Janette Manrara Strictly Exit Ends 14-Year BBC Role
Janette Manrara’s janette manrara strictly exit ends a 14-year run across Strictly Come Dancing’s main show and It Takes Two. She said she is no longer part of either programme, a shift that removes one familiar face from a franchise already changing its presenting and dance line-up.
Manrara on her role
“Strictly Come Dancing has now changed hugely. I am no longer a part of It Takes Two or the main show,” Manrara said in a YouTube video about a “crazy shift” in her life. She added, “I’ll still be involved in other ways.”
“But that just means that I’m free to pursue and do many other projects that I’ve always wanted to do and never really thought about doing,” she said. That is the practical takeaway for viewers who knew her from the franchise’s day-to-day presentation work: she is stepping away from the on-screen jobs that made her a regular presence, not disappearing from the wider Strictly orbit.
2021 to 2023 changes
In 2021, Manrara replaced Zoe Ball as host of It Takes Two and alternated with Rylan Clark. When Clark departed in 2023, Fleur East stepped in as co-host, leaving Manrara as part of a format that was already moving around her.
That makes her exit more than a routine casting change. She spent eight series as a professional dancer on Strictly, working with Julien Macdonald, Jake Wood, Peter Andre, Melvin Odoom, Aston Merrygold, Dr Ranj Singh, Will Bayley and HRVY, and reached the final for the first time with HRVY. The job list is long; the on-screen footprint is longer.
Strictly’s broader reset
In April, It Takes Two was claimed to be undergoing a big format revamp, with the show set to switch to a visualised podcast style akin to The Traitors Uncloaked. Separately, Emma Willis and Josh Widdicombe will front the main One show alongside pro dancer Johannes Radebe.
Karen Hauer, Gorka Márquez, Luba Mushtuk, Michelle Tsiakkas and Nadiya Bychkova have also departed among the professionals, so Manrara’s exit sits inside a wider reset rather than standing alone. Strictly Come Dancing returns on One and iPlayer in September, and the franchise now looks very different from the one she has known for 14 years.
