Strictly Come Dancing‘s Johannes Radebe has been singled out as the “worst culprit” for repeatedly messing up his lines on the BBC show.
Johannes is one of three new presenters who has joined Strictly for 2026, alongside Emma Willis and Josh Widdicombe.
However, an audience member has now claimed the professional dancer struggled to get his lines right during filming this weekend.
The audience member attended both Saturday night’s live show and Sunday’s Results show.
And they had some pointed criticism of Johannes’s presenting performance.
Strictly Come Dancing’s Johannes Radebe branded ‘tiring’
A Strictly audience member has shared their experience on Reddit after attending the filming at Elstree Studios on Saturday evening (October 10, 2026).
They reviewed how all three presenters performed during filming, claiming former Strictly professional Johannes struggled with his delivery.
The viewer wrote: “It was a little strange when [the warm up man] introduced the presenters because Emma and Josh were brought out first and then Johannes separately.
“JoJo did get a huge ovation because he’s very popular but it almost felt like he was being presented as the lead host, which is not how I see him.”
They went on to praise Emma and Josh, adding: “I would say Josh and Emma were pretty solid in terms of their presenting duties, on both the main and results show.
“The results show is where things started to get tiring. Johannes was easily the worst culprit for constantly messing up his lines from the teleprompter.
“It added so much time to the interviews he and Josh would do upstairs, as they had to constantly do another take over and over.”
Strictly fans defend Johannes Radebe
However, Strictly fans were quick to defend Johannes after reading the audience member’s comments.
One person replied: “I feel a bit bad for JoJo. He’s probably never had to read a teleprompt or follow much of a script before. He’s at least not as experienced as both Emma and Josh are with it.
“Hopefully he gets the swing of it. I’m just glad he’s still part of Strictly in some capacity.”
The original poster then offered further explanation for the alleged mistakes, writing: “I think one of the reasons they also would have Johannes do retakes with his lines was because his intonation wasn’t always right for what was being said. [It was] like he was putting the wrong emphasis on certain words.
“I think if he can fix that, he would be so much better.”
Other viewers have also backed Johannes’s new role on the show.
“Not many will say it but having Johannes upstairs ABSOLUTELY works!!” one person wrote on X.
What do you think of this story? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page