ITV1 and ITVX have announced a blockbuster array of entertainment to kick start their 2023 schedules, with some familiar Northern names dominating Saturday prime time in particular.
Newcastle’s most successful export since its famous brown ale, Ant & Dec, are back with a new series Ant & Dec’s Limitless Win, starting this Saturday, January 7, at 8:30pm, and offering contestants the chance to win “the world’s first unlimited jackpot.” The pair will also host a new run of the multi award winning Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in the Spring.
Another Northern comic, Liverpool’s John Bishop, will follow Ant and Dec on the Saturday schedule, also from this weekend, with a second series of successful Saturday night topical chat show The John Bishop Show at 9:30pm.
The weekend prime time slot begins this Saturday with another family favourite, the UK version South Korean entertainment format The Masked Singer, again hosted by Joel Dommett and featuring musical super sleuths Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan and Rita Ora.
Elsewhere, Gordon Ramsay will launch his latest culinary contest Next Level Chef on Wednesday January 11 at 9pm, flanked by fellow mentors Nyesha Arrington and Paul Ainsworth as they oversee TV’s toughest and most epic cooking competition. In other returning family favourites over the course of 2023, country music star Shania Twain will join the panel of Starstruck, alongside Beverley Knight, Adam Lambert and Jason Manford, with Olly Murs back to host as music superfans transform into their idols for one night only (date tbc), and Dancing on Ice is set to return, with hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, skating legends Torvill and Dean and fellow ice panellists Ashley Banjo and Oti Mabuse later in the year.
Katie Rawcliffe, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at ITV said “We’re kicking off a blockbuster 2023 entertainment schedule with our biggest names and best loved formats to keep our viewers glued to their screens, as well as singing, dancing and guessing along.”
For those seeking more serious viewing, ITV will also show an exclusive interview with Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, on Sunday, January 8 at 9pm, in which he will talk in-depth to Tom Bradby, journalist and ITV News at Ten presenter, covering a range of subjects including his personal relationships, never-before-heard details surrounding the death of his mother, Diana, and a look ahead at his future.
ITV will doubtless be hoping to capitalise on the recent success of Harry and wife Meghan Markle’s successful recent Netflix documentary, as well as Harry’s upcoming biography, Spare, which is published on 10 January, by Transworld. The book has been billed as “a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief”.
Filmed in California, where Harry now lives, Harry: The Interview, sees the Prince go into unprecedented depth and detail on life in and out of the Royal Family.
Michael Jermey, ITV Director of News and Current Affairs, said: “It is extremely rare for a member of the Royal Family to speak so openly about their experience at the heart of the institution.
“Tom Bradby’s interview with Prince Harry will be a programme that everyone with an informed opinion on the monarchy should want to watch.”
