Saturday Night Takeaway viewers blasted last night’s episode (February 20) over the “noisy” background sounds coming from the virtual audience.
Ant and Dec launched the new series with a bang – but much to the annoyance of many viewers at home.
Dozens took to Twitter to say they found the canned laughter and crowd cheering irritating and distracting.
Filming amid lockdown conditions, Ant and Dec used a virtual audience of around 300 viewers video-linking in from home.
What were viewers saying about the Saturday Night Takeaway audience?
It seems their noisy reactions proved too much for some ITV viewers.
One begged: “Dear #SaturdayNightTakeaway, please stop this constant background cheering noise. It’s really discombobulating.”
Read more: Harry Redknapp to join EastEnders as Mick Carter’s sidekick?
While another complained: “The second part of #saturdaynighttakeaway has only just started and the noise from the audience is already grating me…. Please sort it out ITV.”
And a third lamented: “Loving #SaturdayNightTakeaway but the audience needs muting, background noise giving me a headache.”
Read more: What is Gordon Ramsay’s new gameshow Bank Balance about?
A fourth viewer ranted: “The virtual audience noise is awful. Maybe someone could turn that audio off?? #SaturdayNightTakeaway.”
A fifth user slammed the noise too.
They said: “Can we turn the virtual audience noise off please #SaturdayNightTakeaway.”
Another argued: “@antanddec @itvtakeaway #SaturdayNightTakeaway what is with all the background noise? It sounds like constant background chatter. It is a fantastic show but that noise is spoiling it.”
How does the virtual audience work?
Ant and Dec previously spoke of how excited they were to feature their live audience.
Especially as they intended to create an as interactive audience experience as possible.
Dec told Digital Spy: “For the first time ever, we’ll be doing it without a studio audience.
“But we do have a virtual audience, which we had a little bit before on Britain’s Got Talent. Such a lot of this show is about the audience.
“So we have researched ways, and are coming up with ways, to do a much more interactive virtual wall – more than any other show has done.”
And on This Morning, Ant explained: “We can still throw live to audience. Unlike other virtual audiences we’ve asked to make it very interactive.”
What did you think of the episode? Let us know on Facebook @EntertainmentDailyFix.