BREAKING NEWS: Strictly Come Dancing host details ‘wild card’ hosting roles as BBC show returns
Strictly Come Dancing is preparing for one of its biggest presenting shake-ups in years, and the BBC’s new trio have now revealed that even they are still working out exactly how the new format will operate.
Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe were announced earlier this year as the show’s new presenting team following Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s departure at the end of 2025.
But unlike the previous two-host format, the upcoming series will not simply divide the familiar roles between three people.
Appearing together on Richard Osman’s The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, the new hosts explained that their responsibilities remain deliberately flexible, with producers continuing to experiment ahead of the launch.
Emma said there would be no direct replacement for either Tess or Claudia.
“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 explained.
“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.”
No Fixed Roles for the New Trio
Since the presenting line-up was confirmed, viewers have been speculating about how three hosts could fit into a programme that has traditionally divided duties between two presenters.
Those questions became even more complicated because Johannes will remain part of the professional dancing line-up while also taking on presenting responsibilities.
However, the trio made clear that the BBC is not currently assigning them rigid positions.
Josh joked that the arrangement would resemble “total football,” with all three moving around rather than staying in one fixed area of the programme.
“It’s going to be like total football, Richard,” he said. “We’re going to be moving everywhere.”
One rumour they were particularly keen to dismiss involved Johannes.
Reports had suggested that he could become a backstage “roving reporter,” moving behind the scenes while Emma and Josh handled the main presenting duties.
Emma said that idea was simply not happening.
“There’s definitely no backstage roving reporter, which is what has been reported quite a bit,” she said. “That’s not a thing.”
Producers Are Still Testing the Formula
The presenters also revealed that the three-host format began as something of an experiment inside the production team.
According to Emma, producers initially approached the idea without having a fully worked-out script or established template for how three presenters should operate.
“We’re just like, ‘What happens if we do three?’” she recalled.
She said the production team admitted the setup was such a “wild card” that they had not prepared a fixed script for the trio.
Instead, the hosts and producers have been using rehearsal and production days to test different arrangements and work out what feels natural.
“We’re going to sit down, get it up on the screen and we’ll have a little tinker all together,” Emma said.
The unconventional approach marks a significant departure from the long-established dynamic viewers became accustomed to with Tess and Claudia.
When her appointment was announced in May, Emma described herself as a “huge fan” of Strictly and admitted that joining the ballroom still felt difficult to process.
“To be stepping into the Strictly ballroom is something I can’t quite comprehend,” she said.
Josh was equally enthusiastic, describing himself as “giddy with excitement, honoured and a little overawed” by the opportunity to take on what he called some of the biggest shoes in television.
For Johannes, the new role represents an especially unusual transition because he already has such a strong connection to the programme as a professional dancer.
“To be returning to Strictly Come Dancing in this new role is beyond anything I ever imagined,” he said.
The new series is due to begin next week, and while viewers now know more about the presenting setup, much of the final format is still being shaped.
What is already clear is that the BBC is not trying to recreate the old arrangement.
Instead, Emma, Josh and Johannes are preparing to share the ballroom in a looser, more fluid way that could give the next era of Strictly a very different feel.
