Strictly Come Dancing will reportedly drop down to three judges if Bruno Tonioli is unable to take part this year.

The 64-year-old's participation in the new series remains up in the air as current coronavirus travel restrictions will prevent him from flying back and forth between the UK and US, where he usually works on Dancing With The Stars concurrently with Strictly.

This week it has emerged that producers have been considering replacing him with Cheryl Cole but according to The Sun, they have now decided against such a move.

"As things stand, Bruno won't be replaced and they'll switch to three judges," a source told the newspaper.

"The BBC hope the rules on flying will be relaxed by the autumn which means Bruno should be able to take part.

"They don't want to go through a long process of replacing him when he could have done it anyway so it's very doubtful Cheryl will be there, not as a judge anyway."

This year's show has been shortened by a few weeks due to coronavirus and is now expected to start in mid-October.