Strictly Come Dancing 2017 winner Joe McFadden ‘refuses to open new series over feud with producers’

The dance champion has reportedly fallen out with the show
No Go: McFadden will not be performing
PA
Safeeyah Kazi31 August 2018

Strictly Come Dancing 2017 champion Joe McFadden has reportedly refused to open the new series over a feud with producers.

The 42-year-old, who became the oldest contestant to claim the glitzy trophy, has supposedly dropped out of launching the 16th series after reports that bosses wouldn’t let him perform his chosen dance, according to the Daily Mirror.

The show has welcomed previous winners Caroline Flack, Ore Oduba and Jay McGuiness to showcase their signature dances ahead of the following seasons.

A source told the publication: “Joe didn’t want to do the dance selected but they wouldn’t let him do something else. It’s a shame.

Champion: McFadden stole the show in 2017
BBC

“Every year, the winner is invited back to perform a standout routine – for Ore Oduba that was his jive, Jay McGuiness did his Pulp Fiction jive, and Caroline Flack came back to salsa again.”

A spokesperson for Strictly Come Dancing told the Standard: “It is a Strictly Come Dancing tradition that we invite last year's winners back for an encore performance to kick-off the new series.

“However, sadly on this occasion Joe isn't able to perform.”

Standard Online has contact representatives of McFadden for comment.

During last year’s finale, Holby City star McFadden told Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman: “This feels complete surreal. I’m so in awe of everyone who started all those weeks ago.

McFadden’s Viennese Waltz was described as “perfect” by Shirley Ballas earlier in the show, while his Charleston was called simply “fabulous" by Craig Revel Horwood.

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One next month

Strictly Come Dancing 2018 launch

1/26

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in