Holly Willoughby "really excited" to announce new presenting role alongside other stars

It's going to be a busy year for Holly Willoughby as she is set to add another presenting role to her repertoire in 2021.

The This Morning host will be joined by cricket superstar Freddie Flintoff in presenting a new celebrity game show called The Real Games.

Airing next year, The Real Games will take 12 familiar faces out of their regular lives to battle it out in plenty of exciting athletic competitions over a single one week period.

Holly and Freddie will be assisted in the show by a commentator, professional footballer Chris Kamara, as well as trackside reporter in the form of fellow ex-professional footballer, Alex Scott.

So what can we expect from the show? Well, according to ITV, there will be six male and six female competitors who will "battle it out in the athletics arena, the swimming pool and gymnasium. Each will put their sporting prowess to the test in events, from the 100-meter sprint to doubles diving, racking up points on the medals table."

"As well as live coverage of the events, each episode will feature the celebrities' preparation, their gruelling training programme leading up to the competitions as they aim to reach their peak physical condition. As the medals table takes shape with each episode, the series will culminate in an exhilarating final show in which the overall winner will be crowned."

After an absence on This Morning (opens in new tab) in November, many of Holly's fans have been concerned about the host. However, speaking about her role in the new show, Holly said that she was anticipating a great series ahead, "I'm really excited to be presenting The Real Games with Freddie and the rest of the team. I can't wait to watch our celebrity competitors go head-to-head."

While her co-host, Freddie commented, "This is going to be a brilliant week of TV. Our celeb competitors will need to be at the top of their game to be in with a chance of topping the medals table."

We don't know for the moment who will be appearing as a competitor on the new show, but if the winning line-ups of 2020's Celebrity Masterchef (opens in new tab), I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and Strictly Come Dancing (opens in new tab) are anything to go by then we could be seeing some real famous faces taking on the challenge.

The show was originally commissioned for 2020 but it was delayed due to the months of lockdown (opens in new tab) at the beginning of the year. Now with the potential for a January lockdown (opens in new tab) on the horizon, The Real Games will undoubtedly come as a bit of light relief for sports fans, many of which have been unable to get into stadiums or even watch live sport on the TV as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Commissioning Editor Nicola Lloyd said of the new ITV series, "Obviously 2021 is going be a big year for sport events but for entertainment in a sporting setting, look no further than The Real Games. With a host of famous faces taking part we're expecting big names, huge events and gold -medal winning egos."

"We're delighted to have Holly along with Freddie guiding us through, joined by Alex and Chris and we'll be revealing more about the competitors in the lead up to the show. We can't wait for the fun and games to begin."