Saturday Night Takeaway's Ant McPartlin 'defiant' over Sunderland snub on ITV show

Ant McPartlin has 'defiantly' defended his decision not to wear the merchandise of Newcastle's rivals Sunderland as part of a Saturday Night Takeaway, as the stunt was brought up during a live This Morning interview.

After years of making famous faces the butt of their jokes, Ant and Dec had the tables turned on them last weekend, when Ant was put at the mercy of ITV presenters Dermot O'Leary and Alison Hammond, while Dec was a target for Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden. And it was Ant's sketch that caused the biggest stir online, after being faced with pest controllers who'd been called in to check out his office, Ant was instructed by Dermot to go and pick a box up from the other side of the room, with him then shaking his head in disbelief when he clocked there was a lot of SAFC merchandise inside it.

Things got worse for Ant when he was then told by Dermot to tell the woman he was speaking to that, while everyone thinks he's a Newcastle United fan, he was 'actually a Sunderland fan.' Dermot became unstuck when Ant refused to betray Newcastle by saying that line, with him also not following the orders to put on the Sunderland hat either..

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Given that their are fierce footballing rivals. both Newcastle an Sunderland fans ere quick to make their feelings known on the stunt and it came up in conversation again on Friday, when Ant and Dec joined Dermot and Alison on This Morning, 24 hours ahead of the Saturday Night Takeaway finale. After Dermot remarked that filming the prank was his 'favourite morning,' Ant fired back: "I still wouldn't wear that Sunderland merch though would I?! Even though you did plonk the scarf around me neck! Which is now a meme, which is not good!"