, Davina McCall, Gino D’Acampo and Girls Aloud.
Crowds waiting outside the studio were also entertained by a Craig David DJ set.
In a joint statement on Instagram, McPartlin and Donnelly wrote: “Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“To all the guests, crew, and most importantly you at home who have made the last 20 series so incredible to be part of. We are so grateful to everyone who tuned in and we couldn’t have done it without you.”
The pair were also joined by S Club, Tony Hadley and Kaiser Chiefs and McFly, who sang a version of their song All About You to the presenters.
Music mogul Simon Cowell and This Morning presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary also appeared, alongside TV presenter Andi Peters and radio host Jordan North.
ITV1 recorded its biggest overnight audience of 2023 with the previous year’s series launch, which pulled in 6.4 million viewers.
Last year, Ofcom reported traditional TV viewing in the UK as a whole saw it its sharpest ever decline, with the proportion of people who tune in weekly down from 83% in 2021 to 79% in 2022.
The highest-rated episode of Saturday Night Takeaway aired on 21 March 2020, during Covid lockdown in the UK, pulling in 9.5m viewers.
Despite the lower viewership this year, the finale attracted the most viewers across the entire day on any channel, and contributed to ITV1 have the largest share of viewing across any channel on Saturday.
McPartlin and Donnelly have worked together for more than 30 years, and launched Saturday Night Takeaway in 2002.
In May last year, the duo said they would take a break at the end of 2024 series, after reaching a “milestone” 20th series.
This is not the first time the show has been paused. In 2009 it took a four year hiatus, returning with the pair at its helm in 2013.
However, fans of the Geordie duo need not fear as McPartlin and Donnelly will continue to host other shows for ITV, including I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and Limitless Win.
They will also be back on TV screens later this month, hosting the 17th season of Britain’s Got Talent.
