Emma, Josh and Johannes have stepped in for long-time hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly after they confirmed their departure from the beloved series last year
Emma, Josh and Johannes have stepped in for Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly(Image: Ray Burmiston/BBC/PA Wire)
Richard Osman has pinpointed an “impossible” problem with the new Strictly Come Dancing format – and says one aspect is “not going to work going forward”. Strictly returned to our screens with the first live show of Series 24 over the weekend, fronted by new presenters Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe.
Emma, Josh and Johannes have stepped in for long-time hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly after they confirmed their departure from the beloved series last year. However, the revamped format appears to have encountered some early teething issues.
Josh, in particular, has divided fans, with some suggesting the trio format “doesn’t work”. One viewer queried whether producers might “rotate or alternate” the hosts to shake things up.
Richard and his Rest is Entertainment co-host, Marina Hyde, were equally quick to spot the issues. During a recent episode, Marina went as far as to say that, given the choice, she wouldn’t have brought in a third presenter.
She said: “The bit that Emma has to do when you’ve got two exhausted people come off from doing their dance. They have to sort of get their breath back, you have to have a bit of chit-chat with the judges, then the judges have to do their judging.”
“I felt adding Josh in to do some jokes as well, it’s quite complicated down there.”
Richard, who has plenty of experience as a TV producer himself, explained: “I can’t stress too much that, however many pilots you’ve done, and launch shows, and run-throughs and stuff, that the producers are watching that more carefully than viewers are watching it. The producers know.”
He suggested the presenters were also paying close attention and would understand that you don’t “get it completely right the first time”. Richard highlighted that each presenter brings their own distinct style and suggested that some fine-tuning is only to be expected.
Richard went on: “I think that the Johannes thing is interesting because at the moment, he’s doing exactly what Claudia did, which is you throw to Johannes. The producers have given him two talking points.”
He observed that Claudia excelled with this approach, but with Johannes, it’s not “who he is”. He explained that, as a trained dancer, Johannes offers “something else”, and his distinctive contribution to the role still needs to be discovered.
Richard continued: “At the moment, they’re doing, ‘You do exactly what Claudia did. We’ll feed you these two bits of vanilla information, you talk to the dancer and the celebrity, and then you throw it back to Emma and Josh’, but Johannes can’t do anything with that.”
He speculated that “no producer” would be watching and believing they’d “nailed” it. Regarding Emma and Josh, Richard suggests a comparable challenge could exist and that establishing the double-presenting dynamic may prove “tricky”.
“And writing for two people, one of whom is a comic and one of whom is not a comic, is sort of impossible. You know, that is sort of impossible. Now, when you’re a producer, when you’re making that show, you’ve got a billion different things to think about.
“So the first thing you do is, ‘Okay, we’ll put JoJo up there; we’ll do what we used to with Claudia. We’ll put Josh and Emma down there. We’ll do what we used to do with Tess, right?’ I think, probably, that’s not going to work going forward.”
