BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Claudia Winkleman says…

BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Claudia Winkleman says she's 'fired' after dropping series hint on The One Show

Claudia Winkleman joked she was at risk of being 'fired' from Strictly Come Dancing as she was quizzed about the series during her latest TV interview. The presenter, who hosts the BBC One hit alongside Tess Daly, was on The One Show on Thursday night (June 23).

While she was on the magazine programme to chat to Alex Jones and Gethin Jones about her new game show, One Question, which airs on Channel 4 tonight (Friday), it didn't take long for the presenting pair to try and get some details on the dance contest from the woman who you'd think would be in the know.

Or maybe not. "They don't tell me anything," Claudia admitted to Alex and Gethin. "They tell me after they tell Tess and the press because I'm leaky." Gethin then pressed: "We'll have some new faces though, won't we? With Oti [Mabuse] and Aljaz [Skorjanec] leaving, we're going to have some new pro dancers?"

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"There are going to be, I think, some new..." Claudia said before stopping her tracks. She then shook her head and said: "I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that. Maybe I won't." The 50-year-old then joked: "I've just been fired. My phone just buzzed!" However, she did then finish by saying: "But yeah, there might be a few new pro dancers."

Strictly announced which professional dancers would be returning to the show back at the end of March. The big reveal came days after fans were left gutted when show favourite Aljaz announced that he was quitting after nine years. His exit comes after his wife, Janette Manrara, also left the show as a professional dancer before the 2021 series and became a host of its BBC Two spin-off, It Takes Two.

Aljaz's own announcement also came weeks after Oti Mabuse, who has lifted the Glitterball trophy twice during her seven years on the show, also announced she was set to leave after bagging a place on the Dancing On Ice judging panel and landing her own ITV dating show.

Claudia hosts the hit BBC show alongside Tess Daly (BBC/Guy Levy)

BBC announced that the professional dancers returning for Strictly Come Dancing 2022 are Dianne Buswell, Nadiya Bychkova, Graziano Di Prima, Amy Dowden, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Cameron Lombard, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk, Giovanni Pernice, Jowita Przystal, Johannes Radebe, Kai Widdrington and Nancy Xu.

Then last month, it was confirmed that the show's former longest-serving professional dancer Anton Du Beke will officially replace Brun Tonioli on the panel after impressing bosses and viewers during his stint last year. He hung up his dancing shoes during the 2021 series, which was won by Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice, to act as judge in place of Bruno who couldn't commit to the series due to travel restrictions between the UK and USA where he also works on Dancing With the Stars.

After fans feared Anton, who also did a two-week stint filling in on the judging panel in 2020, was missing from the professional dancer's line-up earlier this year, the BBC confirmed he'll return as a judge alongside Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.

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