Dec Donnelly earned £5.2m for solo work

Dec Donnelly earned £5.2 million while Ant McPartlin took a break from the spotlight.
The ‘Saturday Night Takeaway’ star – who earned £14,000 a day for his TV work – hosted the ITV variety show alone while his partner was dealing with addiction issues, went solo for the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ live shows, and co-hosted ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ with Holly Willoughby.
Publicly-available documents filed at Companies House reveal the 44-year-old presenter made over £5 million from June 2018 to June 2019.
According to The Sun newspaper, it worked out an extra £1,000 a day compared to the previous year.
While around £1 million came from a series of companies he co-owns with Ant, more than £4 million was through his own personal Deecourt Limited firm.
Dec previously admitted it was a strange experience working without Ant alongside him back in 2018.
At the end of his first solo episode, he said: "It’s been the weirdest, weirdest show. But I wanted to say a huge, huge thank you to lots of people here. Most of all I just wanted to thank you guys.
"That reception when I came down the stairs … I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do or how you were going to react … but you carried me all the way through the show. I couldn’t have done it without you guys."
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the variety show – which returned for a new series last month – has changed its production and been forced to move away from a live studio audience.
Instead, the most recent episode was partly pre-recorded, and Ant and Dec also each hosted from their own homes via a split-screen video link.
Before the taped episode aired, the duo wrote: "That’s settled then.. this week we’ll be doing @itvtakeaway on the telly… from both our houses! (Suits for you at home are optional!) #SaturdayNightTakeaway #TogetherAtHome #StayHome (sic)"
The at-home episode came a week after the duo presented the first-ever episode of ‘Saturday Night Takeaway’ without a studio audience.
During the episode, they confirmed the next show would be pre-recorded, and said it will feature some of Ant and Dec’s favourite moments and they will be at home watching alongside the viewers.