Ice Dancing has a Ball

~ thesun.co.uk - 12/02/10 ~

MUSICALS' star Michael Ball will join the judging panel of Dancing On Ice on Sunday.

Former Hairspray singer Ball, 47, will stand in for head judge Robin Cousins who is on Winter Olympics duty with the BBC for the next fortnight.

Ball, whose partner is former Ready, Steady, Go! presenter Cathy McGowan, is being lined up as one of ITV's big new faces.

As well as standing in for Cousins he also filmed a chatshow pilot this week.

The actor - who doesn't have any ice dancing experience - will be officially unveiled on tonight's Dancing On Ice spin-off show fronted by Ben Shephard and Coleen Nolan.

Ball has been signed up for one show but could return the week after if he performs well.

An insider said: "Even though Michael isn't an ice dancer, he has had loads of theatre experience and will be judging the contestants on performance skills."

Ball filmed a new pilot for a chatshow on Wednesday evening - and used the same set as Alan Titchmarsh's ITV1 teatime series.

It is thought ITV bosses are considering him sharing the slot with Titchmarsh across the year.

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