BBC<\/a> One dance programme after 14 years, marking the end of her reign as the longest-serving pro. She was one of several high-profile departures ahead of the 2026 series, which is also set to have three new hosts when it returns in September.<\/p>\nThe trio of Josh, Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe were selected to take over as the hosts of Strictly after Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman left their long-running roles on the Saturday night entertainment favourite at the end of the 2025 series in December.<\/p>\n
While Johannes is no stranger to the show, having been part of the pro line-up for several years, Josh may be able to relate to the new crop of celebrity contestants after he joined Karen for the Strictly Christmas special in 2024.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_New-Strictly-presenters.jpg\")
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(Image: Ray Burmiston\/BBC\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
The duo dressed up as penguins for a Charleston set to Let It Snow, and Karen has now shared how she thinks his own experience will set him in great stead as a co-host of the beloved programme.<\/p>\n
Appearing on ITV’s Lorraine on Friday (June 5), Karen said: “When they told us, you’re going to be dressed as penguins, he was so on board, and that’s why I feel like he is awesome. He’s gonna be absolutely brilliant, because he’s been in the trenches. He knows how it’s gonna feel, he knows how the person is gonna feel.”<\/p>\n
Karen, 44, went on to heap praise on the new presenting lineup, saying: “They’re brilliant. I’m really excited to see the show, and see them all in it.”<\/p>\n
When he was announced as one of the new Strictly hosts, Josh spoke of his own experience in the famous ballroom, saying in a statement,: “Dancing the Charleston dressed as a penguin for the 2024 Christmas Special of Strictly remains my career high point, so I am giddy with excitement, honoured and a little overawed to be given the chance to step into the biggest shoes in television. I adore Emma and Jojo and can\u2019t wait to spend my weekends with them. I\u2019ll dust off the penguin costume.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They were paired together for the Christmas edition of the BBC One dance show two years ago Josh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[243,96,134117,1598,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-625493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bbc","tag-entertainment","tag-karen-hauer","tag-strictly-come-dancing","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1_Josh-Widdicombe.jpg\")
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