When Zoe Ball stepped down from her Saturday afternoon BBC Radio 2 show towards the end of last year, Strictly Come Dancing fans noted her announcement with interest. Could it be that Ball, a former contestant and the erstwhile presenter of spin-off show It Takes Two, was freeing up her weekend schedule to make space for the Strictly hosting gig, following the departure of leading duo Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman?
The speculation was so feverish that, on the day of Ball’s Radio 2 goodbye, Ladbrokes suspended betting on the next Strictly presenter. As a BBC darling with decades of broadcasting clout and a huge Strictly cheerleader with experience in the ballroom – she came third in the 2005 series, dancing with Ian Waite – she is a clear frontrunner for one of the biggest job vacancies in British TV. According to a new report from The Sun, she and The Circle host Emma Willis are allegedly in “a straight shootout” to land the presenting gig. “Only one will get it, not both,” a source claimed to the paper, as ”the senior execs want a traditional presenter working alongside a more left-field person, a female stand-up comedian”.
