Emma Willis previously auditioned for Strictly Come Dancing with Johannes Radebe
Emma Willis previously tried out to compete on Strictly Come Dancing with her new co-host Johannes Radebe as her partner.
Emma Willis previously tried out to compete on Strictly Come Dancing with Johannes Radebe as her partner.
The Big Brother host and the professional dancer are two of the new presenters on the BBC Latin and ballroom contest, but fans almost had the chance to see them together on the show in a very different way.
Emma admitted she had been desperate to compete for years but added to The Sunday Times Style magazine: "We could never make the timings work, and I didn’t even know if I could dance."
Four years ago, she and husband Matt Willis went in for a day's test dancing in the hope of competing against one another, and she was partnered with Johannes.
She added: “So when I went in for the chemistry audition and he walked into the room, it was like, oh my God, because you had absolutely no idea who was going to be there.”
She had never met fellow new co-host Josh Widdicombe until the chemistry audition, and they posed for a picture so they could look back one day on how close they had come to getting the hosting jobs.
She recalled: “Josh said, ‘This is bonkers. We’ve got to take a picture so in future, when it doesn’t happen, we can go, “Remember?”’ I’m so glad he took that picture.”
This year's Strictly line-up has faced criticism for the lack of household names, and while Emma, 50, admitted "there are a couple" she has never "heard of", she doesn't think it's a bad thing for the show.
She said: "I looked and was like, oh, a football guy, that isn’t really my bag.
“It’s good we’re bringing people in. We need to take into consideration there are so many different mediums now and you’ve got to appeal to multi-generations.
"If it was all people maybe our generation knew, then kids would be like, ‘I don’t know who they are.’ I remember… whatshisname… George [Clarke, YouTuber].
“I didn’t know who he was, but my God, he was phenomenal. It’s the same every year.”
Although Emma has been "anxious" about taking over from Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, she isn't too worried and will take any controversy in her stride.
She said: “It’s really daunting. I’ve been a little bit anxious. But I also like all those feelings.
“I did Big Brother for years. Controversy is my middle name.”
