Following Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s exit announcement last month, Shirley Ballas and I discussed moving on from Strictly Come Dancing.
Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has opened up about Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s upcoming departure from the BBC show. The presenting duo stunned fans and co-stars last month when they announced that the current series would be their last.
In a joint video announcement, Tess and Claudia said: “We have loved working as a duo, and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together, and now feels like the right time. We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and every single person who works on the show.
We’ll miss them every day because they’re the most brilliant team. We’ll cry when we say “keep dancing,” but we’ll keep saying it when we’re together and are holding some pizza in tracksuit bottoms at home.
Shirley said she didn’t expect the show to survive without them, but that “their successors need to be” experienced professionals.”
She said: “Absolutely, it survived both Len Goodman and Sir Bruce Forsyth leaving, bless them both. Strictly is bigger than any of us – the celebrities, professionals, presenters, judges. It’s like Coronation Street in that no one is bigger than the show. I will miss Tess and Claudia very much, but sometimes in people’s lives, they feel it’s time to move on, and we have to respect that.”
The 65-year-old continued, “One day I’ll be ready to move on too, and that will be my choice,” while discussing her own future with the panel.
Strictly described it as “an institution,” and Shirley predicted that it would continue to grow as long as the public was pleased. Shirley kept her thoughts to herself despite noting that Rylan Clark is her mother’s favorite because she didn’t think anyone would replace them.
She continued, “We need a pair of seasoned professionals for it,” according to Best Magazine. Two extremely special people are required to complete it. And I believe that no matter who it is, they will still own it, allowing us to leave that time.
Tess has fronted Strictly since its inception, initially hosting alongside the late Bruce Forsyth, before Claudia took over. Since their exit announcement, several names have been put forward as their potential replacements, including Alex Jones, Bradley Walsh, Zoe Ball, and Holly Willoughby.
Despite speculation, BBC Chief Content Officer Kate Phillips recently stated that no decisions will be made until the following year. She stated on the restiestise podcast that “the production team, BBC Studios, and executive producer Sarah James and her team are concentrating on getting two shows out a week.
“We haven’t got time at the moment to start doing any screen tests or chemistry testing. I don’t think we’ll really be looking at it until the New Year because we want to make sure we deliver a great Strictly series.”
Source: Mirror
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