Saturday Night Takeaway 2017

Come to think of it, wasn't there a period where they didn't know what the challenge was going to be until they were on the air? I know they had What's Next where they had to do something they didn't expect, but I'm sure they had an element of that in Ant vs Dec.

Always enjoy the show although I did think the last series was feeling a bit same old in terms of the features and segments and last nights premiere didn't do much to shake things up apart from Scarlett.

Orlando they did 3 years ago, admittedly not with a live final but the prize was pretty much the same.

Jamie Olivier's segment wasn't all that entertaining, nor was Jamie's reaction during or whilst watching back the spoof.

And the newly wed couple felt like it was missing something - they didn't even get a prize.

Well, mentioning Disney itself isn't the problem, Disney Time was showing clips from Disney films as an entertainment. No more than Top of the Pops advertised records by playing them. It's mentioning Disney World or Disneyland or EuroDisney to such an extent that it becomes an advert when it becomes an issue.



Well, they had an inset of the pair while unveiling this week's challenge, presumably to imply it was a surprise. I think they've always had a mix of challenges that are spontaneous and those that require a bit of setting up.

I always thought, during the period Takeaway was being "rested" and they were wasting their time on ropey formats like Push The Button, they could have done a whole series based on the Ant vs Dec concept, where they would have a number of challenges in each show, some live in the studio, some on tape, some involving guests and the audience. You could still do all the phone-ins and sketches and comic crosstalk and ITV cross-promotion you get on Takeaway, but it would refresh it a bit. I still think they should do that.

On STV at least, the rugby ended, and went straight to a regular STV ident with local CA, and into the programme without any A&D involvement. I remember in 2013, when they did a skit about the then new pugwash ident at the top of the show, a local ident was played first before the ITV ident, which I believe was part of the programme.

That's an outstanding start to the new series, I very much enjoyed watching the show and there is a lot to look forward to this series on Saturday Night Takeaway.

I think people over do the 'tired features' line, they rotate the items so they won't appear every week, so basically Ant vs Dec or Undercover will appear no more than 3 or 4 times a year. Yes they've been going a long time in terms of calendar years, but in terms of how often they've appeared, they've probably appeared less than some items in one series of Noel's House Party.

Agree since it came back in 2013 they have revolved features more, in fact the end of the show show and win the ads is probably the only thing on every week. Usually you have 3 weeks of Undercover and 3 weeks of Get out of my Ear, usually have 4 or 5 Ant v Dec, 3 or 4 Singalong Live, last year a few weeks of read my lips, a few weeks of who shot Simon Cowell, missing crown jewels etc.

whereas in the original run you more or less had Undercover on every week and Ant v Dec and the original little ant and dec which is why it became stale and it didn't help that they did try to replace them but came up with poor features like Jiggy Bank, Escape from Takeaway Prison and Mouse Trap whereas their new features now seem much suited to the programme.

Is an argument though that if a feature isn't strong enough to be in the show every week (and it's only 7 weeks or so after all) then is it strong enough to be in the show at all?

Or that they've go so many great features bursting out they can't cram them all in?

This series of Ant & Dec v Youtubers show Ant & Dec at their best, especially with Dec's uncontrollable laughter.

See, this is the SMTV-esque Ant and Dec I miss. Two blokes having fun instead of trying to be a double act from the 1970s.

Watching the show and it is hilarious because Mrs Brown is the guest announcer, This is the best Saturday night TV.