‘Strictly Come Dancing’ host caught ‘panicking’ as expert critiques debut

Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe debuted their hosting skills for Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night and an expert has taken a closer look.

One of the new hosts was "panicking internally" during the launch show while another was essentially keeping things afloat, according to body language expert Inbaal Honigman.

The launch show saw this year's celebrity contestants find out which professionals they were partnered up with.

But it also marked the first time new hosts Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe were taking over from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, who departed the show last year.

Speaking on behalf of Covers.com, Honigman told Express.co.uk, “Emma is carrying the presenter duties almost single-handedly, and they all know it. As Josh gets used to the new job, he is panicking internally.”

The expert continued, "When the three stand together, Josh leans towards Emma, showing that he is depending on her. Josh tries to tuck himself slightly behind the others, as if trying to avoid getting noticed or picked first at school."

"Josh's eyes are concentrating hard on the space in front of him when he speaks, glancing intently into the prompter as if his life depends on it. He is doing his best to stick to the script, and even in his smile, his mounting panic shows. He smiles with his mouth, cheeks rounded, but Josh's smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. This smile shows that for Josh, this is serious business. He's not having fun yet,” it was further explained.

Meanwhile, Josh himself has admitted he felt he was "rubbish" during the first auditions but when he met Emma and Johannes he overcame his doubts.

He told The Times, "I was like, "Oh no, we're good at this, this is fun." I am confident in this. I am not a rubbish comedian, I know that.'”

"I have a confidence in myself I'd never had before. I know I can be good value on, you know, Blankety Blank, The Wheel, Radio 2. I'd assume that's why the Strictly producers wanted me,” he said at that time.

The body language expert declared that Johannes looked like he was "having the time of his life" while Emma "is in charge" of the trio, and doesn't mind that she's "carrying the boys" with the presenting.