Former Strictly Come Dancing professional Janette Manrara has revealed she "sobbed for weeks" after missing out on a role in the show's new presenting line-up. Before Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe were announced as the programme's new presenting team, Manrara admitted: "Of course it hit hard. Of course, I was devastated."
Speaking about her reaction, she said: "I remember Zoe Ball, we've been speaking a lot and Fleur [East], we've been speaking a lot, and we all feel like we've gone through the seven stages of grief."
Reaction to the decision
Manrara said she was crushed upon discovering that producers had selected alternative candidates, telling podcaster Jamie Laing: "I have to say, immediately, Monday morning, I had the weekend to sob and cry and I sobbed for weeks."
"But ultimately," she continued, "I have to understand I'm in an industry that is very, very fickle. It changes constantly and I can't hold any personal feelings towards decisions that were made that are for the best of the show."
Manrara described the "heartache" of not securing the role, saying it had been the "biggest rejection of her career."
Confidence in her credentials
She told Laing that she believed she had been ideally suited for the position: "I felt like I was a frontrunner," she said. "I went from being a professional dancer for eight years on the show. Then I became the host of It Takes Two for five years and, at the same time, hosted the Strictly Live tour for 5 years."
"In the Strictly Live Tour," she explained, "I played both Tess and Claudia's [parts] ...when we go on tour with Strictly, we take all the couples that did the live TV show and we go on the road with them, with the judges."
"So you're in essence watching the show, you're just not seeing them with Tess and Claudia, you're seeing it with me hosting it. So when you just put it on paper, you assume I've got a shot because all the pieces were there," she added.
Chemistry tests and looking ahead
Manrara was among several prospective presenters interviewed by programme bosses and, for a considerable period, felt she had a real chance of clinching the job: "I did really well in the chemistry tests, at least that's what I was told. So I assumed I did a great job ...obviously I didn't get the job and and they went they went elsewhere, but I remember coming home and it was a really hard pill to swallow."
Reflecting on the outcome, she suggested there was at least one positive aspect: "In seven years, I have gone from being a dancer on the show to hosting Morning Live, hosting It Takes Two, hosting the Strictly Live tour and putting myself in a room against names like Emma Willis, Rylan Clark, Zoe Ball, like all of them that you've seen, that have spoken out about being in the chemistry test. I was one of them.
"If I can take anything away from it, it's not that I didn't get the job. What I am taking away from it is that, actually, I've done a b****y good job in the last seven years with honing my craft of presenting, and understanding the TV world, and the business of how things run. Another job will come."
