Ant and Dec marked the ‘end of an era’ as CITV was removed from the airwaves after four decades as part of a streaming shake-up.
The I’m A Celebrity hosts are among a slew of broadcasters whose careers were established by the children’s channel, including Holly Willoughby, Fearne Cotton, and Stephen Mulhearn.
Following their appearances on Byker Grove, the Geordie team landed their first job presenting on CITV’s Saturday morning programme Gimme 5, before moving on to work on youth programming for the main network such as SMTV Live and CD:UK with Cat Deeley.
Ant and Dec, both 47, posted a throwback photo of their early presenting career on kids’ and youth TV with Cat, 46, on Saturday the day after the channel closed forever.
The Saturday Night Takeaway hosts captioned the Instagram Story, ‘End of an era,’ with a sobbing emoji.
CITV debuted in January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block for kids aged 5 to 13, until becoming its own station in 2006.
Horrid Henry, My Parents Are Aliens, Funhouse, Rainbow, Rosie and Jim, Danger Mouse, and Art Attack have kept younger viewers engaged over the years.
CITV has been decommissioned as part of ITV’s intentions to migrate all content to the streaming platform ITVX, which debuted a few months ago.
The channel’s ITVX Kids strand is currently showing programmes for school-age and preschool-age children, with the new service being pushed out over the summer vacations ahead of the channel’s demise.
The network said in a press release earlier this year: ‘ITVX Kids is part of ITV’s continuing drive to supercharge its presence in streaming, delivering content to audiences however they want to watch it.’
On the new plans, managing editor of ITVX, Craig Morris said: ‘We’re really excited to launch this dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, which will be home to a wealth of content including new series, recognisable brands and existing favourites for a range of ages, all in one child-safe area, with editorial curation to guide viewing.
‘The wealth of content will be available to stream for free, with the option for parents to choose ad free viewing, through a subscription to ITVX Premium.’
ITVX Kids will include both new and well-known children’s programming, such as the cartoon programmes Mr Bean, TeleTubbies Let’s Go!, Sooty, and Bob The Builder.
