The season finale of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway at Florida’s Walt Disney World has been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
ITV has confirmed the finale will take place in the London studios after their original plan of flying 300 fans to Florida for the show but the decision to cancel came when the theme park was closed out of worry over the virus spreading.
MORE: A celebrity version of ‘The Circle’ is coming to Channel 4
“We will no longer be broadcasting the Saturday Night Takeaway finale from Walt Disney World Resort in Florida,” an ITV spokesperson said. “Walt Disney World has made the decision to close, beginning on Monday 16 March until the end of the month. The wellbeing of all our prize winners, as well as our production team, is always our number one priority. All recipients of a ‘Place on the Plane’ prize will have their prizes honoured and flown by Virgin Holidays for a 5-night stay at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida at such later date when it is practical for Virgin Holidays and Walt Disney World Resort to fulfill the prize.”
Tomorrow night’s episode will have a studio audience but with the growing concern and number of COVID-19 cases rising, precautions are being taken.
“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 them to update advice as and when it changes,” ITV said.
Saturday Night Takeaway airs Saturdays on ITV.
