Saturday Night Takeaway: Ant and Dec to stream final live from home amid coronavirus shutdown

TV duo aren’t letting the UK lockdown stop them from putting on a show

Ant and Dec will host the finale of Saturday Night Takeaway from home, as they practise social distancing due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The duo filmed the penultimate episode of the ITV variety show in the studio without an audience.

While they have been prevented from doing the same for the final due to travel restrictions, it has been confirmed that the episode will go ahead.

Parts of the show will be filmed from the pair's respective homes, while others will be "best bits" from previous episodes.

“That’s settled then... this week we’ll be doing Saturday Night Takeaway on the telly… from both our houses!” the pair said on Instagram.

“Suits for you at home are optional.”

The popular ITV variety show reached an average of 9.5 million people with last week's episode, peaking at 11.1 million – the most in the series’ history.

The ratings were the highest of any UK broadcast TV channel since the New Year’s Eve fireworks at the end of 2019 on BBC One. It is marked Saturday Night Takeaway‘s highest-ever viewership number since the series’ debut in 2002.

In the episode, hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly also helped launch an initiative to help people struggling with their mental health during coronavirus self-isolation.

At the end of last week’s episode, they addressed the audience at home, saying: “We need each other more than ever.”

“Now more of us will be apart, or by ourselves, than ever before and it’s going to be harder for some of us than it is for others,” said McPartlin, “which is why it’s never been more important that we keep talking.”

ITV have teamed up with YoungMinds and Mind to organise the Britain Get Talking campaign, which urges people to reach out to their loved ones and talk about mental health.

Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway airs at 7pm on ITV.