Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two host Janette Manrara has confirmed she is “no longer part” of the BBC show.
Manrara first joined Strictly in 2013 as a professional dancer and competed on the show for a total of eight seasons, dancing with the likes of celebrity partners Jake Wood, Peter Andre, Melvin Odoom, Aston Merrygold and Dr Ranj Singh.
She didn’t manage to lift the Glitterball trophy but finished as a runner-up with HRVY in 2020, after which she moved from the main show to take over from Zoe Ball as host of It Takes Two alongside Rylan Clark and later Fleur East.
Now, in a YouTube video titled The Reinvention shared to her personal channel, Manrara has announced that her time on Strictly’s main show and its companion show has come to end.
Speaking of a “crazy shift” in her life, Manrara confirmed: “Strictly Come Dancing has now changed hugely. I’m no longer part of It Takes Two or the main show.
“I’ll still be involved in other ways, but that just means that I’m free to pursue and do many other projects that I’ve always wanted to do and never really thought about doing.”
She continued: “Strictly is all I’ve ever known for the last 14 years so it is a bit like, ‘Oh, we’re going into a different world, a different space, how are we going to navigate that?'”
The BBC declined to comment on the news when approached by Radio Times, but stated: “Further plans for Strictly Come Dancing 2026 will be confirmed in due course.”
It Takes Two co-presenter Fleur East has yet to publicly speak about her own future with the BBC show.
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Manrara’s exit follows rumours earlier in the year that both presenters of the Strictly companion show had been dropped, though the BBC said in a statement at the time that it was “factually incorrect to claim that either has been axed”.
It was recently suggested that It Takes Two will be getting a major overhaul when the companion series returns in September.
Reports suggest that upon its return, it will be in the form of a visualised podcast, similar to The Traitors: Uncloaked and The Apprentice: Unfinished Business.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and iPlayer later this year.
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Authors
Phoebe Kowhai Barnes is a Freelance Writer who covers pop culture and entertainment programmes for the Radio Times. She previously worked as the Senior Assistant Editor at The Tab where she managed its local department. She obtained a BA (Hons) in English Literature from University of Nottingham.
