Dancing On Ice host Holly Willoughby QUITS ITV show as series update CONFIRMED

Dancing on Ice host Holly Willoughby has stepped down from ITV’s You Bet! after just one series.

Holly Willoughby has quit the ITV show she hosted with Stephen Mulhern. (Image: ITV)

Dancing on Ice presenter Holly Willoughby has quit ITV’s You Bet! after just one series. Holly and her longtime pal Stephen Mulhernrelaunched the classic 1980s game show in December 2024, but it has now been confirmed that Holly won’t be returning for season two, leaving Stephen to front the show on his own.

The second series, which is expected to return later this year, comes after 2024’s successful reboot became ITV’s biggest Entertainment launch for younger viewers for over two years. An ITV spokesperson told TV Zone: “Unfortunately Holly couldn’t commit to the dates to host the new series of You Bet!, but will hopefully appear as a guest panellist on one of the shows in the new series.”

Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern have been friends for decades. (Image: Getty)

You Bet! originally aired on ITV for 10 series and a number of specials between February 1988 and April 1997. It was first hosted by Bruce Forsyth from 1988 to 1990, then Matthew Kelly from 1991 to 1995 and finally Darren Day in 1996 and 1997.

The show sees a panel of celebrities bet on the ability of members of the public to achieve unlikely challenges and stunts within a limited amount of time. The studio audience would also place a bet on the outcomes and the panellists would receive points for each outcome they predicted correctly, based on the percentage of the studio audience that also placed a correct bet

At the end of the show, the studio audience votes for their favourite challenger, who takes home £10,000. At the same time, the celebrity with the highest score wins £10,000 for their chosen charity, while the celebrity with the lowest score takes on the final forfeit.

Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern also host Dancing On Ice. (Image: ITV)The news comes after the future of Dancing On Ice was thrown into doubt after a dramatic decline in ratings.

The ITV show launched in 2006 with Holly and Phillip Schofield at the helm. It ran until 2014 before returning in 2018. Stephen replaced Phillip in 2024 after his resignation from ITV after admitting to his affair.

Recent figures have shown a worrisome downward trend, with an all-time low of just 2.9 million viewers for one episode in 2024, plummeting from the 3.6 million who had tuned in for the season’s start. The decline continued into 2025, seeing the launch episode’s audience remain at 2.9 million and dropping to 2.4 million by its fifth week.

Insiders fear that if the numbers do not pick up, this could be the last series of the long-running show. A source told the Mirror: “There are very real fears this is the end of the road for Dancing on Ice. It’s had a good run for nearly 20 years and has a very loyal set of viewers who really love it but the sad truth is there’s just not enough of them. We need bums on seats but the ratings have dropped to a point where it’s difficult to justify the cost.”

ITV has spoken out on the fate of Dancing on Ice, with a spokesperson telling the publication: “The Dancing on Ice team is fully concentrating on the much anticipated series finale this coming Sunday and therefore no decision has been made.”