BBC Breakfast star Dan Walker has dropped a major hint that he could temporarily be leaving the morning programme to balance his Strictly Come Dancing workload.
After 20 years of service, Walker’s regular co-host Louise Minchin left the show.
Although the presenter will soon be taking to the dance floor to compete to win the Glitterball trophy, the new commitment may mean that it might not be possible for him to start at 3 o’clock in the morning.
Speaking to Daily Star and other publications, Dan explained: “Having watched the programme for a long time, I know that everyone does things differently.
“Some people give up their jobs for three months, some people move to London and concentrate on the programme fully. Because I’ve been always busy, I don’t know how it will work with three o’clock at the start of each week.
He went on: “I’m also doing The NFL Show – on Fridays we record that, so yeah I’ve got a few jobs plus Strictly!”
But Dan wasn’t quite ready to confirm anything on the BBC Breakfast front yet, as he added: “I’ll fit the [Strictly] training in where I can. I’m determined that I won’t go out of this competition for not trying hard enough, so that might be my curse!
“But I will definitely do as much training as I possibly can, and fit that around other stuff.”
Keen to see the silver lining in his rather hefty workload, Dan mused: “I believe not doing 100% on Strictly helps you to have a better perspective. It also gives you the chance to live a normal, fulfilling life.
And his Breakfast co-stars have already been supporting him through the process, as he said Louise will definitely be watching him take to the ballroom floor.
“Louise is gonna watch, she likes the programme, I know that,” Dan explained. “I know that Naga [Munchetty], Carol [Kirkwood], Mike [Bushell] and Chris Hollins, who used to be on Breakfast, and Ore [Oduba] – they’ve all been lovely in their advice, and been really supportive.”
Dan’s present stint has also brought him into hot water. Dan accidentally revealed Strictly 2021’s start date.
Dan has a new nickname thanks to the WhatsApp group that he created for celebs to get to know one another.
“They’re all calling me the dad of the WhatsApp group – but the other nickname they’ve got for me is StrictlyLeaks because I inadvertently gave away the start date of Strictly Come Dancing on BBC Breakfast, which was a total error!” he chuckled.
“The reason why I did that is I go in the local Post Office quite regularly because there are four lovely ladies I always have a good chat to. They’re Strictly obsessed, and the day before I mentioned it on BBC Breakfast they told me, ‘We’re really looking forward to it starting on the 18th!'”
Dan continued: “So in my head, I thought everybody already knows it’s the 18th! But it turns out they’d just been guessing, and I talked about it on Breakfast and I didn’t realise it hadn’t been announced yet.”
Opening up more on his competition, Dan said he’s keen to help ease any anxieties surrounding their appearance on the show – which is why he established WhatsApp in the first place.
“I’ve been in this situation before – I don’t worry about things like this, I’m excited about it and really looking forward to it – but I know it’s really easy to get anxious and feel a bit concerned and worry about what’s going to happen,” he explained.
“So I set the group up and everybody wanted to be involved and it’s been lovely to share pictures and have a really good laugh, and we’ve also gotten to know each other quite well.”
Dan’s children, in particular, are thrilled about his appearance at Strictly. However, they also nearly found out the news too late.
He has three children with Sarah: Susanna Chuck, Chuck, and Jessica.
“The kids have only ever asked me to do two programmes,” He laughed. “Saturday Mashup and this, so I did Saturday Mashup in summer and here we are on Strictly!”
“I nearly gave the game away, actually. We all share a YouTube account at home and the kids were looking something up, and the last thing they saw on YouTube was ‘How to Charleston for Beginners’ or something!”
Dan laughed: “My eldest went, ‘Dad, is there something you want to tell us?’ – that was a few months ago, but I literally told hardly anybody!”
Strictly Come Dancing begins on Saturday, September 18 on BBC One.