By Lisa Ramsden
THE famous BBC glitter ball makes a comeback this weekend and one of the novices getting ready to take on the Strictly Come Dancing ‘cha-cha-challenge’, Newcastle-born John Nellis, vows that despite his lack of dancing prowess he is prepared to give it his all.
With the countdown well and truly on to Saturday’s launch of the 2026 competition, John had admitted that when he revealed to his family and friends that he was taking part in this year’s series, they thought it was a wind-up! Just four weeks ago, it was confirmed that the former Shimna Integrated College student had joined this year’s line-up for the popular TV show.
John shot to fame after swapping his career as an air traffic controller to become a YouTuber. He has interviews under his belt with some of the world’s most famous footballers, including Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé and Zinedine Zidane.
In this year’s Strictly Come Dancing he will compete alongside, amongst others, an Olympian, an Eastenders legend, and Kim Kardashian’s close friend. Since leaving his air traffic control job to take on content creation full-time, John has rapidly become one of the leading stars in his field, having won Sport Creator of the Year at the 2024 TikTok Awards UK and Ireland.
Over the course of his career, he has amassed a combined audience of over 20 million followers and billions of views. He has travelled across the world for his job. His recent video with Erling Haaland has more than 60 million combined views.
Last month, he admitted he was “still in disbelief” that he has been selected for this year’s series and this week he said the enormity of the show is hitting home.
“I keep laughing in disbelief,” he said. “I keep realising the magnitude of it and getting a bit nervous. I keep saying to my wife how surreal it all is. I keep kind of going, ‘this is mad’.”
