The Weakest Link's new host Romesh Ranganathan has shared some exciting hints about the show's return with Strictly Come Dancing and celebrity specials.
The A League of Their Own star has taken over from Anne Robinson as the intimidating presenter of the quiz show, now that she's busy with Countdown, for an all-new series beginning this month.
One of the new episodes features pros and former contestants from Strictly putting their knowledge to the test – and Romesh has revealed there was a tense atmosphere on set.
"The first episode is a Strictly Come Dancing special, so we have dancers and contestants so people like Clara Amfo, Dr Ranj, Ore Oduba. Anton and Janette are there," he announced. "We have a real mix of people and it is a proper Strictly-themed special.
"All I can say is the beginning of the episode they outperformed everyone including their own expectations of how they were going to do. I would say there was panic in the gallery, they were doing so well."
Throughout the new series, Weakest Link viewers will get to see a full range of celebrities enduring quick-witted insults from Romesh as they try to outlast one another.
"I'd say as a comedian I'll always look forward to seeing comedians come on but, actually, when they do come on they give me more hassle than the non-comedian contestants do," he admitted.
"For example, we had Ed Gamble on and he was constantly heckling me and asking me how I thought I was doing, and trying to undermine my confidence, so comedians are good but they are more difficult to wrangle than others.
"The Weakest Link is a show where if you humiliate yourself that's a short-term thing because you're probably going to get voted out at the next round, but occasionally you don't get voted out and you get found out later on and that happened to Jamie Laing who basically made it far enough for him to get more questions, and I don't think he enjoyed getting more questions."
Talking about how celebrities may react differently to civilian players, the presenter explained: "When you start off it's one in eight, but as it gets whittled down, suddenly you get a higher frequency of questions, so the phrase we kept using to each other was 'the show's exposing'.
"I don't have a competitive bone in my body and a lot of people who have come to do the show have said the same thing, but when I say, 'Let's play The Weakest Link, start the clock', the lights change and it's on you, there's something about that, that gives you an adrenaline spike. It's great TV because it means even easy questions can be fumbled because you are just panicking so much.
"You get a real mixed bag in how people behave when they get voted off, some people feel embarrassed and Nikki Fox decided she was going to throw out as much fire as she could on her way out basically. She was furious that she got voted off and she wanted everyone to know about it, it was great!"
The Weakest Link returns on Saturday, December 18 at 6.10pm at BBC One before the Strictly Come Dancing final.
Strictly Come Dancing 2021 airs on Saturday nights on BBC One, with results shows every Sunday. Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights at 6.30pm on BBC Two.
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