Emma Willis sets record straight on new BBC Strictly presenters as she makes clear ‘That’s not a thing’
Emma Willis has set the record straight on how Strictly Come Dancing will work with three presenters, quashing some of the rumours that have circulated since the change was announced following Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly’s exits.
She made clear there wouldn’t be direct swaps with the former hosts, who fronted the show for 21 and 15 years respectively.
“There’s no like for like, so no one’s kind of replacing anybody and at the minute it’s all very kind of open,” she said on Richard Osman’s The Rest Is Entertainment podcast.
Ms Willis, along with fellow presenters Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe, also firmly dismissed widespread speculation that Mr Radebe would be relegated to a backstage interviewing role.
Johannes Radebe, Josh Widdicombe and Emma Willis were unveiled as the new Strictly hosts in May | BBC“There’s definitely no backstage roving reporter, which is what has been reported quite a bit. That’s not a thing,” Ms Willis stated.
Mr Widdicombe compared the new presenting system to “total football,” telling Mr Osman: “We’re going to be moving everywhere.”
The trio of presenters format was itself a surprising move from the show’s producers, with two hosts having fronted Strictly since it debuted in 2004.
Ms Willis revealed that after extensive chemistry tests involving numerous potential hosts, the idea of a trio was put forward as a final option nobody had initially planned for.
The presenters denied that Johannes Radebe serve as a roving reporter throughout the show
|
BBC“This is the last one and this is a wild card,” Ms Willis recalled being told by producers. “We’re just like, ‘What happens if we do three?'”
“It’s so much of a wild card, we don’t really have a script for you either,” Ms Willis said they were shared.
“So we’re going to sit down, get it up on the screen and we’ll have a little tinker all together.”
The path to securing the role was shrouded in intense secrecy, according to Ms Willis, who called the audition process “the most cloak and dagger thing” she had ever experienced.
Emma Willis set the record straight
|
PAMr Widdicombe revealed that he was instructed to tell any curious taxi driver en route to his chemistry test that he was auditioning for The Great Garden Glow Up.
The auditions themselves involved presenting a mock episode of the programme, with crew members standing in for judges Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke.
Ms Willis learned she had won the role whilst getting her hair done at a salon. She retreated to a toilet cubicle to take the call privately.
“I couldn’t even squeal with excitement,” she said. “It wasn’t official yet, so I was really paranoid that if anything got out, people would think it had come from me.”
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman stepped down as Strictly Come Dancing hosts after more than a decade on the BBC show | BBC
She recalled breaking the news to husband Matt Willis that evening.
“I was so excited and nervous I didn’t know what to say, so I went: ‘I got a new job today,'” she added.
Mr Radebe, who until this point has appeared as a professional dancer on the show, also hinted recently that dancing will not disappear entirely from his Strictly involvement, despite stepping away from the professional line-up.
“I’m not hanging my dancing shoes yet,” he said on Ms Willis’s BBC Radio 2 show. “For it to be just taken away completely would be a travesty for me also.”
Celebrity contestants confirmed for the 2026 series include Dani Dyer, Delta Goodrem, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Melanie Walters, Lacey Turner, Chris Appleton, Will Best, Dame Sarah Storey, Jaime Winstone, Bethany Antonia, Graeme Hall, Lawrence Robb, Tabby Stoecker and John Nellis.
Judges Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke all return.
Comments are closed.