Strictly Come Dancing’s Nikita Kuzmin breaks his silence on bullying scandal ahead of first live show

Strictly Come Dancing’s Nikita Kuzmin has broken his silence on the scandal-plagued BBC series ahead of its first live show.

During Saturday’s edition of BBC Breakfast, professional dancer Nikita, 26, appeared as a guest on the daytime show alongside his dance partner Sam Quek, 35.

During a backstage interview, Nikita was asked if all the recent bullying allegations have cast a “shadow” over him.

To which Nikita replied affirmatively: “I don’t think so, no.”

Her dance partner Sam said: “I’ve had a blast so far, I can’t even imagine it getting any better than it is now.”

“Every experience I’ve had since I’ve been here has been top-notch and I think everyone feels the same way here.”

Strictly’s 20th anniversary series has been somewhat tarnished after the BBC show was embroiled in scandal in a year plagued by controversy.

And the BBC did not address the scandal during the launch episode even though the results of the misconduct investigation are still pending.

It all began last October when actress Amanda Abbington unexpectedly left the show before reporting that her partner Giovanni Pernice was abusing her.

The Sherlock actress has launched a series of accusations about Giovanni’s teaching methods and has described his behaviour as “unnecessary, abusive, cruel and mean”. He strongly denies all the allegations.

Giovanni, 33, has been suspended pending a BBC investigation into allegations made by Amanda and two other celebrity exes.

Amanda has reportedly been left feeling deeply disappointed with BBC bosses as she fears they are “protecting” the dancer amid the harassment investigation.

High-level meetings have been held between BBC bosses as they decide how to present their findings, as they fear the looming possibility of legal action from Amanda or Giovanni if ​​either of them is disappointed with the outcome.

After Giovanni, the show was hit by a new wave of scandal when Graziano Di Prima was fired in July for “kicking” fellow Love Island star Zara McDermott.

Zara explained that she did not report the incidents at the time because she was “afraid” of suffering negative reactions.

YoInstead, it was the junior production staff who came forward to share what they had witnessed during the investigation into the professional dancer. Juan It was taking place.

Zara told her followers that while much of her time on Strictly “was everything I could have dreamed of” inside the training room with Graziano there were “particular incidents that are incredibly distressing”.

The first live show of Strictly Come Dancing will air on Saturday at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.