Johnny Ball has referred to his daughter interviewing him on ITT. Why is Claudia not doing it again?

She gave it up. It's Zoe's gig full time now. It'll be interesting to see how the judges treat Johnny on ITT. I can't see even Craig being quite as nasty as he can be if he has to say it in front of Zoe.

Yes, Zoe has just confirmed on the radio that she's doing it this year. Fantastic news!

I like Zoe in ITT and Claudia backstage with the celebs

Claudia is not a BBC employee, she is a freelance presenter employed on a contract basis for a series at a time. The BBC have no obligation to continue to employ her for ITT. If they feel Zoe has helped the programme to evolve and refreshed it, then they are free to contract her services for this series if they so wish.

Claudia will have had her services commissioned seperately for the Film programmes and her radio contract.

Personally, I enjoyed Claudia's presentation of ITT, but prefer Zoe, even though I didn't think I would.

I'm quite sad Zoe's doing it again. I find her really off-putting. I only watched ITT occasionally last year. She's just such a .. TV presenter lol. Claudia was really funny and different and made ITT something a little special. Now it's just half an hour of telly

There was an article about it last month in the Mail: Claudia Winkleman quits Strictly: It Takes Two

I thought I read that Claudia isn't even doing the Sunday results show now either

She's on the BBC website as part of the presenter team
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006...udia-winkleman

I'm quite glad. I think she had got to the point where she was actually fed up with the whole thing and there were times when she just came across as bored and impatient.

I think she has done her time and needed to get back to doing things which required her to use her brain.

She's a bight woman. There's only so long you can do 'daffy' when, at heart, you are not.

It's not Claudia's choice - it's the BBC's.

Typical DM newsless story

Agree with all that. Whilst I enjoyed ITT when Claudia was on it, towards the end I got the impression Claudia was bored at times. And the storyline that even after 8 series she couldnt even do a single dance step was somewhat old... :yawn:

Zoe brought a breath of fresh air last year and it livened it up again. Looking forward to this year, especially when they have Craig on being bitchy about Zoe's Dad... It will be interesting viewing seeing how Zoe defends her dad.

I didn't Zoe at all as a DJ so was very pleasantly surprised at how good she was on ITT.

Agree - I think I said so at the time. The last season she presented ITT, it was clear her heart wasn't really in it, she didn't have much of a spark.

Don't forget she was a TV presenter before she was a DJ albeit on kid's Saturday morning TV

I prefer Zoe to Claudia on ITT

I am a massive Claudia fan but did think last year that Zoe revitalised ITT so am glad shes coming back this year.

Zoe got better over time last year - Claudia was a brilliant presenter for the show but I did find myself getting distracted by her marvellous shoes every night!

It's a lovely show - in some ways better than Saturday night.

I can see why Claudia needs to spend time with her family and put them first. And she surely doesn't need the money from ITT. However much she loved Strictly, she does seem to prefer the film show, and they did pick her to present that show over other experts, so if she spreads herself too thinly, it might all crumble.

Claudia was clear last year about leaving her ITT show in Zoe's hands, so why is anybody surprised about it now?
8 years - she's done her 'time', now freedom from the endless 'same old same old' awaits.

Really like Zoe, but the Winkleman adds something different. Miss her terribly

I think Claudia felt she had had enough and wanted to concentrate on her marriage (which had been in difficulties) and her children. Zoe has refreshed it and I think she is a welcome change.

Winkleman had me screaming every time she grossly over enthused with "fabulous "fantastic"

I must say I definitely preferred Claudia to Zoe- nothing bad about Zoe's presenting but Claudia did have something special which I think was lost. However, I do agree, I think Claudia's decision came at the right time, although her loss of interest in ITT was apparent, it wasn't screamingly obvious, and I think she left before it all got a bit too much.

I think it'll be a sad day when she isn't on the show as a whole anymore, I prefer her to Tess enormously as a Sunday presenter, and thought her vibe with "Len's lens" and "The Grant!" really was quite nice for the results show which had previously been VERY drab!

If you haven't seen this yet, I think Claudia is pretty much saying that It Takes Two is Zoe's gig from now on. If I had seen this earlier I'd have stopped holding out for a Claudia ITT return (despite being equally happy with Zoe fronting it).

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/video/v1...ly-return.html

I agree that Claudia's 'naive to dance act' could only go on for so much - even though she was hysterically funny with it and had a great banter with everyone on the show. She did a fantastic job and it's always best to leave on a high. I've never been a dedicated ITT fan but thought Zoe was the perfect replacement and at least has the background knowledge and experience of the dances and the format of the show. You can also sense her passion for Strictly just as much as you could with Claudia. There's no doubt she probably received high praise from the bosses of the show after her debut last year and has secured ITT for the foreseeable future which will do wonders for her career.

I do hope Claudia remains involved with Strictly and maybe one day we will see her take over Tess's role because it allows for her skills in bantering to fully come through.