Claudia Winkleman, Tess Daly and a number of professional dancers aren’t the only ones to leave Strictly Come Dancing ahead of its big changes this year, with a key figure behind-the-scenes also waltzing away from the show.
Strictly: It Takes Two executive producer Eve Winstanley has revealed that she’s left the series after 10 years. It comes months after reports that the companion show format would face a major update for Strictly’s forthcoming 2026 series.
Taking to LinkedIn, the producer said that she knew it was time to leave the show and “hand over to a new team to freshen things up” earlier this year.
“I started on Strictly: It Takes Two as a young 20-something Assistant Producer, who at the time had not long finished working on the first series of Dancing on Ice,” she wrote. “I simply had no idea that the world of glitter and sequins would become such a massive part of my life.
“Across 16 series, I had 5 different job roles, culminating in 10 fab-u-lous years as Exec. I couldn't be prouder of being part of this iconic brand, but earlier this year I knew it was time to hang up my dancing shoes (in my head I'm a pro dancer) and hand over to a new team to freshen things up.”
She added that she’s “so excited for what the future holds” and teased that she has “fun new projects in the pipeline”, before ending with the show’s classic catchphrase: “Keep dancing!”
Winstanley also updated her LinkedIn job experience, listing herself as an executive producer on Netflix’s Love is Blind UK: The Reunion from July onwards. She worked in the same role on the show both last year and in 2024.
Outside of Strictly, the producer has worked on The Apprentice: You’re Fired, BBC quiz show The Finish Line and on Channel 4’s Naked Attraction.
Strictly Come Dancing is receiving a major overhaul ahead of its 2026 series and it’s not just the main series which is getting a big update. It was reported earlier this year that the companion show, It Takes Two, would become a vodcast.
There is definitely a creative renewal on the table for It Takes Two, and they are poised to sign off on the radical option of a vodcast,” a source told The Sun at the time.
While the BBC told The Independent that it was “factually incorrect” to say that hosts Janette Manrara and Fleur East had been “axed” from the show, Manrara revealed last month that she had officially been dropped from her presenting role.
“Strictly Come Dancing has changed hugely, and I am no longer a part of It Takes Two or the main show,” she told her YouTube followers, adding that she will “still be involved in other ways”.
Her former co-host East is yet to be reveal whether she will still have a role on the companion show, however she admitted in May that she was “bothered” by not being considered to replace Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on the main show. The duo, who presented Strictly for over a decade together, announced their exit last year.
Strictly will return in September, with Josh Widdicombe, Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe making their debut as its new hosts. So far, EastEnders’ Lacey Turner, Love Island’s Dani Dyer, singer Delta Goodrem and hair stylist Chris Appleton have been confirmed in the celebrity line-up.
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