The presenter said that viewers don’t really care if they know the celebrities on the show or not, they just enjoy the glitz and the glamour as it kicks off during the winter months
Jennifer Zamparelli(Image: Instagram)
Jennifer Zamparelli has hit back at claims that Ireland is running out of celebrities for Dancing With The Stars.
We are over the halfway point of this year’s season of the glitzy show and viewers are loving it, with presenter Jennifer saying there’s a need for the fun of the programme during the gloomy winter months.
Despite the fact that Ireland is a small country, she said they will never run out of stars for the show.
“My mother says, are there any celebrities left in the country,” Jennifer told RSVP. “But it’s amazing that every series we do, the ratings get better, there’s a want for it, there’s a need I think. Especially when it’s been raining for a thousand days, for a bit of sparkle and lightness people don’t really care if they know or don’t know them.
“I don’t think we’ll ever run out of people. People who maybe decided that they couldn’t do it for whatever reason this year or last, maybe will do it next year. It’s one of those things, I really hope it keeps going because it brings so much joy to a lot of people and much needed brightness and a bit of sparkle in a very damp country.”
Co-host Laura Fox added: “Look at Paudie [Moloney], he’s only been known in our world for about 10 months now, if even. Traitors hit our TV screens and was a roaring success. We have to look at what the next up-and-coming thing is.”
As the show gears up for its 100th episode soon, Jennifer has been on the programme for seven years and has therefore hosted a good deal of those shows, but admitted she still feels like the new girl at times.
“I still consider myself the newbie,” she said. “Which is weird, because I’m not anymore. It became very apparent when we were filming the VT for Julian [Benson], and we have our 100th episode coming up, and I’ve been in most of them, but I still kind of feel like the new girl on set.
“I’m not, because I’ve gone through a load of presenters! But it’s particularly joyous this season, I think Laura has brought an energy that we needed, in a sense. She’s like a Labrador dog, she’s excited about everything all the time, and it’s nice to have that energy when you’ve been doing something for seven seasons.”
The show underwent a number of changes this season, including Laura filling in for Doireann Garrihy as co-host while she takes maternity leave, as well as Oti Mabuse stepping in as head judge after the departure of Loraine Barry.
“It’s lovely, and it’s needed,” said Jennifer. “But I suppose every new cast brings that new energy as well. We’re just trying to get better at what we do across all departments, from the lighting to the costume, presenting, script writing, everything. How can we make this better? How can we do a better job?
“I think this season in particular is the best I’ve ever worked on because we’re just more comfortable, we know what we’re doing, but we want to keep pushing the boundaries, pushing to make it better.”
Dancing With The Stars continues on Sunday at 6:30 pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rsvplive.ie ’
