Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announced they were leaving Strictly Come Dancing last year.
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announced they were leaving Strictly Come Dancing in October (Image: BBC/Guy Levy)
Two top BBC presenters are reportedly in a “straight shoot-out” over who will become one of the next hosts of Strictly Come Dancing. Speculation has been rife about who will replace Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman ever since they announced their exit from the BBC show in October 2025. Tess, 56, has co-hosted Strictly since its inception in 2004, originally with Bruce Forsyth for 10 years. Claudia, 54, presented the main programme with Tess from 2014 onwards following Bruce’s departure.
It is now believed to be between Zoe Ball and Emma Willis. Despite needing two presenters, only one of them will be selected for the prestigious role as BBC bosses want a “female comedy personality” to co-present alongside one of them. Despite initial interest surrounding Bradley Walsh and Alan Carr, they have decided to continue with an all-female presenting team.
Zoe Ball has been a frontrunner to replace Tess and Claudia since they announced their departure (Image: Getty)
A source told The Sun on Sunday: “It’s a straight shoot-out between Zoe, who is the front-runner, and Emma. Only one will get it, not both. The senior execs want a traditional presenter working alongside a more left-field person, a female stand-up comedian.
“It’s felt the humour Claudia brought to the show, particularly in her ‘Claudatorium’, needs to carry on.”
Zoe, 55, fuelled speculation she was being lined up for the job after quitting her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in December, with the host revealing she was being replaced by none other than Emma, 49.
Zoe is no stranger to Strictly, having competed as a contestant during the third series back in 2005 and presented the spin-off programme It Takes Two from 2011 to 2020.
She even stepped in to front the main programme in 2014 to cover for Claudia.
Emma Willis is known for presenting Big Brother (Image: Getty)
Meanwhile, Emma shot to fame on MTV in 2002 and has gone on to present popular television shows including Big Brother UK, the I’m A Celebrity spin-off show and This Morning. Last year, Tess and Claudia announced that they would be leaving Strictly at the end of the series, explaining they felt it was the right time to step down.
In a joint statement, the pair told fans: “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 we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show. They’re the most brilliant team and we’ll miss them every day.”
They added: “We will cry when we say the last ‘keep dancing’ but we will continue to say it to each other. Just possibly in tracksuit bottoms at home while holding some pizza.”
