Strictly Come Dancing pros Nadiya Bychkova and Neil Jones without celebrity partners

\'Strictly Come Dancing\' pros Nadiya Bychkova, Neil Jones, Graziano Di Prima and Nancy Xu are without celebrity partners for this year\'s series.

The BBC Latin and ballroom show\'s executive producer Sarah James has confirmed the quartet have not been assigned a celeb contestant for the main show this year, as there are only 12 pairings rather than 15, with the programme set for a run of just nine live shows instead of 12, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But Nadiya, Neil, Graziano and Nancy will be able to dance in guest music acts.

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Sarah said: "We have four professional dancers who won\'t be partnering celebrities this year - they are Nadiya Bychkova, Neil Jones, Graziano di Prima and Nancy Xu.

"So we have two males and two females who perform CCCs [close contact cohorts] together and they\'ll be able to dance in the guest music acts."

The dancers and celebrities on this year\'s series will be in a close contact cohort.

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A BBC document recently confirmed a CCC on a TV production is "as small a number of people as possible who unavoidably need to be in close contact with each other".

Last year, Neil was partnered with former England footballer Alex Scott and Nadiya danced with ex-England goalkeeper David James.

But Graziano didn\'t have a partner, and neither did Nancy, who had just joined the pro dancer cast.

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Sarah has also confirmed celeb contestants will be axed from this year\'s series if they test positive for coronavirus.

What\'s more, the Halloween-themed week has been axed, and following a dance the pairings will not mix with all the other celebrities and pros, as they usually do during their chat with co-host Claudia Winkleman.