{"id":798243,"date":"2026-10-10T16:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T16:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798243\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T16:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T16:14:14","slug":"strictly-come-dancing-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798243\/","title":{"rendered":"Strictly Come Dancing | The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Strictly Come Dancing<\/a> star and new It Takes Two host Ellie Taylor<\/a> has weighed in on criticisms of the show\u2019s new presenting line-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The comedian, 42, previously took part in the show back in 2022, when she was paired up with professional dancer Johannes Radebe<\/a>, who this year was unveiled as one of the show\u2019s new hosts<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Radebe is part of a presenting trio that also includes Emma Willis<\/a> and comedian Josh Widdicombe<\/a>, who made their debut back in September following the departure of Strictly hosting legends Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. <\/p>\n

This is also Taylor\u2019s first season at the helm of It Takes Two<\/a>, following a shake-up that saw former professional dancer Janette Manrara and ex-contestant Fleur East leave the spin-off programme. <\/p>\n

Since this series kicked off, however, the main hosting trio has received mixed feedback, with viewers questioning the need for three presenters and Widdicombe in particular being seen as something of a spare part. <\/p>\n

\"EllieEllie Taylor joined ‘It Takes Two’ as host this season, and previously danced with Johannes Radebe (BBC)<\/p>\n

In an interview with The i Paper<\/a>, Taylor defended her new colleagues and claimed that viewers may simply be resistant to change. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t like change,\u201d she told the newspaper. \u201cI think they\u2019re great. There\u2019s such a great energy in that room; they\u2019re all so pumped to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the future, she added, Willis, Widdicombe and Radebe will \u201csettle into the roles even better than they already have\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill everyone just chill out?\u201d she continued. \u201cThe key bit of Strictly is the dancing. Let\u2019s remember that all the fundamentals are there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Radebe,Radebe, Emma Willis and Josh Widdicombe have the unenviable task of replacing Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman (BBC)<\/p>\n

Taylor also revealed that she was \u201cabsolutely thrilled just to get in the room\u201d to be considered for a spot as a presenter on the main show, and was \u201creally chuffed with how I did\u201d, eventually landing It Takes Two as a result of her audition. <\/p>\n

Willis\u2019 musician husband Matt recently revealed that the presenter is not taking any notice of the early criticism<\/a>, telling This Morning that \u201cshe doesn\u2019t pay attention to anything, she\u2019s very good at doing her job\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just puts her head down, does her job the best she can,\u201d he added. \u201cShe loves working with Josh and Jojo (Radebe) and they\u2019re great and they\u2019re brilliant and they\u2019re lovely people and they\u2019re just in all of this together.\u201d <\/p>\n

Strictly Come Dancing continues tonight at 6.15pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-798243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798243","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=798243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}