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Social media star John Nellis has been confirmed as the 14th celebrity joining the line-up of this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

The news was confirmed on Strictly's social channels on Tuesday.

Football content creator John is one of the UK's biggest sports content creators, with a combined audience of more than 20 million followers across social media.

Known for his entertaining football content, his videos have amassed billions of views and featured some of the biggest names in world sport, including Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Originally from Newcastle in County Down, John left his job as an air traffic controller to pursue content creation full-time. Since then, he has become one of the leading creators in the sports space, winning Sport Creator of the Year at the 2024 TikTok Awards UK & Ireland.

John's content has taken him around the world, covering major sporting events and collaborating with some of the biggest names in sport.

Most recently, he teamed up with Erling Haaland, with content from the collaboration amassing more than 60 million views across social media.

Social media star John Nellis has been confirmed as the 14th celebrity joining the line-up of this year's Strictly Come Dancing

John says: 'I'm still in disbelief that I've been selected for Strictly and, if I'm honest, I'm a little nervous as I've never danced before! It's such an incredible opportunity, and I'm going to throw myself into every moment.'

'I can't wait to meet everyone, learn a new skill and, hopefully, be much better at family parties by the end of it!'

John joins Lacey Turner, Dani Dyer, Delta Goodrem, Chris Appleton, Cach Mercer and Will Best, Dame Sarah Storey, Jaime Winstone, Bethany Antonia, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Graeme Hall, Lawrence Robb and Tabby Stoecker in the 2026 Strictly Come Dancing line-up.

The cast for the upcoming 2026 series is nearly complete, but disappointed fans of the BBC's flagship show have criticised the 'weak' line-up, with fans claiming there aren't enough 'household names'.

Now an insider has revealed the broadcaster has a casting strategy as part of its major overhaul of the show, which has been running for 22 years.

This year the series has been deliberate in its targeting of celebrities with big social media followings in a ploy to attract younger viewers to the show.

It has been suggested this is to follow a similar, hugely successful social media strategy employed by its US counterpart Dancing With The Stars.

'Although your traditional Strictly audience might not know who some of the signings are, that's not as important as bringing in new viewers who are more than familiar with them,' the source revealed.

'Their followers are vast in numbers, enthusiastic and, by sharing content on Strictly, raise the profile of the show massively.

'And, in time, the viewers who don't know these people get to know them. If anything they end up going on much more of a "Strictly Journey" than the stars you'd describe as "household names,"' the source added to The Sun.

Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian's hair stylist Chris Appleton might not be a household name, but he does boast a huge social media following with 4million fans on Instagram.

Dancing With The Stars has used their celebrity contestants' followings to their advantage, introducing a TikTok Night last year – an episode which saw the contestants perform viral dance routines, sparking an uptick in interaction from younger viewers.

The Dancing With The Stars TikTok account now has more than 5million followers, in comparison to Strictly's 670,000.

The insider has explained that the BBC struggles to attract big-name celebrities these days, because the landscape has changed.

The source continued: 'Crucially the pipeline that used to feed these big shows has changed.

'Boyband and girlband stars aren't as prevalent any more and, once upon a time, getting someone from a soap or a big drama was a massive deal, but now even that has diminished somewhat.

'Now, though, social media is continuing to boom and big stars from the world of TikTok, YouTube and Instagram are known to a vast section of society.'