Bradley Walsh set to host his own chat show on ITV

Bradley Walsh is set for his own primetime chat show on ITV in 2019.

Called It’s Showtime, the new programme will feature Bradley chatting to celebrity guests, games and live music performances.

A pilot is set to be filmed with The Chase presenter and Doctor Who star in December, ahead of a planned series to follow in the Spring.

A source told The Sun newspaper: “Bradley has well and truly cemented himself as a staple star on ITV. Producers thought that it was about time he got his own chat show.

“It will be pretty similar to The Jonathan Ross Show with some games and live performances thrown in. It’s early days but if it goes down well it could be in the running to replace Saturday Night Takeaway as ITV’s top entertainment show.”

ITV previously confirmed that Saturday Night Takeaway would NOT air in 2019 after co-host Ant McPartlin stepped down from TV commitments for this year.

A statement from Ant and Dec released in August explained: “Ant and Dec have made the joint decision not to present a new series of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in Spring 2019. Production and filming for a Saturday Night Takeaway series in February would normally have already started, and continue throughout 2018 and early 2019.

“Neither Ant & Dec nor ITV wanted to compromise the quality of the show and therefore felt it was better to rest the series next year.

“They will instead bring the show back in 2020, bigger and better than ever.”

Ant will also miss out on I’m A Celebrity, which begins next month, as Holly Willoughby steps in to host alongside Dec.

Meanwhile, news of Bradley’s new TV pilot follows ITV dropping its late night series The Nightly Show after it made its debut in 2017. ITV said the programme, which aired Monday to Fridays with a different guest host each week, did not “perform as well as we had hoped.”