Strictly star blasts ITV rival show for being ‘terribly dangerous’

One of the biggest stars on Strictly Come Dancing has said that ITV’s rival show Dancing On Ice is ‘terribly dangerous’.

This Saturday night, the BBC dance competition is officially returning with the first of its live shows for 2024, after kicking off with its launch last week.

Anton Du Beke will be returning yet again to the judging panel, alongside his colleagues Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, and head judge Shirley Ballas.

Before becoming a judge on Strictly in 2021, Anton was one of the original professional dancers on the show, making his debut in the first season in 2004.

In addition to the flagship BBC series, the 58-year-old has appeared on various other TV programmes, including Anton & Giovanni’s Adventures in Spain and Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show.

However, he’s made it clear that he has absolutely no intentions of ever doing I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, while also putting Dancing On Ice on blast.

‘Dancing On Ice I think is terribly dangerous, people keep doing themselves in,’ he told Woman Magazine, as reported by The Sun.

‘I don’t want to do anything that hurts.’

In past years, several celebrities have sustained injuries on Dancing On Ice, including Olympian Greg Rutherford, who earlier this year ‘gave himself a C-section’ in a horrific, stomach-slicing ordeal.

In 2022, various competitors including Rachel Stevens and Kye Whyte hurt themselves while taking part in the same season.

The previous year, Dancing On Ice was paused by ITV for a week to protect ‘the welfare of the cast and crew’ after a string of painful incidents.

In his new interview, Anton went on to share his reasoning for avoiding I’m A Celebrity, with former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos rumoured to be joining the 2024 line-up.

‘I couldn’t do I’m a Celebrity because I’m so arachnophobic – there was a spider near me this morning and I ran around like a seven-year-old girl,’ he stated.

Anton joked that he would be ‘hysterical’ if faced with spiders on the show – so it appears an I’m A Celebrity stint isn’t on the cards for the time being.

This year’s Strictly cast boasts celebrities including Love Island star Tasha Ghouri, former Towie cast member Pete Wicks, DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles, and Gladiators icon Montell Douglas.

On Saturday night, the couples will perform their first routines of the new season, and they’ll have the safety net of knowing that no one is going to be eliminated in week one.

Instead, their scores will carry across to week two, when there will be the first dance-off and elimination of the season.

While plenty of fans are excited that Strictly has returned, the series suffered low ratings for its launch show, with 5.7 million people tuning in to watch – a decrease of a million from the year before.

‘The Beeb’s worst fear was the scandal proved a turn-off for viewers, and that seemed to come true on Saturday night,’ a TV insider told The Sun.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/30452351/strictly-fresh-blow-bullying-scandal/

‘Even with the extra people watching to see if Tess and Claudia said anything, it was a pretty disappointing figure for the launch show.

‘Now they’ll be hoping and praying there’ll be an upturn once the live shows start next week, and then the celebrities start getting voted off the week after.’

Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday night at 7pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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