The only thing more daunting than ice-skating on live television for the first time has to be the idea of being judged by a former colleague – however, Dancing on Ice‘s Brendan Cole is “excited” by this prospect ahead of his debut on the ITV show.
The former Strictly Come Dancing professional has spoken about his former castmate Oti Mabuse joining the Dancing on Ice judging panel, adding that she’ll make “an incredible judge”.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press at a roundtable ahead of this Sunday’s show, Cole said: “I think Oti is going to be absolutely amazing.
“She’s a phenomenal person, on and off the dance floor. She has great dance experience which she’ll bring to the show and I think you’ve got to have different elements from each of the [judges].
“If all the judges were the same, it’d be really boring. I think she’s going to make an incredible judge. Her personality is larger than life and she’s a great friend of mine so I’m really excited for her.
“And likewise she’s excited for me. [We’ve had] various conversations about this since it’s all been announced so it’s really exciting.”
Cole, who was a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing for 15 series, joined the Dancing on Ice 2022 line-up last year and will be skating alongside Vanessa Bauer in the upcoming shows.
ITV announced that Oti Mabuse would be joining the Dancing on Ice judging panel after John Barrowman was confirmed to be leaving the show, with Mabuse saying: “It’s more than an honour and I already can’t wait to join the family.”