Strictly Come Dancing legends have spoken out about the show's longevity after it was hit by a number of scandals in the past year.
Vincent Simone who featured on the hit BBC dance show - which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year - between 2006 and 2012 and believes that the programme's immense popularity will see it remain on screens for a long time to come.
Vincent told BANG Showbiz: "I think it will carry on for at least another 10 years. I mean, I don’t see why not.
"We meet all the Strictly fans who come and see our own shows and they just love it too much. It’s the best excuse to get together, families or friends, a bunch of ladies, and they just gossip about the show, they just get entertained from amazing dancing or, you know, fit celebrities.
"There is everything in that show and every year you have the variety because you get 16 new celebrities joining the show so it's going to be fresh. You can’t say, ‘Oh it’s always the same thing’, yes, they might do the same dances but every person is so individual, especially when they have character and personality.
"It’s an amazing show. I can’t see it ever ending but I will say at least another 10 years just by meeting the fans at the stage door afterwards, they’re just obsessed with the show. They will always watch it, no matter what."
It comes as Vincent will appear with ex-Strictly pros Ian Waite, James Jordan, Brendan Cole and Pasha Kovalev in The Return of the Legends tour this autumn and revealed that the shows will be bigger and better than last year's sell-out tour.
Strictly has been rocked by scandals in recent years – including the complaints made by Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington about her professional partner Giovanni Pernice's conduct when she took part in the show in 2023 – but Ian is hopeful that the safeguarding measures introduced by bosses will prevent the same thing from happening again.
He said: "This is an isolated case I think. In general the pros are really professional and really hard-working. In my experience, we’ve all worked really hard, we’ve all done competitions, we’re all at the top of our game and that’s why we’re on Strictly.
"Hopefully the safeguarding is in place now so that that won’t happen again and I think that’s the best for everybody really because it protects not only the celebrities but it protects the pros - because who’s to say we won’t be abused."
Speaking about the upcoming tour, Vincent added: "We’ve got a semi-new show coming up and we’re all looking forward to it because obviously it’s been nearly a year. It will be nice to be back all together and come out bigger than last year.
"We’re also gonna have our solos which for me personally are the most special numbers in the show, when each individual couple gets the stage on their own and for me that’s just magic.
"Everybody has the chance to showcase their talent and their own style of dance. I’ll be doing my Argentine Tangos, Ian will be doing his beautiful ballroom dances and Pasha, the Latin king, will be doing his Samba numbers and so on."
The Return of the Legends tours nationwide from September 5 until October 17.
