Ant and Dec renew contract with ITV
Ant and Dec have extended their exclusive ITV contract for a further two years with a new multi million-pound deal. It ensures the duo will continue to host Britain's Got Talent and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, which returns this weekend. The golden handcuffs deal also paves the way for the return of their Saturday Night Takeaway series, which has not been screened since 2009. And they will host Simon Cowell's series Red Or Black? if a further series is commissioned, under the new contract. It means the Geordie duo will continue with the broadcaster until December 2013. Their deal has previously been estimated to be worth around £10 million each over two years. ITV would not comment on the new financial package, but it is said to be "broadly in line" with their previous contract. Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have had had an exclusive deal with ITV since 2000, after joining the broadcaster two years earlier to present Saturday morning shows SM:tv Live and CD:UK. They've landed 12 National Television Awards, including the most popular entertainment presenter category for 10 consecutive years. Ant said: "We are really pleased to sign with ITV for another two years and continue to make the programmes we love with the channel." Dec added: "We always said we would bring back Saturday Night Takeaway, so we're particularly delighted plans are now in place. We have lots of fresh and exciting ideas for the brand new series."
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.