The BBC has rubbished reports that Cheryl Tweedy has been “sidelined” by producers on her new show ‘The Greatest Dancer’.
Cheryl is one of three dance captains on the new BBC talent search, produced by her former ‘X Factor’ boss, Simon Cowell, where she’ll sit alongside ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ pro Oti Mabuse and ‘Glee’ star Matthew Morrison.
However, in the latest in a string of negative stories written about the star by The Sun, the newspaper claims that producers are now concerned about Cheryl’s media profile, and instead are pushing Oti as their star draw, though a rep for the show has dismissed this outright.
“The Greatest Dancer is a celebration of dance,” a BBC spokesperson told The Mirror. “All three Dance Captains are a hugely important part of the show. Any suggestion that any individual is being overlooked is nonsense.”
A spokesperson for Syco, the production company behind the show, agreed: “All dance captains carry equal importance and value.”
Cheryl’s reps declined to comment when contacted by HuffPost UK.
Following her performance of new single ‘Love Made Me Do It’ on ‘The X Factor’ last month, Cheryl spoke out about the “relentless abuse” she’d been the subject of in the media.
She wrote: “I let a lot of things lie but the sheer level of unbalanced negativity towards me in the tabloid press these past few days has been frankly shocking and I need to address it. This level of relentless abuse should not be tolerated in any walk of life.”
‘The Greatest Dancer’ will air on BBC One in January.