BREAKING NEWS: Strictly Come Dancing fans declare ‘it’s ridiculous’ as professional dancer left without celebrity
Strictly viewers were unimpressed as one of this year’s returning professional dancers was left without a celebrity partner
Strictly Come Dancing fans were left unimpressed as one of this year’s returning professional dancers was left without a celebrity partner during the series launch.
The 2026 run of the BBC One dance contest got underway on Saturday night (September 19) with the airing of the pre-recorded launch show.
As the episode got underway, Emma Willis said presenting Strictly Come Dancing is a “genuine honour” as she opened the new series alongside fellow new hosts Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe.
The trio have taken over from long-time hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, who stepped down last year, with the first episode of the new series of the BBC dancing programme showing the celebrity contestants meet their partners for the first time on the dancefloor, rather than in a separate video.
The launch show opened with a dance number from the professionals, judges and the new hosts. After introducing the show, Emma said: “Never in a million years did I ever think I would get to dance with Strictly pros.” Johannes added: “And I definitely never thought it would be the three of us standing in the spot.”
Josh then interjected: “No, I’ll be honest, not many people did, Johannes. Why’s that got more of a laugh than I was hoping, but there we are, it’s a little bit overwhelming to be here, but we are so delighted.”
But it ended up being all about this year’s celebrity partnerships and Love Island winner Dani Dyer has reunited on Strictly with Nikita Kuzmin, whom she was partnered with last year before dropping out due to injury, were among those to be confirmed during the action-packed launch show.
This year’s line-up also features the show’s third all-female pairing in its history, with Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu dancing together, following in the dance steps of Nicola Adams and Katya Jones in 2020, and Jayde Adams and Karen Hauer in 2022.
However, with only 15 celebrities and 19 professional dancers, it meant four were left without a celebrity partner this year. They were Neil Jones, alongside newcomers Aleksandra Isaeva, Cristian Priori and Lethabo Monametsi. But they will still very much be part of the series – and the ‘Strictly Family’ – and will appear in various dancers throughout the upcoming season.
Fans, however, were not happy with Neil not being in the competition. @flickersuggs said: “ok guys so why is Neil benched AGAIN…..??? It’s getting to a point now where this is just ridiculous #strictly@Razamataz144 commented: “Poor Neil. YET AGAIN! #Strictly.” @ismisecolleen noted: “Is Neil the only professional who’s not new without a partner #strictly.” @richnfamous76 added: “… Neil Jones should go on as a contestant. That way he might actually get a dance. #strictly #strictlycomedancing.”
