Ex-BBC controller claims he was told Tess Daly’s Strictly replacement by top TV exec while in hairdresser

The BBC is reportedly lining up Holly Willoughby as Tess Daly’s replacement on Strictly Come Dancing.

Daly, who has hosted the show since it started in 2004, announced her departure from the competition alongside co-host Claudia Winkleman last month.

The pair will step away at the end of the current series, leading to speculation over who will replace them. According to a former BBC chief, former This Morning host Willoughby could become the new face of the show.

MailOnline reports that Peter Fincham, who was BBC One Controller from 2005 to 2008, was informed of the BBC’s apparent hopes while getting his hair cut in the same place as another high-ranking TV producer.

“My hairdresser also cuts the hair of a well-known channel controller,” Fincham said. “What’s said in Harry’s the hairdresser stays in Harry’s. But he says with great confidence that Holly Willoughby will take over.”

The Independent has contacted Willoughby and the BBC for comment.

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Willoughby stepped away from This Morning after 14 years in October 2023. Her exit came months after her long-term co-host Phillip Schofield sensationally resigned from ITV after he admitted lying about an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male colleague.

She returned to ITV to host Dancing on Ice alongside Stephen Mulhern and also fronted Netflix’s Bear Grylls reality show Celebrity Bear Hunt.

Announcing their departure from Strictly in an Instagram video, Winkleman said of her and Daly: “We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time.

“We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show. They’re the most brilliant team and we’ll miss them every day.”

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Winkleman joined the show as co-presenter of the main show in 2014, having previously hosted the Sunday night results show and companion series It Takes Two.

Other contenders to replace the pair include It Takes Two’s current hosts Janette Manrara and Fleur East as well as Rylan Clark, Stacey Dooley and Roman Kemp.

One person who has been publicly lobbying for the role is La Voix, a contestant on the 2025 series, who stepped in to replace Daly for a segment during the Halloween Week episode.