How to Use a hard/tough act to follow in a Sentence

a hard/tough act to follow

noun phrase

• But the Tigers’ next coach will have a hard act to follow.
  — Tom Green | [e-mail], al, 20 Nov. 2022
• Bat Out of Hell was a hard act to follow, at least at first.
  — Al Shipley, SPIN, 21 Jan. 2022
• And that, paired with the spectacle of it all, will be a tough act to follow for New Orleans next winter.
  — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 11 Feb. 2024
• President Joe Biden has a hard act to follow in Europe: his own.
  — Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 June 2022
• Receivers this high school football season have a tough act to follow.
  — Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2022
• The Sanderson sisters -- famous for being campy, creepy and over-the-top -- are a tough act to follow, or perform alongside.
  — Mary Colurso | [e-mail], al, 3 Oct. 2022
• Wood is the former chief judge of the 7th Circuit, and judicial observers said Lee has a tough act to follow in replacing her on the court.
  — Bob Goldsborough, Chicago Tribune, 22 Sep. 2022
• That said, John Malashock, who founded the organization in 1988, is a hard act to follow.
  — David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 May 2022
• That's a hard act to follow, and the two subsequent films never quite reached the same heights, despite their box office success.
  — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 23 Dec. 2021
• Yet another reminder that Cassidy, much like the hallowed Fours on Canal Street, will be a tough act to follow.
  — Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 18 June 2022
• To say that Diana is a hard act to follow is, well, an understatement: the late princess remains one of the most beloved figures not just in Britain, but across the world.
  — Elise Taylor, Vogue, 18 Oct. 2022
• Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is the definition of a tough act to follow.
  — Emma Dibdin, Town & Country, 15 Aug. 2022
• Everyone agrees that Queen Elizabeth II is a hard act to follow.
  — The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 Sep. 2022
• That is a hard act to follow, but the book provides an opportunity to spend time with the work in a more contemplative format.
  — Vince Aletti, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024
• College football has a hard act to follow after last Saturday’s wild ride.
  — Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY, 16 Oct. 2021
• NorthPark has proven itself a tough act to follow, but that hasn’t stopped developers from trying.
  — Dallas News, 27 July 2022
• The show would be a hard act to follow — Beyoncé and Michelle Obama are stans — but eight shows a week for months on end had taken a physical and emotional toll.
  — Ineye Komonibo, refinery29.com, 29 July 2020
• Broly was a massive hit theatrically both in Japan and especially in the U.S., and that is definitely a tough act to follow.
  — Ollie Barder, Forbes, 15 June 2022
• Cleveland officials wasted no time in hiring the newest manager in Guardians history: the 39-year-old Vogt, who has a tough act to follow, but is looking forward to it.
  — Jim Ingraham, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024
• Stephenson, with his crotchety, larger-than-life performance in the Dickens’ Victorian holiday tale, would seem a hard act to follow.
  — Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Nov. 2022
• Twenty-seven years after her untimely death, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez is still a hard act to follow.
  — Isabela Raygoza, refinery29.com, 17 Apr. 2022
• The Cincinnati native’s lone season at left tackle resulted in consensus All-America honors and a tough act to follow for the programs’ returning offensive linemen.
  — Nathan Baird, cleveland, 10 Jan. 2023
• Known for pushing for school-competency testing, protecting the Everglades and focusing his political campaigns on the working class, Graham, who died last month at 87, became a tough act to follow.
  — Omar Rodríguez Ortiz, Miami Herald, 11 May 2024

Last Updated: 22 Dec 2024