Ant & Dec’s new game show has a ‘Limitless Win’

(ITV, 8.30pm)

On some quiz shows, such as Mastermind or Only Connect, the contestants are competing for little more than a trophy and the bragging rights. On others, there’s the chance to walk away with a truly life-changing amount of money.

But even on a show like Who Wants to be a Millionaire? there’s a ceiling on how much you can win. However, on Ant & Dec’s Limitless Win there’s no cap – ITV are billing it as the “world’s first ever limitless jackpot.”

That sounds exciting for viewers, but potentially very expensive for the production company. Luckily, if anyone has ever earned the right for British broadcasters to essentially give them a blank check it’s probably Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, who have proved on many occasions that they can be relied on to bring in the viewers.

Earlier today, ITV repeated The Story of SM:TV Live, a documentary about the children’s TV show that became a cult hit with people who had long aged out of the target audience thanks it part to Ant, Dec and co-presenter Cat Deeley.

Since then, the duo have hosted ratings juggernauts like I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Britain’s Got Talent and their own Saturday Night Takeaway.

Even Ant’s well-publicised difficulties in 2018, which saw him take a break from his co-presenting duties, didn’t seem to dint their popularity – or break their incredible winning streak at the National TV Awards. In 2021, they picked up their 20th consecutive Best Presenter award.

In fact, they have their finger so firmly on the pulse that when they joked about allegations concerning parties at Number 10 during lockdown during the most recent run of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, some pundits took it as a sign that Boris Johnson was truly in trouble. They were even mentioned during Prime Minister’s Question Time, something many self-styled satirists could only dream of.

Yet despite their track-record as ratings titans, it’s been a while since they’ve taken on a new challenge.

As Dec says: “It’s been a number of years since we launched a brand new TV format, it’s not something we do very often! But we’ve hit on something that is ground-breaking and innovative, and that’s why we are so excited to host this series and bring it to the nation.”

Ant added: “We’re genuinely so excited to launch this new series. It’s something we’ve been developing with Hello Dolly and ITV for a while now and we can’t wait for you all to experience it. We hope you love it as much as we do.”

The idea sounds simple – the contestants answer questions to bank money and climb a money ladder, but if they push their luck too far, they risk crashing out with nothing.

Married NHS workers, Will and Kathryn, are the first team to give it a go, but will they walk away with the biggest cash prize in British TV history?