During its first 20 years on air Strictly Come Dancing scandals have been largely confined to on-screen drama, off-screen snogging and the odd trip to the divorce courts.
Yet this week one of the BBC’s most successful shows is on the precipice after an unnamed third professional dancer was accused of domineering behaviour in rehearsals, with two already having left the programme in recent weeks.
One executive at a rival channel said the BBC had been muted in its response, suggesting the national broadcaster was still trying to understand the scale of the crisis at its biggest show.
They said the lack of a clear and final public position was notable: “The fear is that they are finding out about more skulduggery beneath the table. It’s the nightmare. Everyone’s saying: ‘Why haven’t they made a statement?’ It’s because they don’t know what’s going on yet.”
Multiple individuals previously connected with Strictly said a big problem was the inherently competitive nature of dancers coupled with the ever-increasing financial incentives to reach the later stages of the competition.
Whereas once it was enough to drag Ann Widdecombe around the stage and enjoy a few weeks of on-air notoriety, increasingly there is an incentive structure to make the later stages of the competition. This is because more time on air means more social media followers, bigger influencer-endorsement deals, and more tickets sold for subsequent live shows.
“Influencers and people on it know that it increases the value of their social media,” said one publicist.
The professional dancer Giovanni Pernice left the show in June after former celebrity dance partners including Amanda Abbington made “serious complaints” about his alleged “threatening and abusive behaviour” – allegations he strongly denied. Then last week his fellow Sicilian dancer Graziano Di Prima also quit, with his spokesperson later acknowledging the existence of a video from rehearsals where he kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott.
In a statement last Saturday, Di Prima said he “deeply regrets” the events that led to his departure and that his “intense passion and determination to win might have affected my training regime”.
For her part, McDermott said the overall experience of being on the show was positive but she found rehearsals with Di Prima tough. “Reports have been made about my treatment on the show and there were witnesses to some events, as well as videos of particular incidents which are incredibly distressing to watch.”
Celebrity journalists are now looking for other contestants during the show’s two-decade history who may have felt the training was too tough, with sources connected to Strictly suggesting several other unnamed dancers had previously been warned about being too tough in rehearsals.
The BBC has asked anyone with relevant information to get in touch and this week announced that all rehearsals would have a chaperone present throughout all rehearsals, even if this risked undermining the close connection formed over weeks of practice.
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BBC management has so far escaped the scrutiny that hit ITV during its recent run of reality TV scandals involving duty-of-care issues on The Jeremy Kyle Show and Love Island. This is partly because Rishi Sunak called an early general election, meaning the Strictly scandal has played without the presence of the culture select committee, with no MPs able to summon top executives.
The expectation is that the BBC’s handling of Strictly will face scrutiny after the summer recess, once a new select committee chair has been elected. To complicate matters, the show is made for the BBC by the arms-length BBC Studios commercial arm, meaning the broadcaster does not have the option to blame an independent production company for the mess.
The challenge for the BBC is how to relaunch the programme as it enters its 20th-anniversary season as one of the few shows in the UK that can still attract a substantial live television audience. Its value to the BBC is enormous, as it allows the broadcaster to show how it can make unifying national programmes when it is facing increased competition from streaming services. To complicate matters, the corporation is about to start the process of reaching a new funding settlement with the Labour government.
One television executive said Strictly might struggle to book female celebrities for this series because they would want to appear supportive of the previous contestants who have reported harsh treatment. But they said the programme was still salvageable because no accusations have been made against the show’s presenters or judges: “There’s not a villain: it’s not Tess and Claudia, it’s some dancers you hardly know the names of.”