While watching Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway last night I felt like I had been thrown back about 15 years. Yes, partly because we were treated to a performance from PJ & Duncan (there's the next band for ITV2's The Big Reunion) but also because shows like this just don't exist anymore. It's basically Noel's House Party but without Mr Blobby. The Ant & Dec Undercover (Gotcha!), Little Ant & Dec (Wait 'til I Get You Home, just without the annoyed parents) all of the talking to the audience and revealing some weird secret of theirs or just trying to embarrass them (very similar to NTV). This isn't a bad thing. I think Saturday night TV has been crying out for something like this for a while. It's been 4 years since this show has been on air and they really seemed to have honed everything about it. When it first started, it was all about the audience member winning the contents of a certain ad break, when they clocked on we weren't too bothered about that (but we did want to know what sort of car it was) they concentrated on the other aspects of the show.
Little Ant & Dec are okay, I did love it when they got the others ones came back at the start of the series; Ant & Dec's comedy timing is pretty good. I'm A Celebrity Get Out Of Me Ear may be a ridiculously forced pun on their other titan of a show but it works really well. Emma Bunton and Louis Walsh were game which made it all the more funnier. But by far my favourite item of the show is the End of the Show Show. The first one with Robbie Williams was okay but since them, it's really impressed me. I thought the boys did a fantastic job with Spellbound, they actually put some real effort in. And the Riverdance was really impressive too. Then when they bust out PJ & Duncan last night I was speechless. Why, when watching The Big Reunion I didn't ever think "I'd love to hear Let's Get Ready To Rhumble" I don't know. It's sitting pretty at number 6 in the iTunes chart as I type.
The ratings have been a huge success, probably more the ITV dared hope for. There hasn't been much competition for it though so when The Voice returns to BBC One for it's second series next Saturday it will be interesting to see how it holds up. Personally, I think Ant & Dec have nothing to worry about as they have a solid family entertainment show in their hands. I can't even think of anything similar to it at the moment, it really is one of the best things on television at the moment. The Voice will probably have a big start but let's see what happens in a couple of weeks. Britain's Got Talent is also back soon so they are going to be the kings of Saturday nights.
Is there any stopping Ant & Dec? Let's hope not.
