Inside AJ Pritchard's new role... on GB News: How his plans to become a superstar with his brother after Strictly failed - and why his furious new colleagues already think he's a laughing stock

When AJ Pritchard left his role as a professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing to much fanfare back in 2020, he boasted that he was waltzing off to follow his showbiz dreams.

And given that he was super popular with young viewers and his departure came as an unwelcome surprise to bosses at the BBC One dance show, this didn’t appear an unreasonable ambition.

Egged on by his former agent, AJ believed he could be a superstar and even had plans to team up with his younger brother, Curtis, with a view to them becoming the next Ant and Dec.

But following the news of his latest gig, the career trajectory of the 31-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent is beginning to resemble a cautionary tale.

Because AJ has found himself hosting a weekly Saturday night show on – wait for it – GB News. With an average monthly viewership in July of 81,600, Strictly it is not.

Pritchard is a new presenter on a show called The Saturday Five, described as a mix of ‘fiery debate, spicy opinions and a huge topping of fun’.

While the broadcaster has confirmed to me that AJ’s role is a permanent one, his appointment, say sources within the network, has prompted fury behind the scenes as his colleagues believe his ‘wooden’ performances in his first two shows have turned him into a laughing stock.

His debut appearance on The Saturday Five prompted a wave of reaction online, with one video of his performance attracting 1.7million views.

But it soon became clear that it had gone viral, not because of AJ’s presenting skills but due to his embarrassingly robotic performance.

GB News’ head of programmes, Ben Briscoe, is said to be facing questions from angry bosses over his decision to hire him in the first place.

It is certainly a far cry from where AJ’s career appeared to be heading six years ago when he walked away from Strictly, where he had earned a status that most professional dancers could only dream of.

He had landed a role on one of the BBC’s biggest shows after reaching the semi-finals of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent in 2013.

Three years later, he made history by joining Strictly at the age of 21, which made him the youngest professional dancer the show had ever signed.

He quickly became a fan favourite and, more importantly, gained the sort of profile that seemed calculated to set him up for years of television work. But rather than remain in the Strictly ballroom, the good-looking and ambitious AJ decided it was time to move on.

By now, his younger brother Curtis, 30, had also built a career in dance, becoming a professional on the first series of the Irish version of Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) in 2017.

Then, in 2019, Curtis entered the Love Island villa. He quickly became one of the most talked-about contestants on the ITV2 series, eventually finishing fourth with Maura Higgins, and the pair famously embarked on a relationship after leaving the show.

Suddenly, the Pritchard brothers had two enormous platforms from which to launch their careers, and clearly convinced each other that they could turn themselves into one of Britain’s biggest television double acts.

The brothers churned out social media videos of themselves dancing and interviewing people in the street.

They also appeared as a pair of dastardly schemers on Hollyoaks: twin brothers bent on sabotaging an old rival’s new dance school and taking her business for themselves.

Unfortunately, their acting was likened to a ‘GCSE drama performance’ and a ‘car crash’.

‘AJ left Strictly to become the next big double act with his brother Curtis, but that failed massively,’ I’m told. ‘They had hoped to be the next Ant and Dec. But it’s become clear that the brothers vastly overestimated their relevance and likeability.’

While Curtis went on to appear on Love Island Games and the second and third series of Love Island All Stars, AJ’s career has taken a rather more meandering route.

In his search for the next big thing, he has tried acting, reality television, presenting and social media.

That has meant taking on a string of projects which, compared with his Saturday-night Strictly profile, have appeared increasingly small-time.

There have been appearances on I’m A Celebrity as well as Celebrity SAS and, earlier this year, he took his talents across the Atlantic to compete on the US show DWTS: The Next Pro.

While he finished as runner-up, his time on the programme was not without drama. He and his fiancée, the influencer Zara Zoffany, became embroiled in an online row with DWTS professional Rylee Arnold, who was partnered with AJ.

After Rylee accused AJ of being too negative in his criticism of her dancing, Zara took to Instagram to tell her that AJ ‘wouldn’t have had to critique you in the first place if everything had been right’.

The fallout led to AJ missing the premiere of the show, while Zara was forced to apologise to his dance partner.

Fellow DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy said at the time: ‘It makes good TV at his expense. I guess that’s how I want to say it, I wish he wrapped that arrogance into a little softer presentation.’

Strictly judge Shirley Ballas also weighed in on the controversy surrounding his behaviour, saying of Rylee: ‘I have a lot of respect for her. Shame others do not.’

It would appear that, if it is true that AJ had ambitions to be a judge on his old show Strictly, such a prospect has never looked further away.

And in joining a Right-leaning news channel that boasts presenters such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg, AJ may also be alienating a large segment of his young and liberal fan base.

In 2018, he appeared on the cover of gay magazine Attitude, with the accompanying interview covering his career, relationships and his same-sex pairing with Pasha Kovalev for Strictly’s 16th season that year.

He also worked as a choreographer on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, alongside Curtis, and the brothers appeared on the series one finale, helping the final three drag queens prepare for their ultimate all-singing, all-dancing main challenge.

‘He had a huge gay following over the years from doing Attitude and RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ I’m told. ‘That bridge has now been well and truly burnt.’

A man who was once a familiar face as a professional dancer on one of Britain’s biggest television shows, who had a growing profile outside of Strictly and a brother who was one of the biggest names to emerge from Love Island, now finds himself at a crossroads.

While Curtis is still best known for the Love Island appearances that made him famous, AJ is on a programme which has made him lose followers as opposed to gaining them.

He will, of course, be hoping that in GB News he has finally found the springboard which will help him build the career he has spent the past six years searching for. If only he can keep the gig.