Love Island star Zara McDermott joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Strictly Come Dancing 2023
Former Love Island star Zara McDermott is the latest famous face to be announced for the Strictly Come Dancing 2023 joining Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Angela Rippon in the line-up.The 26-year-old, who has made a series of TV documentaries since appearing on the ITV dating show, was unveiled on BBC Radio 1 on Monday afternoon.McDermott is the seventh contestant to be confirmed for the upcoming series of the dancing competition.
Other competitors announced so far include actress Amanda Abbington, Bad Education star Layton Williams, comedian Eddie Kadi and Irish TV presenter Angela Scanlon.
Appearing on BBC Radio 1, the TV presenter revealed that she has been re-watching previous episodes “analysing everything”.
“I am nervous, excited, every single emotion honestly – I cannot wait,” she added.
Since appearing on Love Island in 2018, McDermott has made documentaries about revenge porn, sexual assault and disordered eating for the BBC.
She noted that Strictly is “such a far cry” from her day job and feels this is the furthest she has ever pushed herself out of her own comfort zone.
“I’ve been making documentaries now for the past three years and it’s such a tiny team and if I say the wrong thing during an interview I can redo it – but this is live, you cannot make a mistake,” she said.
Earlier on Monday, TV presenter Scanlon was unveiled on BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show where she admitted the prospect of taking to the dancefloor had been "in the ether for a number of years."
She explained: "Truthfully, we wanted to have another baby, we were trying to have a baby, I was then pregnant, then I had a very small child and now, it just felt right this year."
The TV presenter is the only woman in the UK and Ireland to have their own Saturday night chat show with Ask Me Anything on RTE One.
Scanlon, who married businessman Roy Horgan in 2014, with whom she shares two daughters, is also a published author and host of positivity podcast Thanks A Million.
Over the weekend Guru-Murthy was unveiled as the fourth contest.The journalist is a main presenter on Channel 4 News and has fronted worldwide events including the Omagh bombing of 1998, 9/11 and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Guru-Murthy said he chose to do the show “for the fun. I love my job. It’s very, very privileged, I go to amazing places. I talk to amazing people, but it’s incredibly serious”.
He added: “It’s quite stressful. It can be quite difficult and sort of the idea of being able to have pure intravenous joy, because I’m going to be doing the news at the same time, is just irresistible.”
He said: “I told my wife first obviously and I sort of said ‘what do you think? Do you think I should do it?’ and she was like ‘yes definitely do it’, which is funny because we’ve talked about it in the past and we were all like ‘no never’, but something changed this year.”
Strictly Come Dancing returns to screens this autumn and will be judged by Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.
Last year, the competition was won by British wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin and professional dancer Jowita Przystal.
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