BBC have said that the Celebrity Line Up Annoucements will be delayed to allow for Olympic Heros to be signed up for this years show.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...es-heroes.html

Now that makes things very interesting (and worrying) IF this report is correct.

The 2015 Red Carpet event was broadcast on Wed 2nd Sept, with the Launch Show on Sat 5th Sept, and the first show on Week 1 on Fri 25th Sept.

If the lineup won't be finalised until early Sept, then surely the Launch show will have to be a week or two later, with a similar delay to the first competitive show. So, either there will be fewer contestants this year, or they will have to have at least one extra "double week" of a Fri/Sat with maybe a double elimination.... my money would be on fewer contestants.

More likely is as they drip feed the contestants announcement as they have done the last 2 year they will leave 2 to 4 spaces that will be announced last for olympicians who they probably have talk to before the Olympics through their agents but will only confirm them after they finish their event even though the Olympics themselves finished on the 21st many events finish a lot earlier swimming for example.

They are not going to have a lineup of Olympic stars and no one else so the story doesn't make sense tbh as the lineup is never announced well in advance of the launch show anyways and things change like the celeb that apparently dropped out last minute leaving Jo without a celeb

do we know who it was that dropped out at last minuite?

No idea

In series 11, discussions with celebrities and their agents began in May, the line-up was confirmed on August 1st, public announcements of the cast began on August 29th, and the Launch Show aired on September 7th. It wouldn't take too much fritzing of that timeline to be able to fit some Olympians in.

Very much agree. Can't see there'd be any problem to fit in an announcement about one or two Olympians at the end of August. It's not as if there would be hordes of ex-Olympians on this year's Strictly.

Always have to take the tabloids with a pinch of salt anyway - they want people to 'click' on their Web pages so the headlines are always dramatic to attract attention.

(And the Sun is also owned by the same business which owns Sky - so it likes to make a big fuss over any minor BBC problems.)

I'm still not sure anyone actually did..
It seems to be some sort of assumption because there were an uneven number of male to female celebs - but it's been that way since series 11 and just followed the same schedule (series 11 one more female than male, series 12 one more male than female, this series back to one more female).

heres something I thought of that may fit, remember that it was said CJ from Eggheads was dropped from the line up when he said he wanted to dance with a same sex partner IF this is true maybe he was planned to be partnered with Joanne and when he was dropped they relegated her to ITT from professional dancer? This could actually be possible

He was never in the line up. The BBC said at the time that they never approached him or had any plans to as the only person they wanted from Eggheads was Jeremy Vine. CJ's agent 'offered them the opportunity to consider him', they didn't, so he embellished the story - I guess for publicity for himself and the whole same sex dance couples thing.

BBC have apparently now denied claims that the line up announcements are to be delayed.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/05/15/bbc-de...letes-5883423/

What they have denied is that they have ever had a set time to announce the celebs. The BBC could be arguing that the claim that the announcements will be delayed is speculation because there is no fixed reference point to compare the dates to.

It doesn't mean that they aren't going to delay the announcements.

do we know how long the delay will be at all?

then we have an idea how many contestants and weeks there will be this year

Jess Ennis-Hill, would be very worth waiting for........