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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Charlotte Tutton

Coronavirus: Ant and Dec explain how Saturday Night Takeaway will continue without audience

Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly have revealed how Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead this weekend, without their normal studio audience.

The hosts and ITV made the decision to axe the studio audience for the remainder of the series, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 cases in the UK have risen to above 3,000, with at least 144 confirmed deaths.

Last weekend the show went on as normal with an audience in the studio with Ant and Dec, with not everyone watching at home agreeing with it.

This Saturday, for the first time ever the hosts will do the show without any audience members in the studio.

Dec told Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes on This Morning on Friday: "It's gonna be strange, it's gonna be different" (ITV)

With this audience and viewers at home being such a huge part of the ITV show, fans have wondered how they can carry on.

From Win the Ads to audience members being surprised, the people in the studio are very much a key part of goings on.

But Ant and Dec are determined to put on a good show for everyone, and get people smiling - amid fears this might be the last episode of the series.

This Saturday, for the first time ever the hosts will do the show without any audience members in the studio (ITV)

Dec told Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes on This Morning on Friday: "It's gonna be strange, it's gonna be different.

"The studio's pretty much gonna be like it is now, when we run down the stairs, I think we're still going to do that.

As Dec explained the seats would remain empty, Ant said: "We will, we'll do the same things that we normally do just without the noise."

The hosts and ITV made the decision to axe the studio audience for the remainder of the series, amid the coronavirus pandemic (ITV)

Dec went on: "We will go on with the show, we've got loads of stuff in the show tomorrow night. It's jam packed.

"We've got some surprises as well, we're just gonna see how it goes and try and bring some smiles to people's faces."

The boys also revealed there's no guarantee the show will be back after the weekend, as things change amid the ongoing pandemic.

Dec said: "As long as we are allowed to we're gonna try to bring you the show and put a smile on faces."

Ant added: "We wanted to do the show just to put a smile on people's faces. We might not be able to do another one, we don't know yet."

Saturday Night Takeaway continues Saturday at 7pm on ITV.

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