Strictly Come Dancing’s James Jordan has revealed how BBC dancing professionals ‘struggle’ after being brutally axed with just a month’s notice.
The dancing professional, 47, competed on the Saturday night show for eight years between 2006 to 2013 – alongside his wife Ola, 43, who left in 2015.
And now he has opened up on the impact of being dropped from Strictly suddenly has on the professional dancers.
He candidly said: ‘I’ve seen it happen to many of my friends on the show when I was on there, that all of a sudden they get told ‘you’re not coming back to the show’ and it’s not until June.
‘So you’ve kept your diary free August, September, October, November, December, but you get told in June you’re not coming back and that’s quite a hit in the balls, you know what I mean? It’s like, ‘wow, okay’.
‘I understand why some people struggle when they don’t get asked to come back to the show.’
Strictly Come Dancing’s James Jordan, 47, has revealed how BBC dancing professionals ‘struggle’ after being brutally axed with just four weeks notice (pictured in 2012)
The dancing professional competed on Strictly for eight years between 2006 to 2013 – alongside his wife Ola, 43, who left in 2015 (both pictured in 2011)
Continuing to speak to The Sun, James confessed that one year during the Strictly: Professionals tour, some of his pals on the competition were told how they had been axed from the next TV series but would be still expected to finish the rest of the tour.
Daily Mail has contacted the BBC for a comment.
His comments come after James suggested that half of the cast of the dancing competition should be axed and replaced with fresh faces.
He admitted he was keen to see an entire shaken up, including the judging panel, in ‘changes’ to the BBC series.
James hit out that ‘new dancers’ should be given a chance at the limelight, taking over from a string of pros who have been there for many years.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the father-of-one said: ‘I know it’s a big thing to suggest, but we need a shake-up of professional dancers.
‘You have to know when to hang up your dance shoes, and I think there’s a few people on there that maybe need to think about that.
‘They’ve been on there a long time, they’ve had their time, and now let someone else younger and fresh come on – let’s get rid of 50 per cent of them and bring in some new ones, some young British dancers.
He told the publication: ‘I’ve seen it happen to many of my friends on the show when I was on there, that all of a sudden they get told ‘you’re not coming back to the show’ (pictured in 2013)
‘I’m not gonna necessarily mention names because I don’t think it’s fair on the stars, but there’s people that have been on there a long time have had their day.
‘Especially when we’ve got so many amazing dancers out there, homegrown dancers as well – it’s a British show and there’s not enough British dancers.’
It’s not just the pros that James is keen to see replaced, as he also hit out that he thought it was time the judging panel featured someone new.
The last time the judging panel was shaken up was back in 2022, when Anton Du Beke replaced Bruno Tonioli to join Motsi Mabuse, who joined in 2019 to replace Darcey Bussell, Shirley Ballas, who joined in 2017 to replace the late Len Goodman and original judge Craig Revel Horwood.
James, who was speaking in conjunction with Freebets, continued: ‘Mix them up, too, get someone on there, maybe a previous Strictly pro that is maybe a little bit outspoken and not afraid to say what they think.’
