Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have been presenting their Saturday Night show since 2002 where fans grew to fall in love with their personality, partnership and the skits within the show.
However, in May 2023 the pair announced they were stepping away from the show for a while which left many of their fans devastated.
During the first episode tonight, comedian Stephen Merchant was the guest announcer, Simon Cowell became the first victim in an edition of Undercover and chart-topper Becky Hill performed in the End of the Show Show.
Stephen Mulhern also returned with a terrifying Ant versus Dec challenge as well as Jordan North helping surprise members of the audience and a new Little Ant and Dec were unveiled.
Just minutes into the show, fans were complaining about how “disappointing” the first show back was and many agreed it had “run its course”.
Taking to their X accounts, one user commented: “I can’t quite put my finger on it - but I’m not fully comfortable with this #SaturdayNightTakeaway.”
Series 1 vs Series 20 🥹#SaturdayNightTakeaway pic.twitter.com/omL4E0Czg5
— Saturday Night Takeaway (@itvtakeaway) February 24, 2024
“This first 15 minutes has been absolute shite #SaturdayNightTakeaway,” a second echoed before another added: “Same old cringy rubbish. #SaturdayNightTakeaway.”
One annoyed viewer exclaimed: “Seems like the series finale of #Saturdaynighttakeaway will be in the studio as normal. Very disappointing.”
“Just when does the entertainment start? Thank the good lord this is the last time this drivel will be on our screens. #SaturdayNightTakeaway,” a fifth penned.
Another quipped: “Think it is safe to say that Ant and Dec know this show has run its course! They say they’ll be back but I am unsure.”
Ant and Dec have been presenting the show since 2002
ITV
However, not all the feedback was negative, as one viewers praised: “I bloody love this show! Good wholesome family viewing!” (sic)
Speaking about their reason to step back from the show, Ant told FAULT magazine: “I feel like it’s a nice time to turn the page, and it will give us time to reflect.
"You can’t think of a different version of Saturday Night Takeaway while Saturday Night Takeaway is on air. You need to be away from it."
Dec added: "I think what happened when we took a break last time [was] we started to miss it. We started coming up with lots of ideas and going, 'Oh, that would be amazing.'
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Ant and Dec returned for one more series
ITV
"We want to give ourselves that same opportunity this time to miss the show and just see how we feel and where that takes us."
Talking about the series ahead, Dec continued: "We are ending the Undercovers where we started… with Simon Cowell! Our first ever Undercover was on Simon in LA when he was a judge on American Idol.
"So we've gone back and got Simon Cowell again. We went out to LA and gave him the day from hell whilst he was judging on America's Got Talent."
"It was even sweeter getting him the second time round because we also got him during his downtime as he’s riding his bike around Malibu. It’s very, very funny," Ant said.