In what should be a year of celebration for its 20th anniversary, Strictly Come Dancing 2024 has frequently made headlines for controversies away from the dance floor.
The series began as the BBC’s investigation into Giovanni Pernice remained ongoing — just two months after the dancer confirmed he had quit the show.
With the live episodes now underway, Strictly has faced several other controversies, including questions over an episode involving Wynne Evans and disappointment over a dance-off decision.
That’s not to say it isn’t shaping up to be an entertaining series. In week four, Tasha Ghouri and Aljaz Skorjanec scored the first 10s for their Coachella-themed Charleston. Meanwhile, Chris McCausland — the show’s first blind contestant — and his partner Dianne Buswell have stunned the judges with their routines and gravity-defying lifts.
But it’s fair to say the controversies have threatened to overshadow the celebrities’ efforts on the dance floor.
Here’s a rundown of the drama so far.
Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima’s exits
Giovanni Pernice’s Strictly exit was confirmed in June amid a BBC investigation into his behaviour towards Amanda Abbington, with whom he was paired in the 2023 series.
Sherlock star Abbington — who quit her series just five weeks in citing “personal reasons” — made several allegations about Pernice. She said she had been diagnosed with PTSD after “horrible” experiences on the show.
Pernice, who has always maintained his innocence, quit Strictly as the investigation continued. The BBC later upheld six out of 17 of Abbington’s complaints and apologised to the actress.
Amid all this, Pernice’s fellow Italian Graziano Di Prima announced his shock exit. While the furore surrounding Pernice lasted months, there were just days between allegations against Di Prima surfacing and his announcement.
The dancer admitted to “kicking” his 2023 partner Zara McDermott during training. He retreated to his native Sicily to work on his family’s farm after leaving the show.
The incidents led to new behind-the-scenes measures, including introducing chaperones for all training sessions.
Tom Dean leaves the competition first
Tom Dean was far from the worst celebrity dancer in weeks one and two of this year’s series, but the Olympic swimmer was eliminated first.
After finishing in the middle of the leaderboard, Dean and his pro partner Nadiya Bychkova failed to pick up enough votes to avoid the dreaded dance-off.
They were up against Toyah Willcox and Neil Jones — who had been bottom of the leaderboard for two consecutive weeks. Controversially, all the judges except Anton Du Beke chose to keep Willcox in the competition.
Plenty of viewers shared their disappointment at the decision on social media — and Dean admitted it was a “massive shock” to leave so early. He said on the spin-off show It Takes Two: “I am gutted, there’s no two ways about it.
“I have thought about it loads… Nadiya and I have spoken about it loads. I did give it my all and there was nothing more I could have given.
“I just wish I could have kept going, I really really do.”
Katya Jones and Wynne Evans’s ‘awkward’ moment
Wynne Evans went viral for the wrong reasons after a video of his partner Katya Jones appearing to push his hand away from her waist went viral in week four.
Later in the show, Evans offered his partner a high five — which she ignored before turning towards the camera.
Fans soon labelled both moments “awkward”, sparking apologies from the pair.
With Evans by her side, Jones said in a video shared on Instagram: “We just wanted to say we were messing around. We wanted to say sorry. It was a silly joke.”
The opera singer then addressed the controversy on his BBC Radio Wales show. “I'm absolutely heartbroken by the things that have been written about me in the last day,” he said.
“It's not nice to live in that time, but basically Katya and I are really, really close and we're really good friends, and on Saturday night we made a stupid joke.
“It was a stupid joke that went wrong, okay, we thought it was funny. It wasn't funny. It has been totally misinterpreted.”
