Brendan Cole has hit out at Strictly Come Dancing’s treatment of their dancers (Picture: McKay/ITVShutterstock) Brendan Cole has taken another swipe at Strictly Come Dancing after he accused Amy Dowden of not being ‘up to the challenge’ on the BBC show. The former Strictly star, 50, was axed from Strictly in 2018 but has continued to share his views on the competition since. Earlier this month, Brendan said that ‘I don’t think Amy’s been doing a very good job for the last few years’, despite her returning to the show in 2024 after beating breast cancer. Amy responded to his comments, accusing him of seeking ‘the attention he so desperately craves’. Now, however, Brendan has questioned BBC bosses over why some professional dancers are not landing celebrity partners year after year. Speaking to The Sun, Brendan said: ‘Compared to when I was on the show, they now have many more professional dancers in the background, in the big group numbers, propping up the show. {“@context”:”https:\/\/schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”name”:”Strictly’s Amy Dowden praised for ‘iconic’ sassy response to Brendan Cole’s criticism”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/videos.metro.co.uk\/video\/met\/2026\/10\/11\/7766601616618571896\/480x270_MP4_7766601616618571896.mp4″,”description”:”Strictly Come Dancing pro Amy Dowden responded to Brendan Cole’s criticism with an Instagram video posted moments before Saturday night’s live show began.”,”duration”:”T7S”,”height”:480,”thumbnailUrl”:”https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/10\/11\/08\/111788495-0-image-a-4_1791703037581.jpg”,”uploadDate”:”2026-10-11T08:15:22+0100″,”width”:270} To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page window.addEventListener(‘metroVideo:relatedVideosCarouselLoaded’, function(data) { if (typeof(data.detail) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel) === ‘undefined’ || typeof(data.detail.carousel.el_) === ‘undefined’) { return; } var player = data.detail.carousel.el_; var container = player.closest(‘.metro-video-player’); var placeholder = container.querySelector(‘.metro-video-player__up-next-placeholder’); if (placeholder) { container.removeChild(placeholder); container.classList.add(‘metro-video-player–related-videos-loaded’); } }); Brendan said earlier this month that Amy Dowden has ‘not been up to the challenge’ on Strictly (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock) ‘What that does to the professionals who do have partners is give them uncertainty, and when you’re uncertain about your position, you make different decisions about how you react to things and what’s being asked of you.’ Brendan, who was a professional on the show from its launch in 2004 until 2017, said he had never faced the same uncertainty during his time on the programme. ‘In my day, my job was secure. Every year I came back and I had a partner, and if they’d told me, “By the way, we’re not sure if you’ll have a partner next year, we’ll let you know,” I would have told them “thank you very much, I won’t be returning”,’ he said. ‘It’s not like that anymore. Now they have a pool of dancers they can pluck from obscurity, so they can keep things as they want them without any mutiny.’ This year’s series has seen four professionals, Neil Jones, Aleksandra Isaeva, Cristian Priori and Lethabo Monametsi, take part in group routines without being paired with a celebrity. Amy and her partner Chris Appleton became the first couple eliminated on Strictly Come Dancing again (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy) Cole took aim at the Welsh dancer following her exit (Picture: BBC) A Strictly insider, however, pushed back against the suggestion, telling the publication: ‘Partnerships for a series are selected following the first day of the celebrity cast’s training, when the pros and celebs all meet and dance together for the first time. ‘This means it’s not possible to know which pros will get partners in any given series, because the pros sign up for a series months in advance. ‘It wouldn’t be fair to tell a pro that they were going to get a partner only for there not to be a partner for them when the series begins – therefore no guarantees are made in advance.’ Responding to Brendan’s comments about her, Amy previously told The Mirror: ‘I’ll be honest, what do you expect from him? ‘It’s fine – I’ve never been brought up to be personal, and in this day and age especially I think it’s so important to be kind, and to think about the next generation. ‘I always try to use my platform in the right way – I work with various charities. ‘But also I want to be the right kind of role model. I run a dance academy and all my little boys and girls really look up to me. That’s important.’ Metro has contacted the BBC for comment.