Despite hints she would be waltzing away from the competition, Shirley is set to reprise her role on the judging panel.
She rejoins co-stars Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Anton Du Beke.
Some Strictly fans were worried Shirley wouldn’t be returning after the star revealed she was headed across the pond for a new role on Dancing With The Stars spin-off The Next Pro.
The series will be hosted by Robert Irwin and will follow dancers auditioning to become one of the professional partners on the upcoming series of the main show.
Shirley will be judging the applicants alongside her son Mark Ballas, who is also a professional dancer and has won Dancing With The Stars three times in the past.
However, it appears she’ll be booked and busy as she is also returning to her coveted Head Judging seat, which she has held since 2017.
Alongside confirming the returning judging panel, the BBC also revealed today the highly-anticipated list of pros who’ll be taking to the dancefloor this year.
Returning this year fan favourites like Dianne Buswell, 36, Amy Dowden, 35, Johannes Radebe, 38, and last year’s winner Carlos Gu, 33, who scooped the coveted Gliterball Trophy with footballer Karen Carney.
The Sun previously revealed how Australian hunk Julian Caillon, 30, will be coming back for the 24th series, and this has now been confirmed by the Beeb.
The rest of the lucky pro dancers who have also been spared from the Strictly cull are Katya Jones, 36, Jowita Przystal, 31, Kai Widdrington, 30, Aljaž Škorjanec, 36, Lauren Oakley, 35, Nancy Xu, 34, Neil Jones, 43, Nikita Kuzmin, 28, Alexis Warr, 25, and Vito Coppola, 33, who are all returning for the 2026 series.
However, it is still yet to be revealed who the hosts will be for the new series, after Tess and Claudia stepped down from their posts.
