He will be going solo for the first time.
Declan Donnelly will be presenting the last two episodes of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway solo after the show returns later this month.
Both the presenter and ITV released statements confirming the news.
The decision was announced after speculation that it could be cancelled, following the network’s decision to pull it from the schedule this weekend.
But in a statement on Wednesday, Dec said that everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team felt they “owe it to the audience to complete the series”.
— antanddec (@antanddec) March 21, 2018
His full statement read:
“Whilst I never thought I’d be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we’ve decided the the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead.
“We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honour that.
“Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series.”
ITV can confirm that Saturday Night Takeaway, presented by Declan Donnelly, will return on March 31, and the series finale will be taking place at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida a week later.
— ITV Press Centre (@itvpresscentre) March 21, 2018
ITV issued their own statement, confirming that the series will return on March 31 – and Dec will presenting solo.
They wrote:
“ITV can confirm that Saturday Night Takeaway, presented by Declan Donnelly, will return on March 31, and the series finale will be taking place at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida a week later.”