Just three months ago, ITV bosses were clinking champagne flutes as the ink dried on another contract with star presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.
Though the pair, both 50, are viewed as part of the ITV furniture, the deal was more close-run than you might expect.
Other TV companies, such as Amazon, had been circling round the Geordie duo, who have long been viewed in industry circles as the most trusted of showbiz hands.
So ITV pulling off signing them again in the face of competition was seen as something of a coup.
And for Ant & Dec, the lucrative deal – thought to be worth around £30million, and which will take them to their third decade as presenters – seemingly secured their place as TV’s most-sought-after hosts.
Rarely can the sheen have come off a golden-handcuffs contract as quickly as this, however. For I can reveal that since the deal was done, signs have emerged which indicate the pair may be nowhere near as popular as their employers believed.
During this time Ant & Dec have tried to diversify, turning their hand to podcasts and producing content for YouTube to attract a new generation of fans.
But their attempt to do so has been little more than a disappointing flop.
Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have tried to diversify, turning their hand to podcasts and producing content for YouTube to attract a new generation of fans
At the peak of their heyday, Ant & Dec would attract more than 12million viewers as presenters of Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, while the same number enjoyed skit show Saturday Night Takeaway.
Yet their podcast, Hanging Out With Ant & Dec – which sees them discuss conspiracy theories while interviewing guests – is not faring as well as would have been expected.
Though some episodes have proved relatively popular, winning up to 50,000 views on their YouTube channel, Belta Box, shorter clips designed to create viral moments have drawn in substantially fewer viewers.
Some clips have scored just 12,000 views, while nostalgic highlights from their TV shows are drawing in similarly low ratings.
It’s hard to exaggerate what a humiliation this is for Ant & Dec, who are creating this output with the help of a full production team behind them.
In contrast, many amateur YouTubers are attracting numbers well into the millions for content which costs significantly less.
As one showbiz insider tells me: ‘Ant & Dec are no way as popular as they think they are, or indeed ITV think they are. This is a real wake-up call.
‘It’s pretty obvious what they’re trying to do here – they can see that mainstream television isn’t going to be around for ever and digital content is the future.
‘The question is whether their traditional audience will follow them online. So far, the answer appears to be a pretty clear no.’
To be fair, the move between TV to podcasts and online content can be a tricky one to make.
But some have made the leap with aplomb. Take ex-footballer Gary Lineker, who spent 30 years on TV before leaving the BBC last year amid a storm caused by his social media posts.
Lineker regularly attracts millions of views for each of his football podcast episodes.
So what’s gone wrong for Ant & Dec, the one-time golden boys of TV?
Some say there is an element of bad luck in their humbling experience. Their podcast hit early controversy over an ill-conceived advertisement image of the pair ‘hanging’ from a washing line – playing on the podcast name ‘Hanging Out with Ant & Dec’. It was viewed as being in poor taste, and the pair apologised.
But others say this reckoning has been long overdue and, indeed, that the signs have been there for some time.
That is because Ant & Dec have already watched their ratings struggle recently, with Saturday Night Takeaway off air for a break after slumping in the viewing figures from 7.3million to four million. Britain’s Got Talent also attracted record lows of just three million viewers for its recent launch show, having once regularly hauled in ten million.
All in all, the pair’s output looks predictable and a little tired.
My insider tells me: ‘They launched the podcast with a massive marketing push, which managed to get a lot of views for their first video even though the advertising for it went horribly wrong, but people don’t seem to be coming back.’
The other big factor troubling them is authenticity. Online output relies heavily on stars forming a direct relationship with their audience. There is usually an immediacy and directness to most online interaction with followers which is harder to produce than it seems, but hugely lucrative when it works.
Perhaps the duo are simply perceived as too slick.
There’s no doubt their extensive use of long-standing PR man Simon Jones to smooth over past scandals has led to their image appearing sanitised.
Ant, let us not forget, has survived several transgressions that might have ended the career of a less-established presenter. There were his stints in rehab for addiction issues and a drink-driving conviction in 2018 after he crashed into a car carrying a four-year-old.
For the crash, he was fined £86,000 – believed to be a record for the offence – and banned from diving for 20 months.
‘Ant & Dec are no way as popular as they think they are, or indeed ITV think they are. This is a real wake-up call,’ says an insider
As well as this, a bitter and heavily publicised divorce from his TV make-up artist wife, Lisa Armstrong, further tarnished his squeaky-clean image as the duo fought over his fortune.
Events such as these saw back-door deals done with tabloid newspapers to play down controversies and keep the most damaging details from the public eye.
As one industry insider put it: ‘They have been completely protected, in a way almost nobody else in British television could have expected.
‘When Ant went to rehab, it was handled incredibly cautiously and what emerged in the media was very much sugar-coated.
‘And crashing into an innocent family’s car while drink driving would have been enough to finish off most careers – but instead Ant was treated very much as a victim of addiction himself, and wrapped in cotton wool. There are still people who were around him at that time who can’t believe how easily he was allowed to get on with his career afterwards.’
In a recent promotional interview with The Times to launch Hanging Out With Ant & Dec, the star labelled his 40s ‘a really tough time’. He added: ‘These last few years, it’s the happiest I’ve been in a long, long time.
‘What changes as you get older, especially being sober as well, for me, is the purpose.’
He remarried in 2021, tying the knot with his former PA, Anne-Marie Corbett, at a ceremony in Hampshire. The couple had their first child in 2024.
On-screen partner Dec has also found happiness with Ali Astall, the double act’s manager.
Family contentment could lead to a new direction for the presenters. Indeed, this week’s podcast made headlines as they each discussed becoming fathers.
Yet that episode has only been watched 32,000 times. And it’s these low figures, as well as the declining TV ratings, which indicate troubling times to come.
Perhaps tellingly, they have been snubbed for a nomination in the Best Entertainment Performance category at the forthcoming Baftas, having previously been stalwarts of the event. The Traitors’ Claudia Winkleman and comics Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan and Alan Carr were all preferred on the event’s shortlists.
And in September last year, their 23-year winning streak as the National Television Awards’ Best TV Presenter came to an end, with the pair beaten by Gary Lineker shortly after he stood down from Match Of The Day.
The pair will be on our screens again next month when an all-star, pre-recorded edition of I’m A Celebrity airs.
But with their future more uncertain than ever, the biggest names under the microscope may yet be the hosts themselves.
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