SMTV Live: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

SMTV Live and in early promotional material SMTV://live, was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, first broadcast on ITV on 29 August 1998 and last broadcast on 27 December 2003.

On the surface, the programme did not seem to stray away from the format of other Saturday morning output, featuring an audience of children, competitions and cartoons, though it constantly won in ratings battles with the BBC's Live & Kicking and became ITV's most successful children's programme since Tiswas. The major success of SMTV Live has been attributed in equal parts to Ant & Dec's original presenting partnership with Cat Deeley, its use of thinly-veiled comedic innuendo aimed at older viewers, and its broadcast of the Japanese cartoon series Pokémon. At the height of its popularity, SMTV Live regularly attracted 2.5 million viewers. Ant & Dec's former company Gallowgate Holdings Limited currently owns the rights to the show.

Series details

• Title: SMTV Live
• Format: Variety
• Language: English
• Genres: Children
• Premiere date: 1998-08-29
• Final broadcast date listed: 2003-12-27
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: ITV1
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 120 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 7997
• TVDB ID: 78273

Cast and credited roles

• Ant McPartlin — Ant McPartlin
• Declan Donnelly — Declan Donnelly
• Brian Dowling — Brian Dowling
• Tess Daly — Tess Daly
• Cat Deeley — Cat Deeley
• Stephen Mulhern — Stephen Mulhern
• James Redmond — James Redmond
• Ian "H" Watkins — Ian "H" Watkins
• Claire Richards — Claire Richards
• Des Clarke — Des Clarke
• Shavaughn Ruakere — Shavaughn Ruakere

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1998-08-29; final listed air date 1999-08-28.
• Season 2: premiered 1999-09-04; final listed air date 2000-08-26.
• Season 3: premiered 2000-09-02; final listed air date 2001-08-25.
• Season 4: premiered 2001-09-01; final listed air date 2002-08-24.
• Season 5: premiered 2002-08-31; final listed air date 2003-08-23.
• Season 6: premiered 2003-08-30; final listed air date 2003-12-27; episode order: 18.

Source and licence

Adapted from SMTV Live on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.