Anton Du Beke admits he ‘doesn’t know’ if he’s returning to Strictly panel – despite being missing from dancer line up

ANTON Du Beke has admitted he still doesn’t know if he’s returning to the Strictly judging panel again this year.

Fans were convinced the 56-year-old’s place had already been confirmed as he was missing from the dancer line-up, which was released last week.

BBCAnton du Beke admitted he still doesn’t know what his Strictly future holds[/caption]

BBCAnton joined Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood and Shirley Ballas on the panel last year[/caption]

But in a new interview, Anton revealed he’d yet to have the conversation with show bosses and hoped he’d be on the show as a dancer at least if not judging.

He explained to Great British Life: “The absolute truth is that I don’t know. I haven’t been told. They literally haven’t spoken to me about it.

“So, whatever you’ve read, it is just a rumour. I’m hoping to get a call to say: “Look, here you go, come back judging please,” but we’ll wait and see.”

He continued: “I would like to think I’d be on the show in one way or another. I wouldn’t like to think they would just get rid of me altogether. That would be a bit dramatic to go from dancer to judge to off the show. That would be quite a career path, wouldn’t it?”

His comments comes after Craig Revel Horwood appeared to confirm that Bruno Tonioli would not be returning following Anton’s success.

He said: “I really love Anton. I think he is fantastic. I think last year he did a great job on Strictly as a judge.

“And we have just found out he is going to do it again this year.”

Anton accompanied Craig, Motsi Mabuse and head judge Shirley Ballas on the juggernaut show in 2021.

Bruno was missing from the main panel across both the 2020 and 2021 series due to the pandemic, making his weekly trips between Los Angeles and London impossible. 

After video calling in throughout 2020, he was officially replaced by Anton in 2021.

It was revealed Motsi had already signed her contract for the 2022 series back in December, and so had Craig and Shirley.

Bruno Tonioli has not returned since the start of Covid made things very difficult