Thomas Skinner has been hitting headlines after he stormed out of an interview ahead of his Strictly Come Dancing stint
BBC bosses have reportedly held ‘crisis meetings’ about Thomas Skinner’s future on Strictly Come Dancing ahead of its launch this month. When it was first announced that The Apprentice star was taking part in the BBC dance competition, fans were divided over the reveal.
It comes as he stormed out of an interview on Tuesday after snatching a reporter’s phone. The Apprentice star told reporters ‘I’m not doing this’ before he stormed out of a roundtable interview with several journalists at the BBC’s Elstree Studios on Tuesday. The 34-year-old grabbed a reporter’s phone as they asked him to stop.
And now, it has been said that bosses are discussing whether the star, best known for his social media output these days, should stay on the show.
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A source said to DailyMail: “This is exactly what Strictly did not need. With all the recent controversy, bosses wanted this series to be smooth sailing, but Thomas is already causing havoc.
“It’s unprecedented for a celebrity to walk out of the show’s media launch day and bosses think it’s really bad form.”
The Mirror have reached out to the BBC for comment.
Hours before Thomas stormed out of the interview, BBC boss Tim Davie, 58, had addressed the decision to cast Thomas on the new series. It was whilst he was speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee about the corporation, including on Strictly, earlier today.
Tim said: “That was not my decision. That was the production team looking for those people that they thought would … you’ve got two criteria; those people who want to do Strictly and those people they thought would be interesting to the audience.”
He also spoke about presenter Narinder Kaur who previously questioned the decision to cast Thomas. As part of her criticism of the show, Narinder said that she had been told that she was “too controversial” for Strictly herself.
Speaking about Narinder, Tim said he had “never heard that” when asked about claims she was rejected for the show. He continued by saying to the committee: “I’m not involved directly, that’s not disowning it, it’s just day to day.
“It’s for BBC Studios to propose to the commissioner of entertainment who they think they can get … one is who will take part, because it’s quite a commitment, three months in full training. And the second is, who are people that they think would make a good balance in terms of the cast, and my goodness, they’ve done a good job in terms of creating a phenomenal show.”
He added: “Clearly, we wouldn’t take anyone whose views are y’know just beyond the pale, or we would see as completely unacceptable or not suitable, racist views, all those things, we wouldn’t accept them. But that’s not the case here, from what I know, I’m not an expert on the individual, per se.”
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