Did Strictly Decide Against Same-Sex Couple?

The debate over the possibility of a same-sex couple on Strictly was raised again this week, when Eggheads panelist CJ de Moori claimed his talks to join the show came to nothing because he wanted a male partner.

CJ told the Daily Mirror: “I can’t believe they picked Jeremy [Vine] over me. I’m quite upset. It’s because I wanted to dance in a same-sex couple. Someone at the BBC told me at least for the foreseeable future neither Strictly Come Dancing or the US version Dancing With The Stars will have a same-sex couple on. How disappointing.”

A BBC spokesman said: “Strictly Come Dancing is a family show and we’ve chosen the traditional format of mixed-sex couples. At the moment we’ve no plans to introduce same-sex couples.”

And an unnamed source suggested that CJ was never approached to take part in the show: “We never approached nor had any plans to approach CJ to participate in this year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing. CJ’s agent gave us the opportunity to consider him but there was only one person we ever wanted from Eggheads and that was Jeremy Vine and we are delighted that we got our man.”