Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway 2015

I remember Jamie Theakston doing something along those lines on The Priory back in the 90s.

Ant v Dec is modern day Don't Try This At Home meets You Bet!, and others no doubt.
Putting cameras in people's houses had already been done on the NTV segment of House Party.
Heck, even Little Ant & Dec is probably based on House Party's Gotcha segment, done cheaper.
As for Win The Ads - major boost up on Grab a Grand me thinks.
The Supercomputer idea also probably has its roots in Game For A Laugh.

Um, anything else?

Not quite as blatantly as how Question of Sport seems to be nicking formats from other gameshows though.

Indeed. Paul Daniels must be spinning in his grave.

You do know Paul Daniels isn't dead, right?

He's a very good illusionist Steve, so I can see how you can be under that impression.

It actually reminds me of the ill-fated "Give It A Whirl" segment from Noel Edmonds Late Late Breakfast Show, which, as I would think say most of us know, ended in tragedy for one participant. "Ant vs Dec" differs in the fact that the stunts are competitive and performed by the hosts rather than the public, and most likely has a ton of HSE guidelines written all over it!



It's clearly the "Ant & Dec: Undercover" segment that's based upon the Gotchas from NHP. TBH, If anything, it's a near direct rip of that format ... winding up someone famous with hidden cameras, followed by the reveal and the reaction, but without awarding a novelty statuette to the celeb victim. The "I'm A Celebrity, Get Out Of Me Ear!" is a variation of that format.

I think it would be reasonable to assume that parts of the show also takes inspiration from Morecambe & Wise. The introducing & talking to the end-of-the-show show guest is comparable to some of the in-front of the curtain pieces Morecambe & Wise would do with their guests. With this week's final piece being acting I found myself thinking of the plays what Ernie wrote and also some of Ronnie Barker's tongue-twister sketches. It's perhaps also worth noting that at the end of the last series they sung out to Bring Me Sunshine (with a band?).

And of course the Gotchas were basically Beadle's About with celeb "victims".

I still think something is missing from Takeway. Ie mkaing it easier to link to everything? In house party you would have the Front door and a good set. Maybe its the lack of a good gunging....

Their End of the Show Show with the piano from last series made me realise somebody was actively trying to turn them into M&W. I adore M&W and I love Ant and Dec. Ages ago, when people started making those comparisons, it made me feel a little bit sick. But now it seems to be more apparent than ever. Are they pulling it off? I'm not so sure. Does it make them any less entertaining? No.





I think it runs a bit too tightly. Previous series' always seemed to have a slightly unpredictable factor to them, especially with What's Next, but it always seems overly rehearsed. Even their chat at the beginning, which I presume has been scripted since day one, doesn't seem as unhinged as it once did.

Probably fair to say they've got a bit too slick. I'm also not sure the longer run time helps - seems to be a trend in television to give shows more airtime but often with less content, and I'm not sure they're doing more in 85 minutes than they used to in 60 minutes.

Indeed considering the rotation of features it feels like they're airing less now - they used to have time for the likes of Ant v Dec, Little Ant & Dec and Undercover every week alongside the usual opening audience segment, some sort of OB, the "Grab the Ads" viewer comp, "Win the Ads" and often a guest performances as well.