The Strictly Come Dancing new presenters have offered their clearest picture yet of how Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe will divide up duties when the revamped series launches on 19 September on BBC One. The short answer, it turns out, is that nobody is doing any one fixed thing.
Strictly Come Dancing new presenters on their ‘open’ format
Speaking on the latest episode of The Rest Is Entertainment podcast with Richard Osman, all three hosts were clear that the show is not being carved up into neat individual territories. ‘There’s no like for like,’ Emma Willis said. ‘So no one’s kind of replacing anybody and at the minute it’s all very kind of open. We’re having lots of production days where we go in and we play around and we’re kind of feeling each other out, well, they’re feeling us out really.’
Josh Widdicombe reached for a football metaphor to explain the approach. ‘We’re going to be moving everywhere,’ he said, comparing the presenting style to Total Football, the system in which outfield players are interchangeable across positions. The implication is that any of the three could turn up anywhere on the night, rather than being anchored to a particular section of the broadcast.
The trio are stepping into roles vacated by Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, who between them hosted the show for 21 years, according to IMDb. That is a long shadow to present under, and the new team seem aware that a straight copy of the old format was never going to be the answer. Their answer, at least in these early rehearsal stages, is fluidity over fixed roles.
The roving reporter rumour put to rest
One piece of speculation the trio were keen to clear up concerned Johannes Radebe. Reports had suggested he would be deployed as a backstage ‘roving reporter’, popping up with behind-the-scenes colour while Willis and Widdicombe handled the main-stage presenting. Willis flatly dismissed that idea. ‘There’s definitely no backstage roving reporter, which is what has been reported quite a bit,’ she said. ‘That’s not a thing.’
Johannes does face at least one challenge in his new presenting role that is unique to him: impartiality. Having competed on and danced in Strictly for years, he knows the professional dancers, the rehearsal process and the emotional weight of the competition far more intimately than a conventional presenter would. He admitted, candidly, that staying neutral is something he is ‘going to struggle’ with. It is a refreshingly honest admission, and one that may actually make him a more compelling presence on screen.
A ‘wild card’ idea that became the plan
The three-presenter line-up was not the producers’ original intention. It was not written into the audition scripts and was not part of the initial brief given to those trying out for the jobs. Instead, it emerged as a ‘wild card’ suggestion, with Willis, Widdicombe and Radebe brought together simply to see what chemistry, if any, might develop. Clearly, something clicked, because the wild card became the plan.
Filming for the new series is already under way, with the launch show approaching fast. The production days Emma Willis described, in which the trio go in, play around and find their collective rhythm, seem to be the engine behind whatever the final format will look like. Whether the Total Football approach means all three appearing together on the main stage, or rotating across different segments of the programme, is something viewers will find out when Strictly Come Dancing returns.
The launch show airs on 19 September on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer. The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, where the trio made their comments, is available on all major podcast platforms.
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