Just last month, while George Clarke and a few of his fellow Strictly Come Dancing stars were mindlessly browsing social media, something abruptly halted their progress.
After 21 and 11 years, respectively, Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman revealed in an Instagram video that they were leaving their positions as presenters of the popular BBC One program.
Not that the candidates of the current series knew – this was news to them.
“I think we found out as everybody else did, just on their socials, which I’m constantly refreshing anyway, as I’m a big fan,” podcaster and YouTuber Clarke stated.
“I don’t think anybody expected it.”
Actor Lewis Cope of Emmerdale continued, “We’d just finished on Lorraine, and we just looked at our phones and we saw it on social media.”
“We were taken aback. Later on, we were informed that it had to be that way and that they were unable to alert anyone.
“No one saw it coming,” La Voix, a drag queen and Strictly star, remarked.
In a joint statement at the time, Daly and Winkleman said that they “were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time” in response to the enormous online backlash that followed their admission.
Although it’s a difficult moment for the show after a number of scandals in recent years, it’s the right time for them.
Additionally, it was revealed on Thursday night that an unidentified Strictly star was detained on suspicion of rape last month. The individual was freed on bail while an investigation was conducted, according to Hertfordshire Police.
The current Strictly series is not thought to be connected to this development.