Ant and Dec emotional over end of an era as ITV axes fan favourite

Ant and Dec have emotionally dubbed the ending of CITV as the 'end of an era', after it was axed by ITV.

The ITV children's channel is coming to an end in September, after 17 years on air – leaving many fans and TV presenters feeling nostalgic.

It helped to propel the careers of some of the UK's most high profile presenters, such as Holly Willoughby and Ant and Dec, and was home to some of the biggest children's TV shows, such as Art Attack and Horrid Henry.

Ant and Dec shared their sadness on their joint Instagram page, as they re-shared a throwback snap posted by ITV which showed them looking very fresh-faced, next to TV presenter, Cat Deeley.

At the top of it were the words 'end of an era' alongside a crying emoji.

ITV's Instagram account had shared a number of snaps from years ago, which included one of Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern presenting their show, Holly & Stephen's Saturday showdown.

Another photograph showed Michael Underwood, whilst a different one saw artist Neil Buchanan, who fronted Art Attack.

ITV captioned the post: "End of an era for CITV.

"These images are giving us serious nostalgia. Which CITV show takes you right back?"

Ant and Dec presented the children's show, Gimme 5, on the channel, so there's no wonder they're feeling a little sad to see it go.

Since they fronted Gimme 5, Ant and Dec have become some of the UK's highest-paid TV presenters, with long-running stints on top ITV shows such as I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, Britain's Got Talent and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

CITV launched as an exclusive channel in 2006, but before that, CITV was used to broadcast afternoon shows for children from 1983.

However, ITV is now moving the entire children's programming over to its streaming platform ITVX Kids, which was launched in July.

Craig Morris, the Managing Editor of ITVX, said: "We’re really excited to launch this dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, which will be home to a wealth of content including new series, recognisable brands and existing favourites for a range of ages, all in one child-safe area, with editorial curation to guide viewing."

To explain their decision, Craig explained that the average amount of broadcast minutes of TV children's channels watched by 4-15 year olds has reduced by 62% since 2019.

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