Giovanni Pernice has been notably left off the 2024 professional dancers line-up for Strictly Come Dancing 2024, confirming that he has left the show.
The official lineup of professional dancers for the show's 20th anniversary year has been announced today (Monday, June 10) with the news all four judges, Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel-Horwood and Anton Du Beke will also be returning for the new series.
However, Giovanni, who's faced allegations about his teaching methods — which he has rejected — against him from some of his former dance partners, won't be joining Strictly Come Dancing for the show's milestone birthday.
During his time on the show, Giovanni lifted the Glitterball in 2021 alongside former EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis, and made it to the final in 2015 with Georgia May Foote, in 2017 with Debbie McGee and in 2018 with Faye Tozer.
Some of his other partners have included Laura Whitmore, Michelle Visage, Ranvir Singh and, most recently, Amanda Abbington.
The official lineup of professional dancers for 2024 instead includes Dianne Buswell, Nadiya Bychkova, Graziano Di Prima, Amy Dowden, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk, Jowita Przystal, Johannes Radebe, Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, Carlos Gu, Lauren Oakley, Michelle Tsiakkas and Vito Coppola.
It has also been confirmed that Tess Daly, who has presented the show ever since it started back in 2004, and Claudia Winkleman will be on presenting duties once again, while the show will also return to the iconic Tower Ballroom in Blackpool.
Sarah James, Executive Producer says: “This year Strictly marks two decades of entertaining the nation and we will be back with a bang in September as we celebrate in style with our incredible team both on and off screen.”
While we are still waiting to see which celebrities will be taking to the dancefloor, it has been revealed that the show will once again return to our screens in September, so we shouldn't have too much longer before the names are announced.
Strictly Come Dancing will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year.
