Strictly Come Dancing fans have celebrated the show’s win at the National Television Awards after the BBC dance competition’s months of tumult.
The series has been embroiled in numerous scandals in recent years, including Wynne Evans’s sexual remarks during the Strictly tour, Graziano Di Prima’s firing, and Amanda Abbington’s bullying accusations against professional dancer Giovanni Pernice.
Strictly won the award for best talent show at the NTAs on Wednesday (10 September), beating competition from much-loved programmes including The Great British Bake Off and Britain’s Got Talent.
The award was collected by 2024 contestants Pete Wicks, JB Gill, Tasha Ghouri and Montell Douglas, rather than presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, who were pre-recording the 2025 launch show.
Wicks gave a special shout out to the show’s fans and its backstage crew during his acceptance speech and subsequent press interviews.
“The reason it’s been going for 20 years, and the reason it’s a national institution, is because of the people that make it and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life,” he said in the winners’ room.
Meanwhile, Gill praised last year’s Strictly winners comedian Chris McCausland and his professional partner Dianne Buswell for “making history” after McCausland became the first blind winner of the show.
Fans were elated to see the show win the best talent show award. One viewer wrote on X/Twitter: “Congrats to Strictly for winning the NTA… a year that will never be forgotten!!”
Last year, professional dancers Pernice and Di Prima both left the show after being accused of misconduct by their celebrity partners.
Pernice was accused by his 2023 partner Abbington of “bullying” behaviour, which he denied. An internal investigation upheld “some, but not all” of the complaints.
Meanwhile, Di Prima was axed from the show in July last year following claims that he kicked and spat at his celebrity partner,z Zara McDermott. The dancer, who admitted that he kicked McDermott once, said he deeply regretted the events that led to his departure.
In January this year, Wynne Evans stepped back from his BBC radio show and the Strictly Come Dancing tour after a video emerged of him making sexual remarks to a woman during the launch, which he apologised for.
Ahead of the forthcoming series, controversy has also surrounded contestant Thomas Skinner, who snatched a phone out of a reporter’s hand and walked out of a press event ahead of the new series’ launch this week.
Mail Online reported that the former Apprentice star objected to being taped and grabbed a reporter’s phone before storming out of the interview.
Skinner later issued a statement apologising for picking up the journalist’s phone and said he had become upset after seeing messages on the reporter’s device about a “personal story” from his past.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One on Saturday 20 September.
