‘Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ is set to go ahead with a live audience despite the threat of coronavirus.
The popular ITV show has decided to press ahead with this weekend’s episode as originally planned, meaning that around 200 people will be in the audience to watch the show – even though the broadcaster has insisted the "well-being" of guests and the production team is "always our number one priority".
In a statement, ITV explained: "Our priority is the well-being and safety of all our people and everyone who works with us on our shows and across our business.
"We are in a developing and dynamic situation so we’re complying with the guidance from Public Health England and the World Health Organization to make sure we keep everyone as safe and secure as possible.
"All of our audience-handling agencies are sharing the updated advice from the NHS site with audiences prior to attending our shows and we continue to work with them to update advice as and when it changes."
The show has already been forced to cancel the series finale in Florida due to the coronavirus threat.
ITV had originally planned to fly out 300 fans to the Disney World Orlando on April 4.
The broadcaster said: "We will no longer be broadcasting the ‘Saturday Night Takeaway’ finale from Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
"Walt Disney World has made the decision to close, beginning on Monday 16 March until the end of the month. The well-being of all our prize winners, as well as our production team, is always our number one priority."
Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway to be staged with a live audience
