Former Strictly Come Dancing pro and It Takes Two host Janette Manrara has expressed her deep disappointment at missing out on the job, which went to Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe
Former Strictly Come Dancing professional and It Takes Two presenter Janette Manrara has spoken openly of her deep disappointment at having been passed over as a potential replacement for former show hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly.
Janette has described the “heartache” of missing out on the Strictly job, branding it the “biggest rejection of her career.” Speaking to podcaster Jamie Laing, Janette admitted feeling like she was a perfect fit for the job.
“I felt like I was a frontrunner,” she said. “I went from being a professional dancer for eight years on the show. Then I became the host of It Takes Two for five years and, at the same time, hosted the Strictly Live tour for 5 years.
“In the Strictly Live Tour,” she pointed out, “I played both Tess and Claudia’s [parts] …when we go on tour with Strictly, we take all the couples that did the live TV show and we go on the road with them, with the judges.
“So you’re in essence watching the show, you’re just not seeing them with Tess and Claudia, you’re seeing it with me hosting it. So when you just put it on paper, you assume I’ve got a shot because all the pieces were there.”
Missing out on the Strictly job was, she told Jamie, “the biggest rejection of my career, if I’m honest.”
Janette was one of numerous potential candidates interviewed by show producers, and, for quite some time, believed that she had a very real chance: “I did really well in the chemistry tests, at least that’s what I was told. So I assumed I did a great job …obviously I didn’t get the job and and they went they went elsewhere, but I remember coming home and it was a really hard pill to swallow.”
She added that she wasn’t the only potential Strictly host to feel disappointed when Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe, and Johannes Radebe were announced as the new faces of the show: “Of course it hit hard. Of course, I was devastated.
“I remember Zoe Ball, we’ve been speaking a lot and Fleur [East], we’ve been speaking a lot, and we all feel like we’ve gone through the seven stages of grief.”
Janette confessed that she was heartbroken when she learned that the producers had chosen someone else, telling Jamie: “I have to say, immediately, Monday morning, I had the weekend to sob and cry and I sobbed for weeks.
“But ultimately,” she added, “I have to understand I’m in an industry that is very, very fickle. It changes constantly and I can’t hold any personal feelings towards decisions that were made that are for the best of the show.”
Philosophically, Janette says there is at least one silver lining to her disappointing news: “In seven years, I have gone from being a dancer on the show to hosting Morning Live, hosting It Takes Two, hosting the Strictly Live tour and putting myself in a room against names like Emma Willis, Rylan Clark, Zoe Ball, like all of them that you’ve seen, that have spoken out about being in the chemistry test. I was one of them.
“If I can take anything away from it, it’s not that I didn’t get the job. What I am taking away from it is that, actually, I’ve done a b****y good job in the last seven years with honing my craft of presenting, and understanding the TV world, and the business of how things run. Another job will come.”
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