Gleb Savchenko thinks 'Strictly Come Dancing' has become a "turn off."

Gleb Savchenko and Anita Rani on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015

Gleb Savchenko and Anita Rani on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015

The professional dancer - who took part in the show in 2015 before leaving to join the US' version 'Dancing With the Stars' - thinks BBC bosses need to make the ballroom and latin programme more dramatic because it's become too "conservative."

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he said: "'Strictly' is not as exciting as it could be. It's more conservative than in the US.

"When I was on, if you have a crazy idea they're like, 'Let's bring it down a little bit'. 'Strictly' is more reserved. On 'Dancing With The Stars', when you announce the winner everyone rushes in, picks up the winner, there's fireworks, no one pays attention to the host -- everyone's celebrating.

"Here, first of all they only announce the winner. No one knows who's got second place or third place. That's a total turn-off. I just did 13 weeks of a competition, I got into the final, I want to know what place I got and my celebrity wants to know how well they did, so it sucks. And when they announce the winner everyone just stands there and waits for [hosts] Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly to talk to you."

The 34-year-old Russian hunk thinks producers should introduce same-sex couples.

He said: "Producers are just scared to try new things and go in that direction. It should have been done a long time ago. I would love to see same-sex couples. It would be amazing, it would be huge entertainment. We have same sex couples competing in real dance championships and they do it so well.

"To see the energy and the chemistry and the vibe in the rehearsal room of two guys -- imagine you put Anton Du Beke with a guy. I would really want to see that."

But he believes the show will only become more entertaining if bosses triple the professionals' wages because they haven't got that incentive to push boundaries.

He explained: "They should pay more to dancers. They don't get paid enough. They should triple it. The amount of work we do is unreal.

"If they would do that, they would see the dancers actually start caring. You want to work harder when you know you're going to make money."

The BBC show has been hit by the 'Strictly' curse - where contestants leave their partners to strike up a relationship with their professional - numerous times over the years and Gleb thinks their behind-the-scenes flirtation should be exposed on screen.

He said: "On 'Dancing With The Stars' everything is mic-ed. Let's say there is a 'Strictly' curse and someone is trying to hide and have a conversation about how much they're in love when they have husbands and wives and all that -- on 'Dancing With The Stars' they will hear everything. That would be great on 'Strictly'. And there's hidden cameras all around the ballroom, nowhere to hide. Get a room."