Jordan – who quit the BBC ballroom show in 2013 – made the claims during Saturday night’s launch show which saw Will Young paired with Karen Clifton and Louise Redknapp partnered with Kevin Clifton.
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I was like “I don’t like this, I don’t like this” can I not wear glitter’.
TV star Judge Rinder is with Oksana Platero, while Olympic gymnast Claudia Fragapane is with fellow new Strictly pro dancer AJ Pritchard.
Yvette Cooper MP, Balls’ wife, admitted that her husband was in “a bit of a state of shock & trauma” after watching his performance on the pre-recorded show.
Robert Rinder, who hosts his own reality court show on ITV, said he had been taken aback by the pleasant atmosphere among the celebrity cast.
The other pairings are singer Will Young and Karen Clifton, Olympic athlete Greg Rutherford with Natalie Lowe, Hollyoaks hunk Danny Mac is with Oti Mabuse, former Xtra Factor presenter Melvin Odoom is with Janette Manrara, sports presenter Ore Oduba is with Joanne Clifton, and actress Tameka Empson with Gorka Marquez.
James recently weighed in with his thoughts on who should replace Len Goodman on the panel when he steps down at the end of this year, while also suggesting he wouldn’t be sorry to see the back of Craig Revel Horwood or Bruno Tonioli.
Strictly’s viewing figures are 600,000 up on previous year, when an average of 8.7 million tuned in.
Meanwhile, ratings for ITV’s The X Factor improved from last weekend, when its series opener got an average audience of 6.8 million – its lowest for an opening show in 10 years.
Strictly beat this Saturday’s episode of The X Factor, which was watched by 8.3 million viewers (39%) and peaked with 9.2 million.
However, The Great British Bake Off, which averaged 13.6 million viewers in its launch episode on 24 August, remains the most watched show this year.
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Rehearsals had been hard though, with Ms Joseph calling her first experience of Strictly dancing “a baptism of fire”.
