Strictly Come Dancing’s new presenting trio Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe have revealed that there are more big changes in store for the show.
In their first major interview since being unveiled as Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly’s replacements on the BBC’s flagship show, the presenters have explained how the new presentation format will work.
Emma, Josh and Strictly pro dancer Johannes explain that having three presenters was a ‘wildcard’ choice for producers and have admitted the format is still ‘very open’ just weeks before the live shows kick off.
“There’s no ‘like for like’ so no one is replacing anyone and at the moment it’s all very open,” Emma said. The Rest Is Entertainment podcast.
“We have a lot of production days where we go in and play and kind of try each other out – well, they really get a feel for us.”
Josh added to podcast host Richard Osman: “It’s going to be like total football, Richard. We’re going to move everywhere.’
Strictly Come Dancing’s new presenting trio Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe have revealed there are more big shakeups in store for the show
Emma also clarified that Johannes will “absolutely” not fill the role of “backstage roving reporter,” as some insiders previously suggested.
The trio said they were eager to get started on the show after being put through their paces during a grueling four-month audition process.
Josh explained that it was all very ‘cloak and dagger’ and ‘a bit like Traitors’ and even revealed that Strictly bosses had created a fake gardening show to keep the audition process secret.
“We were told that when the driver asked, he was told it was a gardening show called The Great Garden Glow Up,” Josh said.
Emma added: “So they came up with a brand new name for a show. I created a brand new show… They said for the taxi drivers.”
“I felt like saying to my agent, ‘I wouldn’t have gone to The Great Garden Glow Up’s chemistry test,’” Josh laughed. ‘I’m sitting in the back of the car and there’s a taxi driver assessing me. Because he thinks I would host a show called The Great Garden Glow Up.”
After auditioning separately, the trio was asked to return for chemistry tests. Stars including Zoe Ball and Sara Cox have revealed that they were part of the secret auditions but didn’t land the roles and the trio confirmed that they had indeed undergone chemistry tests with a number of different potential presenters.
Later in the week, the trio finally reunited, but they admitted that even producers weren’t sure how the live show format with three would work.
In their first major interview since being unveiled as Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly’s replacements, the presenters have explained how the new presentation format will work.
Emma, Josh and Strictly pro dancer Johannes explain that having three presenters was a ‘wildcard’ choice for producers and have admitted that the format is still ‘very open’.
Emma said that when they called back, the bosses told them ‘this is the last one and this is a wild card’.
“We’re like, ‘What happens if we do three?’ And they said, “It’s such a wild card, we don’t really have a script for you either. So we’ll sit down, get it on the screen and we’ll all tinker a little bit.”
Josh admitted he was shocked when Johannes entered the room and explained that “you saw the papers. So you assume these are the people in the mix. And so you think “oh, it’s probably one of these people.” And then Jojo came in.
“I’d say we both thought that was a strange combination.”
“There was a time when that was true, wasn’t there?” John agreed. “We were like, what’s going on here? Because we didn’t know that the three of us would end up in the room.’
Two weeks later, the three finally got the call confirming that they were the hosts.
It wasn’t all sequins and glam, though, as Emma admitted she took the Zoom call while sitting on the toilet at the hairdresser’s while Josh was ‘in a graveyard in Birmingham’.
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