Clara Amfo Confirms She Auditioned To Host Strictly Come Dancing

Clara Amfo has confirmed she was among the famous faces who was considered to take over as one of Strictly Come Dancing’s new hosts.

Ever since Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman announced last year that they were stepping down as Strictly’s resident hosts, the former Radio 1 star had been repeatedly mentioned as a potential contender for the gig.

During the latest episode of her podcast Into It, Clara finally revealed that she was indeed “in the mix” during the casting process.

“I can say it publicly now,” she told co-host Munroe Bergdorf. “I tried out for the main job of Strictly Come Dancing. Didn’t get it. [I was a] bit gutted at the time, but quickly got over it.”

Reflecting on the audition process, she explained that she “tried out” for the show “with another presenter” as a pair, but did not disclose who the other potential host was.

She added: “It was intense, man, But big up Emma Willis. We get on fantastically well. She’s going to be amazing.

“Johannes Radebe, that’s my boy, we love Jojo, and Josh Widdicombe – lovely, lovely man.”

Clara insisted: “I’m never mad at losing out on work to people I respect and who I think are really, really good at their jobs.”

However, Clara – who took part in Strictly back in 2020 – is not the only star to admit losing out on the Strictly hosting role.

In May, Zoe Ball shared that she’d gone through the “seven stages of grief and rejection” after missing out on the job, while Rylan Clark also confirmed that he’d unsuccessfully tried out for the role.

Ahead of their hosting debut, Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe opened up to HuffPost UK and other media outlets about the rigorous Strictly audition process.

“It was quite a long process,” Emma recalled. “And rightly so, because they really wanted to make sure that they were thorough in meeting all the people they wanted to meet – and doing screentests…”

Emma claimed that part of these screentests involved a “fake show”, with Josh noting: “You turned up and it was… I don’t know what you’d call it. Just a room, I suppose you’d call it, that’s all it was. It was a room with a table with a sparkly cloth, with Motsi [Mabuse] and Anton [Du Beke] sat behind it, playing themselves.

“And then Joe, the producer, doing an incredible impression of Craig Revel Horwood next to them. And a great Shirley impression…”

“They’d show a video of a dance, and then, the floor manager from Strictly would pretend to be a contestant, and you’d interview him as if he was Ed Balls,” he continued.

“You were reacting to these classic dances, and then you’d send them upstairs – or they’d be sent upstairs to you because you’d have a go at both roles – and by ‘going upstairs’ that meant ‘going three paces across the room to the next person that’s just stood there’. And then, you’d interview them.”

The trio made their hosting debut during Strictly’s pre-recorded launch show over the weekend, with the first live show of the new season taking place on Saturday night.