Fans of Strictly Come Dancing claim to have ‘rumbled’ just who will replace Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman and be the next hosts of the hit show. And many are in agreement that the two stars in question would be ‘ideal’ candidates to take over.

Emotions ran high in the BBC ballroom last Saturday when, having already pre-recorded Thursday’s Christmas special, Tess and Claudia, moths after they announced they were quitting Strictly, stepped in front of cameras for the last time to be at the helm of this year’s final. Tess came very close to breaking down in tears when judge Anton Du Beke paid tribute to her, before both she and Claudia were left visibly moved at having had a letter to them from Queen Camilla read to them by Craig Revel-Horwood.

In the run up to the final and, pretty much from the moment the popular presenters revealed they’d be walking away from their primetime roles, speculation has been rife on who will replace them. The name that keeps cropping up at the moment is Zoe Ball, with her confirming she’ll be stepping down from her Radio 2 show and her famous dad Jonny Ball telling the Express she was ‘in the mix’ for one of the jobs.

The Chase’s Bradley Walsh -Credit:ITV

Well now, after Tess and Claudia hosted the 2025 Christmas special, which aired to 4.3 million viewers on Thursday evening, fans believe that Zoe WILL indeed be one of the new Strictly presenters and the person to join her will be Bradley Walsh. The Chase presenter Bradley shot straight to the top of the odds on who’d replace Tess and Claudia, in the immediate aftermath of news breaking about their imminent exit from Strictly and was originally up there with Holly Willoughby, having already fronted short-lived BBC series Take Off with the ex This Morning star.

Insiders then claimed that Strictly bosses were lining up The One Show’s Alex Jones to join Bradley, who already has BBC presenting roles on Gladiators and Blankety Blank; but it’s the combination of Bradley and former Strictly finalist and It Takes Two anchor Zoe that is now getting the most buzz online. Taking to X, one fan wrote: ‘Something tells me Bradley Walsh and Zoe Ball will be the new hosts of Strictly.’ with another, giving the double act their seal of approval, replying: ‘I agree and I’m in full support of this.’

Also writing on X, another BBC viewer waded on the hot topic of conversation to comment: ‘Bradley Walsh and Zoe Ball for the next presenters’ as another shared a photo of the pair and captioned it ‘thank me later.’