Ant & Dec

In Autumn ’98 their own company, Ant & Dec Productions, launched SM:TV Live and CD:UK, mixing music, comedy and cartoons and co-hosted with Cat Deeley. The show won over fifteen awards, was a massive ratings hit and became the first Saturday morning show to beat the BBC in six years.

Pop Idol

In December 2000 Ant & Dec signed an exclusive contract with ITV1 and went on to host a variety of shows alongside SM:TV & CD:UK including ‘The BRIT Awards’ and ‘Comic Relief’.

After leaving SM:TV and CD:UK at the end of 2001, the following year saw them present the BAFTA award-winning ‘Pop Idol’, the format that went on to become a world wide hit. They also returned to acting and filmed a special episode of one of Britain’s best loved sitcoms, ‘A Tribute To The Likely Lads’. In addition to this they re-wrote and recorded the official World Cup anthem for the England Football team, ‘We’re On The Ball’, which reached No.3 in the UK single charts.

Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway

In June of 2002 the lads returned to Saturday night TV when they launched a brand new prime time ITV1 show – ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’, where viewers were asked not to just watch the advert breaks but also win them! The series has since gone from strength to strength – running for nine series and picking up every award going.

I’m a Celebrity….Get Me Out Of Here’

Another major project was ‘I’m a Celebrity….Get Me Out Of Here’. Launched in 2002 and based in the Australian rain forest, the two week programme proved another runaway success with Ant & Dec earning critical acclaim for their observational comedy and presentation. This has run for nine series and continues to be a major annual event in the TV calendar.

Autumn 2005 saw the lads host ‘Ant and Dec’s Gameshow Marathon’ as part of ITV’s 50th birthday celebrations. They also formed a new production company, Gallowgate, which co-produced the hugely successful ‘All-Star Cup’ for Sky One, a celebrity version of golf’s Ryder Cup that featured among others, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas.

In summer 2005, Ant & Dec took time out from television to make their first feature film ‘Alien Autopsy’. The film, which launched in April 2006, took well over £2 million at the box office and also hit number one in the DVD/video chart in its opening week.

Following the film Ant & Dec were asked to exclusively interview Princes Charles, William and Harry for the ‘50th Anniversary celebrations of the Princes Trust’. This interview went out in over 20 countries worldwide. May 2006 saw the lads present another new format, ‘Soccer-Aid’, where a celebrity and Legend England team lead by Robbie Williams took on a ‘Rest of the World Team’ lead by Gordon Ramsey. A week long build up culminated in a three hour live final at a packed Old Trafford, which rated over a 30% share on ITV1.
2006 saw their production company Gallowgate grow from strength to strength with the appointment of ex-Planet 24 boss Ed Forsdick as Managing Director. This appointment coincided with the commissioning of the ‘All-Star Cup’ for a 2nd run, but this time on ITV1 and with the boys presenting. The company was also commissioned by ITV to produce ‘Pokerface’, an entertainment gameshow show made by TalkBack Thames in association with Gallowgate. The show, an original idea from Ant and Dec, ran in a primetime slot and was stripped across a week in July to fantastic critical acclaim with the eventual winner taking home a staggering £1million.

The second series of ‘Pokerface’ ran on seven consecutive Saturday nights throughout February and March 2007, once again winning plaudits from all areas of the industry.

Britain's Got Talent

2007 saw the duo launch another giant entertainment format for ITV1, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. The show was billed as Britain’s search for the country's best amateur talent act, featuring singers, dancers, comedians, variety acts, and other talents of all ages, with the eventual winner receiving the opportunity to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of The Queen. The first series ran for nine consecutive nights drawing in massive ratings and huge praise for Ant & Dec, with the final peaking at 11.2 million viewers.  In 2008 Ant & Dec hosted a second series of the hit format, with the final peaking at 60% of the viewing audience, becoming the highest rated entertainment programme of the decade alongside ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here”.

2008 saw the duo’s US television debut on show ‘Wanna Bet’, a new game show based on the massive German TV hit ‘Wetten Das’. The show launched on Monday 21st July on ABC.

Award Winning Presenters

Since their move into peak time entertainment, Ant and Dec and their shows have won a staggering eleven National Television Awards (including Most Popular Entertainment Presenters for the last nine years in a row), six British Comedy Awards, two BAFTA’s and a variety of other industry accolades.

Ant & Dec have been signed exclusively to ITV1 in the UK for the last seven years. The duo re-signed to the channel until the end of 2009 securing the biggest UK TV deal in history. Shortly after the pair were found to be the most watched television presenters of 2008 in the UK. Media agency MPG found the pair were seen at least once by 51% of the UK population.

Gaming giant Nintendo signed the duo in 2009 as brand ambassadors, and their TV advert featuring the boys later went on to be the second most effective ad campaign in the UK throughout 2009.

In 2010 the boys won both categories once more at the National Television Awards, picking up honours for Best Programme (Saturday Night Takeaway) and Best Entertainment Presenters. Following another ratings hit with their 2009 Boxing Day Christmas special on ITV1, the duo's new entertainment show 'Push the Button' airs later in February. 

For further information or to book Ant & Dec, call us at Speakers Corner on +44 (0) 20 8365 3200 or email info@speakerscorner.co.uk