The full line up of judges and professional dancers for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing have been confirmed after angering BBC bosses in a row over pay rises.
Presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will be back in the ballroom overseeing proceedings each weekend as a host of brand new celebrity contestants take to the floor in a bid to lift the coveted Glitterball Trophy.
Behind the judges desk once again will be the acid tongued adjudicator Craig Revel Horwood, Let’s Dance Germany judge Motsi Mabuse, NTA Award winning judge Anton Du Beke and The Queen of Latin Shirley Ballas who will return as head judge.
Onto the dancefloor itself and viewers can look forward to seeing some of the most talented Latin and Ballroom professional dancers from all across the globe as Dianne Buswell, Nadiya Bychkova, Graziano Di Prima, Amy Dowden, Karen Hauer, Katya Jones, Neil Jones, Nikita Kuzmin, Gorka Marquez, Luba Mushtuk, Giovanni Pernice, Jowita Przystal, Johannes Radebe, Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, Carlos Gu, Lauren Oakley, Michelle Tsiakkas and Vita Coppola all take to the floor once more, promising viewers an abundance of spectacular routines.
Confirmed: The full line up of judges and professional dancers for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing have been confirmed after angering BBC bosses in a row over pay rises
Coming soon: Dianne Buswell, Gorka Marquez, Karen Hauer, Cameron Lombard, Luba Mushtuk, Kai Widdrington, Nadiya Bychkova, Neil Jones, Katya Jones and Graziano Di Prima will return to the dancefloor this year
In addition to all this, Dave Arch and his wonderful band will once again provide the soundtrack to Saturday and Sunday nights all across the UK.
The announcement comes after the Strictly judges reportedly backed down in their bid to receive an 11 per cent salary rise ahead of the BBC dance competition show‘s new season.
According to The Sun they have now accepted an offer of between 3 and 5 per cent.
Head judge Shirley is reportedly already earning £500,000, Motsi and Craig rake in £200,000, while Anton is believed to be on £180,000.
A source told the publication ‘There was a real stand off between the judges and the Beeb on this issue, with neither side willing to budge for weeks.
‘Thankfully they reached this resolution and are now breathing a sigh of relief and able to look forward to the new series.
‘The show simply felt that curing a cost of living crisis, and at a time when the licence fee has been frozen, they couldn’t justify an 11 per cent rise.’
The insider added that those involved with the show began to feel like the pay row was becoming a distraction from the upcoming 21st series this autumn.
The BBC has been contacted by MailOnline for comment on the matter.
It comes after the show’s professional dancers reportedly slammed the judges for demanding a huge pay rise.
Despite training for long hours, the dancers – who include Giovanni Pernice, Dianne Buswell and Johannes Radebe – are paid flat fees of around £35,000 for their work on the programme.
The dancers apparently took to their group chat on WhatsApp in the wake of the news to slam the judges and are also considering asking for a pay rise.
BBC bosses were also ‘incandescent with anger’ after the demand for a salary increase.
Agreement: They have now accepted an offer of between 3 and 5 per cent
Moneybags: The initially requested rise would have seen head judge Ms Ballas, who currently earns £500,000 for her three month stint, earning a staggering £15,960 per hour on the show
A BBC source told the Daily Mail: ‘While there is always some negotiation that goes on when new contracts are signed each year, this is something else.
‘Their jobs are some of the very best on television and they are already very well remunerated for their work so when these negotiations began this time around, there was shock and anger.
‘It is also not like they spend any other time working behind the scenes like the professional dancers. They turn up, get their make up done and go in front of the camera.
‘The professional dancers work tirelessly for weeks on end and they work themselves to the bone for the smidgen of what the judges already earn, let alone what they want to earn.
‘You would think that they would be aware that they work for the BBC and that they are essentially paid for by the British public through the licence fee.’
MailOnline contacted representatives for Shirley Ballas, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke, and BBC spokespeople for further comment at the time.
This came after Shirley was reportedly given a ‘take it or leave it’ deal by Strictly bosses to stay on the show, after she revealed she may quit over online trolling.
The head judge and Latin expert was subjected to much criticism last year in which trolls slammed her decisions and accused her of ageism and sexism.
But despite previously threatening to quit, Shirley has been in talks with bosses over a potential return to Strictly, revealing on the Jonathan Ross show on Sunday that ‘their people are talking to my people’.
Shirley joined the judging panel as head judge in 2017, following the departure of Len Goodman.
Shirley recently hinted that she may not return to Strictly Come Dancing this year following the torrent of vile online abuse she received during the last series.
Negotiations: This comes after Shirley was reportedly given a ‘take it or leave it’ deal by Strictly bosses to stay on the show, after she revealed she may quit over online trolling
In a candid interview, she indicated the previous series may have been her last as she’d hit an ‘all-time low’ after the abuse ‘snowballed out of control’.
The ballroom dancer told how she was constantly left in tears after every show and struggled in silence, telling how it was ‘the most negativity’ she had ever faced.
She told the Mirror: ‘Last year I was struggling. It wasn’t just a little bit, it was a lot – the majority of it was in silence. I felt the abuse snowballed out of control and impacted me in such a negative way. I’m a pretty stoic person, and I tend to hold everything in.’
She explained that when the abuse began, it seemed ‘larger than anything else’, with the star telling how it left her ‘crying and emotional’, while she was ’embarrassed’ about how she felt and didn’t confide in anyone.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk