I’d say Pasquale and Lauren are the front runners.
At one point I would’ve thrown in Jowitas partner/former partner Michael but he seems settled as a teacher and completion judges plus assuming he and Jowita have split it would probably be awkward.
The only possibility is if producers have found another unknown from Europe like Nikita.
I would like an unknown to be introduced for at least one of the spots; Nikita was such a welcome surprise this most recent series.
I would have said Michael too but because of the supposed split and the fact he seems older that Jowtia as well (she is turning 28 next month) I very much doubt it now.
Pasquale & Lauren seem like the obvious picks but I'd like a wildcard in there. At risk of sounding ageist, both of them are over 30 and I think they really need a younger female pro in the mix to carry the show into the future. So many are early 30s already. We already have some younger men but another one would be good and we'd then have a trio of young male pros (Kai/Nikita/Aljaž's replacement) who can be the main faces dominating throughout this decade, just like Gio/Gorka/Aljaž were in the most recent era and the likes of Artem, Kevin & Pasha before that. With all due respect to Cameron, I don't think he's it. And it's obvious that the likes of Neil aren't making much of a splash so they may as well invest in the newbies.
I remember seeing in the DS forum a while back someone suggested Lauren & Pasquale might not be picked due to their ages and the way some people reacted you would think they were saying that they both need to book a place in a retirement home!
Of course in the grand scheme of life they are young but in the hiring of a new strictly pro they are a bit ''over the hill''.
I would think in the last pro hirings in Nikita, Jowita, Kai and Cameron it shows they are going for an early to mid twenties pick.
I would also say hiring another italian in Pasquale is a bit of a boring choice when we already have Graziano and Giovanni; I have said this before but I would like to see new countries represented as well.
When it comes to Lauren apart from the age thing I saw some comments which irked me on the DS forum and on socials where people were saying that ''strictly need to hire her shes an amazing dancer'' some even saying is she better than some of the pro girls on strictly already. Of course yes she is amazing dancer but shes no better than any other pros on the show's and what I mean by that is when you see the pros on strictly and on the strictly come dancing tours their dancing is quite ''basic'' compared to what they're used to say in the likes of dancing in Burn the Floor when that is a 2 hour non stop dance show. A lot of the pros say that the routines on strictly are quite 'dumbed down' obviously for the celeb learning but even in the pro numbers when they're doing different dance styles and telling more of a narrative say compared to what Lauren is doing now which is full on dance shows. Comparing her non stop dancing in shows to the pro's dancing on strictly isn't fair in comparison. I hope this makes sense.