Dec will host Saturday Night Takeaway without Ant
21 March 2018, 13:06 | Updated: 21 March 2018, 13:30
Declan Donnelly has released a statement following his colleague and best friend Ant McPartlin's arrest for drink driving at the weekend.
Writing on Twitter, Dec announced that the remaining two episodes of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead as planned, without his longtime onscreen partner.
— antanddec (@antanddec) March 21, 2018
However, the episode that was due to air this weekend (March 24), will not air. It will return for episodes on March 31 and April 7.
It has also been claimed by The Sun that Dec will also host Britain's Got Talent on his own when it returns this summer.
Dec said: "Whilst I never thought I'd be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we've decided that the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead.
"We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honour that.
"Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series."
ITV bosses are thought to have met with Dec this morning (March 21) to make a decision about the remaining episodes of the show, which included a finale taking place at Universal Studios in Florida.
An ITV spokesman said: "We can confirm that Saturday Night Takeaway, presented by Declan Donnelly, will return to ITV on March 31, and the series finale will be taking place at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida a week later."
While Dec will host the two episodes on his own, he will also be joined by Stephen Mulhern and Scarlett Moffatt as usual.
Ant was arrested on Sunday on charges of drink driving, after crashing his car into two other vehicles.
