Stephen Mulhern is on your TV screen dressed as a “trophy”, though you would not be blamed if you mistook him for an urn. Two of the most recognisable men in the UK, Ant and Dec, are lobbing crown green bowling balls through flaming hoops, wearing American football shoulder pads. For some reason, sports commentator Clive Tyldesley presides over all of this.

You are watching Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, and this is the gold standard in British light entertainment.

Saturday Night Takeaway returns this weekend – with a live studio audience for the first time since March 2020 – for its 18th series, after a banner year in 2021, when it averaged its second-highest viewership ever (8.5 million, pipped only by 2020’s 8.54 million).

The scene I have just described was from last year’s season finale, and though it could conceivably have taken place at any point since 2002, it feels particularly at home in our current TV landscape.

Where other once zeitgeist-defining formats – such as The X Factor and Big Brother – have fallen by the wayside, Saturday Night Takeaway has endured, because its format allows it to move with the increasingly visually-driven times.

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Entertainment telly has experienced a bit of a shake-up in recent years. Once, reality competitions starring ordinary people ruled the roost, egged on by the tabloid press. But these days, tastes are influenced by the limitless possibilities of the internet, where only the strangest, stupidest, or most jaw-dropping will achieve viral crossover.

Spectacle – where shows like The Masked Singer, The Masked Dancer and most recently, ITV’s Starstruck come in – is the guiding principle now (even otherwise straightforward quiz shows, like The Wheel on BBC One, are designed to appeal to it.)

Obviously, Saturday Night Takeaway’s willingness to be silly is informed by its hosts. Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly are up for anything, and are therefore laughably good at being on TV.

They’re natural without being boring, and cheeky without feeling either rehearsed or too raucous. Their ease and experience is why they are called upon by ITV to host its biggest properties (they were rumoured to have signed a £40m “golden handcuffs” deal with the broadcaster in 2020, to ward off offers from competitors), even despite the legal issues faced by McPartlin in 2018.

You can, in fact, measure the very passage of time by Ant and Dec franchises: Britain’s Got Talent means Easter is on the way. And is that I’m a Celebrity… already? Better get the Christmas tree out of the loft.

The pair’s real mission statement, however, is Saturday Night Takeaway. It is, clearly, Ant and Dec’s prized calf: a variety show for contemporary audiences embracing music, celebrities, and of course the visual comedy they are known for.

Segments include tongue-in-cheek hidden camera stunts; “The End of the Show Show”, where the hosts give their best Morecambe and Wise razzle dazzle, performing a final musical number with a celebrity guest; and of course “Ant Vs Dec”, the ongoing contest where they reference the slapstick that made their names as kids’ presenters on SMTV: Live.

Ant and Dec wear so many hats that it feels natural Saturday Night Takeaway would weather TV’s latest left turn. In many ways, its structure, made up of disparate parts, even anticipated it.

It is the only thing of its kind on TV: fast-paced, broadly appealing, and happy to embrace the visually ridiculous. By 2022’s standards, then, season 18 can only thrive.

Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway starts on Saturday 19 February at 7pm on ITV