Dancing on Ice WILL return next week despite cast’s fears over coronavirus chaos, ITV confirms

DANCING On Ice WILL return next week despite the cast’s fears over coronavirus, ITV has confirmed. The show announced on Twitter today that presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby will be back to front the skating competition next week. The tweet read: “Confirmed: Dancing on Ice returns Sunday 17 January at 6pm on ITV. “Phillip […]

DANCING On Ice WILL return next week despite the cast’s fears over coronavirus, ITV has confirmed.

The show announced on Twitter today that presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby will be back to front the skating competition next week.

The tweet read: “Confirmed: Dancing on Ice returns Sunday 17 January at 6pm on ITV.

“Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby once again return to present the show and the expert Ice Panel of Torvill and Dean, John Barrowman and Ashley Banjo.”

It means celebs including Rebekah Vardy, Billie Faiers and Jason Donovan will skate onto our screens even though they haven’t had as much practise as last year’s stars.

By now, the celebrities should be perfecting their moves after months of solid training on the ice.

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Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby will be back to host Dancing On Ice [/caption]

But the line-up and their professional partners are said to be feeling apprehensive about how everything will come together for the live shows.

“Everyone is worried to be honest,” a source exclusively told The Sun.

“They can’t practise and the celebs are nowhere near the standard they usually are.

“There’s people scrambling around backstage with no real idea how it’s going to come together. It’s a bit of a mess!”

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Denise Van Outen and Myleene Klass wasted no time in returning to the rink on December 28th to train for the show[/caption]

Last year Strictly Come Dancing was thrown into disarray as coronavirus ripped through the show’s carefully managed social bubbles.

Nicola Adams was forced to leave the competition after her dance partner Katya Jones tested positive for Covid.

Dancing On Ice are desperate not to have their all-star lineup destroyed in the same way and are conducting even more testing after confirming the first live show is scheduled for 6pm on Sunday 17 January as planned.

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Celebs are due to be skating back onto our screens next week – but haven’t had as much practice as last year’s crop of novice skaters like Maura Higgins, pictured here[/caption]

Rex Features

This year’s cast are staying in strict social bubbles[/caption]

Despite the challenges, everyone is itching to get back on the ice and bring the jewel of ITV’s winter crown to our screens.

An ITV spokesperson said: “We have stringent protocols in place to ensure the health and safety of all our contributors and staff which are routinely monitored and updated to reflect the current guidelines.”