Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway faces Ofcom investigation

Saturday Night Takeaway is facing an Ofcom investigation over one of its famous competitions.

The TV Watchdog is looking into a complaint regarding Ant and Dec’s Sofawatch game.

The contest sees sofas placed across the country with Ant and Dec inviting viewers to head out and find them.

Those that turn up before the closing time had the chance of winning a place on the plane at the series’ finale in Orlando.

But one viewer has claimed they weren’t able to sign up for the competition despite arriving before the deadline.

“We are investigating whether this programme broke our broadcast competition rules,” a spokesperson for Ofcom said.

Saturday Night Takeaway wrapped up its latest series last month, and enjoyed big viewing figures.

In fact, the 2018 series was the most watched since the show’s revival in 2013.

On average, Saturday Night Takeaway saw an audience of 7.3 million viewers. This was up 500,000 viewers on average on 2017.

For the last two episodes of the series, Dec hosted the show solo.

The series finale aired live from Florida with Dec fronting the show alongside regular sidekicks Scarlett Moffat and Stephen Mulhern.

It follows Dec’s usual co-host Ant McPartlin stepping down from TV work to seek treatment in rehab.

In a speech after the live final show to the crowd in Florida, Dec said: “Thanks for all the love and support, it’s been a series tinged with… well…

“It’s tinged with sadness.”

He then asked: “Can you all give a one round of applause for Ant who is at home.”

“Thank you so much, I know he will appreciate that a great, great deal,” Dec added.

Saturday Night Takeaway is expected to return for a new series in 2019.