London
CNN
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“Strictly Come Dancing,” Britain’s model of the hit TV present “Dancing with the Stars,” introduced that chaperones will accompany celebrities when coaching with their skilled dance companions, after two of its dancers left following allegations of abuse.
The BBC, which produces the present, additionally introduced in a statement Tuesday that it has created two new roles particularly “devoted to welfare help” for the celebrities and dancers and it’ll “ship additional coaching for the manufacturing crew and crew.”
These modifications come after two dancers – Giovanni Pernice and Graziano di Prima – left the favored present following complaints from their celeb companions about their coaching strategies when rehearsing for every weekly episode, through which {couples} dance in entrance of a reside studio viewers and hope to keep away from elimination through a public vote.
Actress Amanda Abbington, who partnered Pernice for the 2023 season final fall, told Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper that her look on “Strictly Come Dancing” and its aftermath has been the “worst expertise … and horrible.”
“After I’m in a rehearsal room I be sure that it’s a pleasant place the place everybody feels secure and looks like they’re having a pleasant time,” she mentioned. “And that courtesy wasn’t prolonged to me.”
The BBC directed CNN to Tuesday’s statement when requested for a response to Abbington’s reported feedback.
Abbington give up the present in October due to “private causes,” she mentioned on the time. Prime London regulation agency Carter-Ruck confirmed to CNN on Wednesday that it’s representing her however declined to remark additional.
Pernice has repeatedly denied Abbington’s allegations, calling them “false” and rejecting “any suggestion of abusive or threatening behaviour,” in two statements posted on Instagram.
“I’m cooperating absolutely with the continued BBC investigation, which can decide the reality. As requested, I’ve stayed silent, however I’m trying ahead to the conclusion of the investigation and in the end clearing my identify,” he added.
Throughout its 20-year run, the BBC present has change into a British cultural touchstone, spawning a US model and routinely posting excessive scores at the same time as reside TV has struggled to draw viewers.
However the disaster surrounding it deepened on Saturday when one other skilled dancer, Di Prima, was pressured to go away the present over occasions he says “he deeply regrets.”
“My intense ardour and dedication to win may need affected my coaching regime,” he mentioned on Instagram. “Respecting the BBC HR course of, I perceive it’s finest for the present that I step away.”
As media studies emerged afterward that the BBC had uncovered movies of incidents involving actuality star and TV host Zara McDermott, who was his accomplice final season, she launched an announcement on her Instagram story saying that these movies “are extremely distressing to observe.”
“I’ve wrestled with the concern of opening up – I used to be scared about public backlash, I used to be scared about my future, I used to be fearful of sufferer shaming,” she mentioned in an announcement that was broadly reported by native media shops. “However after quite a lot of conversations with these I really like, I’ve gained the power to face these fears, and when requested to talk to the BBC, I spoke candidly about my time on the present.”