Ant and Dec have been a formidable force on TV for over 20 years but their reign as the Kings of prime time may already be over.

Declan Donnelly steered clear of the Royal Television Awards tonight - along with shamed Ant McPartlin.

Ant was expected to miss the event after he was arrested on suspicion of drink driving on Sunday.

But Dec opted to spend the night away from the spotlight after also missing Sting's star-studded bash in Newcastle .

The much-loved presenting duo were nominated for two major gongs at the awards - but lost both to their rivals.

They've won awards at the star-studded bash in the past (
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Caroline Flack was chuffed to pick up an award for Love Island (
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They were nominated for best Entertainment for Saturday Night Takeaway but lost out to Love Island .

The Geordie duo were also nominated for best Entertainment Performance for I'm A Celebrity but the winners were Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdecombe for The Last Leg.

In January this year the pair were all smiles as they collected their 17th presenting prize in a row at the National Television Awards.

Picking up the gong, Ant said: "It's been a tough year for me personally, quite an emotional night so to kind of top it off with three awards has been ... can I have a lie down now? I'm feeling very good thank you."

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Claudia Winkleman enjoyed the showbiz bash (
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They won big at the National Television Awards in January (
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Dec added: "I love working with him and that was the one thing ... I had a very tough summer last summer, I had to face up to a lot of things and my one thing was just getting back to work and getting back to work with my best mate, we done it."

But now their reign may be over as yesterday Ant's rep vowed the star would go back to rehab to beat his demons and revealed Ant had cancelled all his upcoming work commitments while he gets treatment.

ITV also confirmed Ant wouldn't take part in the final two episodes of SNT, due to air on March 31 and the series finale on April 7, although it hinted they will still go ahead as planned without Ant at the helm.