The Geordie duo’s domination of TV schedules is set to get worse.

Ant and Dec have reportedly lined up seven new shows away from ITV (Image: Getty)

Anyone who is sick of Ant and Dec dominating the TV landscape should brace themselves as the Geordie duo are reportedly developing seven new shows away from ITV. The pair are getting around their £30m golden handcuffs deal with the broadcaster by making them for their Belta Box channels on YouTube. The brand’s name comes from the Geordie slang “belta”, which means excellent or great. For most people, this would seem like a slick career move, but when I heard the news, I simply groaned, “Enough already”. It’s time to give someone else a break.

While the pair are roping in their friends, such as Sam Thompson, This Morning’s Sian Welby and Spiderman star Tom Holland’s brother Sam will present these new shows; their footprint will be all over it. Also, while shows like these are a great opportunity for new presenters to find their feet, Ant and Dec are using well-known faces, mainly friends of theirs, ensuring the same few people are on screens – even online. And they are in full control of it. As a viewer, that should scare you.

Like most people, I can’t remember a time when Ant and Dec weren’t on my telly, and they have enjoyed an amazing career from their beginnings in Geordie Shore to their current Titans of TV status.

But they are now completely oversaturated. They are currently on screens weekly with Britain’s Got Talent, they will also be returning with another series of I’m A Celebrity All Stars on April 6, just months after the end of the latest I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here.

All things considered, they are on screens in some form or other all year round. And lest they do have any gaps where you might not be able to catch them, they recently started their own carefully curated podcast, Hanging Out With Ant and Dec.

Ant and Dec have been on our screens for decades (Image: PA)

While they seem like thoroughly nice chaps in my brief encounters with them, you can get too much of a good thing. They are the TV equivalent of a never-ending hangover. TV bosses can wax lyrical all they like about what they have contributed to the telly landscape, but the reality is there are plenty of people who could present the shows they do.

Moving into production as they have just means they have even more influence over our viewing landscape. Soon, they will be completely impossible to escape.

I appreciate that it is a business, and as long as they appear to be making money and pulling in viewers, the powers that be are happy to let them do their thing. However, there is a real danger that, left unchallenged, everything we watch will be either made by them, feature them or need their stamp of approval in order to make it to screens.

Ant and Dec need to be sidelined for a while to allow other names to break through and give viewers some new perspectives on TV. Otherwise, UK television is in danger of becoming an Ant and Dec monopoly.