The Reviews Are Out After Strictly's New Hosts' First Live Show And... Hmmm...

Strictly Come Dancing’s new season got off to something of a bumpy start over the weekend.

On Saturday night, Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe fronted their first live show since taking over as Strictly’s new hosts.

For their inaugural show, Emma and Josh co-hosted together from the floor, occupying the space once held by Tess Daly, while Johannes spoke to the contestants upstairs in what was previously known as the “Clauditorium” (and is yet to be rebranded).

While Emma – at this point one of the UK’s most dependable TV presenters – was widely praised by critics, reviews in the wake of Saturday’s live show have singled out issues with Josh and Johannes’ efforts.

A three-star review of the episode in The Independent described Johannes as having “charm by the bucketful” and feeling like a “perfect Winkleman replacement”, even if there are some “timing issues” that “need ironing out”.

However, they referred to stand-up comic Josh as a “problem the show needs to solve”, suggesting his “strong comedic impulses” stood in the way of him “being a good presenter”.

“Whether he was talking over Willis (this happened a lot), clapping back at Shirley Ballas or trying to cover up Will Best’s nipples, Widdicombe was constantly ‘yes and’-ing,” they claimed. 

“This gag-at-all-costs attitude works for comedy or even solo presenting, but in a group, it felt awkward and stilted.”

Similarly, the Express claimed that Emma “outshone her male co-stars by a mile”, writing that Josh’s skills as a comedian were “wasted”, and that he’d been “dealt a rough hand” with the role he was given.

Producers, they concluded, “need to either swap Josh and Johannes or ditch one of them”.

A more scathing piece in The Telegraph described the new hosting line-up as an “utter disaster”, describing Emma as a “superb appointment” while Josh and Johannes “completely ill at ease on the show” and “wet behind the ears”, respectively.

Like the Express, The Telegraph also opined that “having three presenters just doesn’t work”, particularly one with “two newcomers” to shiny-floor presenting, while suggesting it “would make more sense” to swap Josh and Johannes’ roles in future live shows.

Similarly, Digital Spy and Metro both published round-ups of takes from fans sharing this same opinion too, claiming that Josh’s skills as a comedian would work better as a more direct successor to Claudia’s role in the show, while Johannes might be better suited downstairs with Emma.

In the weeks leading up to Strictly’s return, Emma insisted there would be “no like for like” in terms of the new presenting team replacing Tess and Claudia, while Josh claimed the new hosts were “going to be moving everywhere” when live shows got underway.

Saturday night’s live show was the first of the series, meaning none of the 15 celebrities went home.

However, after the upcoming Movie Week special, the first dance-off and elimination are due to take place in the first results show of the new season.