All is good for Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly better known as the duo "Ant & Dec" who comprise the United Kingdom's top TV presenters at least for what is termed "light entertainment". They do the honors of presenting for the hit shows "Britain's Got Talent" and "I'm a celebrity ... Get me out of here!" However, in an interview with Desert Island Disc, they revealed that it wasn't that long ago they both feared that their careers were over.

The cause of their fear was the infamous 2007 Phone-in scandal which involved two shows they hosted called "Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway" and "Ant & Dec’s Gameshow Marathon". The shows involved viewers making paid phone calls for the chance to win prizes. However, it was later revealed that the competitions were rigged and viewers had no chance of winning.

"It was, without doubt, our worst moment, our worst point. Totally. We couldn't quite comprehend how it was allowed to happen."

The scandal caused a major furor that led to the ITV network being fined £5 million. Naturally, as the face of the two programs, Ant & Dec feared their careers would be over. Both presenters along with the producers claimed no knowledge of the scam. Thankfully, Ant & Dec were able to get past that scandal. They have been friends for 25 years and actually live three doors apart from one another.

"It did affect us... it was probably the worst part of our career. We were credited as executive producers. A lot of people said, 'You are executive producers, you should have known this was going on', but we didn't."

On The Web:
TV phone-in scandal which affected millions of viewers and cost ITV £5million nearly destroyed us, say Ant and Dec
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2530426/TV-phone-scandal-affected-millions-viewers-cost-ITV-5million-nearly-destroyed-say-Ant-Dec.html?referrer=yahoo