Holly Willoughby praises Christine Bleakley’s Dancing on Ice debut

Holly Willoughby has given Christine Bleakley’s Dancing on Ice debut the thumbs up.

Bleakley took over co-presenting duties on the ITV1 show from Willoughby, appearing for the first time on Sunday evening’s launch show. Willoughby left the ice skating dance contest to present BBC One’s forthcoming talent show The Voice. On Monday’s edition of This Morning there was praise from Willoughby for her Dancing on Ice replacement as she remarked ‘Christine looked beautiful in that amazing red dress. Gorgeous’

Willoughby admitted though it was strange not being apart of the series ‘I felt fine about all of it but when the credits ran I thought, ‘I should be somewhere’… and it felt really weird then. But it’s an amazing show to work on and sitting at home watching it, you realise how incredible it is. I was clapping along at the start looking around thinking, ‘Where’s Phil, he’s not next to me clapping!’

So far Bleakley’s presenting debut on Dancing on Ice has generally been well received although there were some negative comments on Twitter. However, most viewers reserved their negativity for new judges Louie Spence and Katarina Witt with some calling for the return of former judges Jason Gardiner and Emma Bunton.

Sunday evening’s show saw Blue Peter’s Andy Akinwolere become the first celebrity voted off.