When all else seemed to be failing at ITV, Ant and Dec, the irrepressible Geordie duo delivered. But now, Ofcom's investigations show that the popular presenters were fronting programmes in which viewers were repeatedly fleeced out of money as they called into phone-ins that were rigged in favour of the good-looking, the early caller, or even just somebody from the right part of the country.

Although there is no evidence that either presenter knew what was happening, their programmes keep cropping up in today's damming verdict on ITV's conduct of the phone-ins. Saturday Night Takeway, fined £3 million; Gameshow Marathon fined £1.2 million. Nor were they just presenters; they were executive producers too — although, again, neither man was personally responsible for phone-in compliance. Fines levied against shows they hosted represent the bulk of the £5.7 million levied on ITV.

The duo even won a British Comedy Award that should have gone to Catherine Tate, had the votes been counted correctly — although Robbie Williams, who was to present the award, had been given the impression that he would be giving it to Ant & Dec before viewer voting concluded. Again, there was no evidence that Ant and Dec knew what had happened, but their names are uncomfortably dragged into the spotlight again and again.

Yes, ITV has been fined a significant sum — far more than the £4 million "maximum" that some were guessing at in recent weeks — but everybody was expecting a record fine from the regulator. Almost everything that has been unearthed was reported to the regulator by ITV's auditors Deloitte, who Michael Grade asked to review the conduct of phone-ins at the broadcaster after a series of scandals emerged. Mr Grade, at least, can say he blew the whistle.

And, Ofcom has woken up to the seriousness of what was happening; the lax, lazy, show-must-go-on culture that meant that producers were running improper phone-ins, where the way the caller looked, or when the caller rang determined their chances of winning. The fine shows that it is serious about viewer deception, and not just a bunch of pointy-headed policy makers who like to debate the ethics of public service broadcasting.

Yet, most viewers don't care much about Ofcom. What they will more easily remember is that tainted phone-ins ran again and again on the programmes fronted by two of Britain's stars. The apologies that will have to follow will make for uncomfortable viewing.

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