Declan Donnelly will get a replacement co-host on his first series of ‘I’m A Celebrity’ without Ant McPartlin, the head of ITV has confirmed.
This year, Dec has already flown solo on two episodes of ‘Saturday Night Takeaway’ and the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ live shows, while Ant focussed on his recovery, following his charge for drink-driving.
While we already knew Ant wouldn’t be back for ‘I’m A Celebrity’, ITV Studios boss Kevin Lygo revealed at the Edinburgh TV Festival that Dec won’t be going it alone this year.
However, Kevin declined to reveal the identity of Dec’s mystery co-host, with reports previously claiming that ‘This Morning’ presenter Holly Willoughby could be in the running.
Meanwhile, one name we’d love to see get the job is the presenter of the Australian version of ‘I’m A Celebrity’, Julia Morris, whose one-liners went viral this week.
Ant confirmed that he wouldn’t return for ‘I’m A Celebrity’ in a statement earlier this month, explaining: “My recovery is going very well and for that to continue having spoken to Dec and ITV, I have made the decision to take the rest of the year off.
“I’d like to thank both Dec and ITV for their continued support and I look forward to getting back to work in the new year.”
It was also confirmed that there won’t be a new series of ‘Saturday Night Takeaway’ until 2020, with their spokesperson saying: “Neither Ant and Dec nor ITV wanted to compromise the quality of the show and therefore felt it was better to rest the series next year.”