Although it has certainly been a difficult few months for the presenting duo, Ant and Dec are still the kings of British television, and it has previously been revealed that they earn ;more than all of the BBC staff, who have netted in more than £150k. Ahead of Ant taking a long break from television in 2018 to work on his recovery, the TV duo signed a three-year deal reportedly worth a whopping £30million, or £5million each per year. Emma Jane Bradshaw, a former BBC employee, took to Twitter to reveal the astonishing news after adding up the wages of all the employees on more than £150K. She tweeted: "I've just added up ALL BBC talent's salaries. 28.7 million/year. Ant & Dec: 30.0 million/year." The pair host several hugely popular shows for ITV, including Britain's Got Talent, which will return to television on Saturday, as well as Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.
Ant and Dec earn more than entire BBC £150k payroll combined
Back in June 2017, documents showed that Ant and Dec raked in a massive £29.5million between them in a year - which works out as an average of £79,000 a day, or just over 91p a second. The earnings have come from the pair's companies; both Ant and Dec earn Hurley Promotions, which earned £3.41million, and Mitre Television, which produces Saturday Night Takeaway and earned just under £2million. Ant and Dec first met as teenagers on the BBC children's drama Byker Grove, and have since forged a strong friendship and partnership on screen which they recently opened up about in an interview with The Guardian. Speaking about the period following Ant's arrest for drink driving in April 2018, Dec said: "Ultimately, the number one thing I wanted to happen was that Ant came back and he was healthy and happy, and we got our relationship back on track and we carried on. That's the thing that makes me the happiest, working together."
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The BBC's unveiling of figures in 2017 showed Chris Evans came top on the list. The Radio 2 DJ made between £2.2m and £2.25m in 2016/2017, while Claudia Winkleman - the BBC's highest-paid female celebrity - took home between £450,000 and £500,000 in the same time period. The figures revealed notable disparities between what women and men are paid, and Director General Tony Hall conceded there was "more to do" on both gender and diversity.
Chris Evans is the BBC's best-paid star, while Claudia Winkleman is the highest-paid female celebrity
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A day later, Chris defended his multi-million pound pay packet, claiming that his mother thinks he deserves it. Speaking on his Radio 2 Breakfast Show the presenter revealed he turned to his mum for advice after the news broke because "she is very wise". He shared: "She said, 'Tell them that your mum, who's a nurse for most of her life, always told you after your dad died to try to find a job you loved, just like I love nursing, and earn what you can, when you can, while you can - which you did almost straight away from when you were a paper boy earning £1.50 a week for freezing your bits off and falling off your bike every two minutes, right through until what you're doing now. 'And tell them - if your bosses don't think you're worth it one day, they'll sort that out soon enough.'"