Starting a conversation about Strictly Come Dancing will usually always lead to talk of the infamous 'Strictly Curse'. For those of you not familiar with this reality tv 'curse', there seems to be a common theme between some celebrity dancer, leaving their significant other and coupling up with their professional Strictly partner.
Aside from the dreaded curse, Strictly has definitely had its fair share of divas, drama and scandal.
Strictly Come Dancing: Drugs scandal
In April 2016, it was alleged that two of the Strictly professional dancers were among over 100 top sports man to be given performance enhancing drugs which has once again, recently rocked the sporting industry. Dr Mark Bonar was filmed by undercover journalists posing as an Olympic hopeful and his relative, prescribing the drugs in question and talking about how to avoid being caught.
However, the BBC said it did not know who the dancers were and saw nothing which proved the allegations. A spokesperson for the BBC said: "In the absence of any evidence or further information being presented to us, we will not be commenting."
Ola Jordan: Professional dancers are not paid enough
Ola Jordan ruffled feathers a while back when she suggested that the professional dancers on Strictly were not paid enough, especially compared to their judging colleagues. She then went onto to say that they didn't know enough about ballroom! Let's just say Bruno Tonioli did not agree and didn't hold back in his reply: "Those are the terms of the negotiations. If you don’t like it, stop moaning and fuck off."
Anastacia given special treatment on Strictly Come Dancing
There were claims that singer and last year's contestant Anastacia was given 'special treatment' when she found herself in the bottom two with KISS FM radio presenter Melvin Odoom. The show decided that there would be no dance off between the pair due to Anastacia's torn mastectomy scar tissue, with eviction imminent for whoever had the lowest number of votes. This consequently meant that Melvin was voted off, but viewers were left angry and claimed that her 'free passes' into the following week's shows were unfair.
Strictly Come Dancing forced to defend racist claims
Strictly bosses were forced to defend claims of racism when Tameka Empson became the second black celebrity to be voted off the show, following radio presenter Melvin Odoom's exit the week before. Tameka found herself in the bottom two even though she scored 28 points for her tango, which is pretty good for week 2 on Strictly.
Strictly's John Sergeant pulled out because he was scared he'd win
Admittedly this wasn't a scandal in the negative sense, but the fact that former ITV political editor John Sergeant had to actually pull out of the show with his partner Kristina Rihanoff because he was worried that he might undeservedly win the series, was just brilliant.
He admitted afterwards: "I am sorry to say that I have decided to leave Strictly Come Dancing. It was always my intention to have fun on the show and I was hoping to stay in as long as possible. The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far. I would like to thank Kristina and all those viewers who have been rooting for me through the series."