Ant and Dec take 10% cut – and sign £20m deal

Published on Thursday 5 November 2009 20:56

TV PRESENTERS Ant and Dec are reported to have taken a 10 per cent wage cut – and signed a new deal worth £10 million each.

The Geordie double act have been working on a family challenge game show with the working title Push The Button, which will air on ITV1 next year.

ITV declined to comment on reports that the new contract is worth about 10m each to the pair. The deal takes Ant and Dec's long-term relationship with ITV – they joined the channel in 1998 – through to December 2011.

Ant told the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August that he and Dec were prepared to take a pay cut in the recession-hit industry. He said: "You have to be realistic. If the whole of the industry is suffering, it would be naive to assume that we would not suffer too."

At the festival he also explained the concept of the pair's new show. "Loosely, it will be us and two families competing.

"It's not necessarily your nuclear family. It will be a representation of an ITV viewer."

Peter Fincham, ITV director of television, channels and online, said: "Ant and Dec are without question two of the UK's most talented television stars. "They have a unique appeal and a very special quality, loved by young and old alike.

"After more than a decade on ITV, I'm delighted that they will continue to exclusively work with us on our hit shows and in developing new programmes and formats."