Saturday Night Takeaway viewers shocked by Stephen Mulhern’s bulge in tight gold shorts

SATURDAY Night Takeaway fans were left speechless when Stephen Mulhern appeared on screen in "bulging" gold shorts.

The 43-year-old, who is a co-host on the ITV show, donned the tight gold bottoms as he appeared on screen covered head-to-toe in gold paint.

Fans were left stunned and took to social media to share their outrage at the TV presenters "bulge" as he left "nothing to the imagination" on the first episode of the new series.

Stephen jumped around on stage in the tight-fitting outfit as he introduced his foot-golf competition that saw Ant and Dec battle it out live.

Introducing the magician as "golden balls", the iconic TV duo were in stitches as they joked Stephen had "overdone it on the fake tan."

Lifting up his shirt to reveal painted-on abs, fans were well and truly distracted and had their eyes fixed on "those shorts".

"Is anyone else witnessing Stephen Mulhern bulging out of his gold shorts?" one fan asked Twitter before adding: "Very revealing."

A second responded: "Those shorts are leaving nothing to the imagination. I'm seeing Stephen Mulhern in a whole different light."

"Do you think Stephen Mulhern is excited to be back on Saturday Night Takeaway?" joked a third. "No wonder Ant has got the giggles..."

"The bulge in those shorts," a fourth wrote beside laughing face emojis. "Was there anything extra in the shorts or was that real? Wow."

Others even suggested that Stephen "must have stuffed something down there", joking he "didn't wear his socks on his feet tonight".

Viewers were also left shocked when Stephen made an X-rated gag.

During the footgolf-style challenge, cheeky Stephen told Ant and Dec: “You need to literally get your balls in my mouth, and try and get them in the hole at the end.”

The pre-watershed gag caused Ant to burst out laughing while Dec stayed straight-faced.

But viewer Penny Hollywood said online: “Nearly choked with laughter when Stephen Mulhern said, ‘Put your balls in my mouth’.”

Neil Eley wrote: “There was a really rude innuendo when Stephen Mulhern was describing the Footie Putty game tonight.

"Did anyone else spot it? I think the game was almost set up for it.”

Following the ad break, Stephen returned to the screen in a more covered-up pair of joggers with fans suggesting it was "producers orders".

"They definitely had to get Stephen to pop bottoms on because his veg was about to pop out," one viewer concluded.

The eye-catching segment came after Ant, 45, struggled to hold back tears as he and Dec, 45, surprised a teacher live on air.

Cath had been a teacher for 34 years, and Ant and Dec set up 'Operation Thank you Miss', roping in former pupils from across her career to surprise her.

This included sending her flowers on her last first day of school in September, having her supermarket shopping paid for and decorating her classroom.

The teacher was overcome with emotion and it looked like Ant was too, as his bottom lip trembled and his eyes looked watery.

His emotional reaction didn't go unnoticed by viewers at home either, with one writing on Twitter: "bless Ant getting totes emosh. Bottom lip quivver there. Must've been so hard to not jump over and hug Mrs Crawley."

A peak of 7.7 million viewers tuned in for the opening episode of the series, which featured a virtual wall of viewers in place of a studio audience.