Strictly Come Dancing 2026: Celebs take on historic Movie Night as pairs battle to survive first elimination

Isobel Lewis, our resident Strictly expert, was unconvinced by the show’s new hosts during the first live episode…

Here’s a snippet from Isobel’s review of last week. Do you agree?

Down on the dance floor, things were less smooth sailing. On paper, I can understand the impulse to cast Willis and Widdicombe as a duo. She is the consummate presenting professional setting up the jokes, he the cheeky chappy landing the punchline. It worked for Daly and Winkleman, and in the scripted portions of Saturday, it worked here too. But while Winkleman is a very funny person, and a funny presenter, she’s not a comedian, and that’s the problem Widdicombe was facing..

Read the full review here:

New host Johannes Radebe revealed the reason for Movie Week being pulled forwards in an interview with The Independent this week.

The tradition was moved to ensure that all stars had a chance to take part in at least one themed week, he told culture news editor Lauren Morris.

“We’ve never had that on the show and seeing just how we’ve moved everything in certain places and how it’s structured, it’s really gonna be exciting. Something that hasn’t happened in years so I know the professionals are going to eat it up. I can’t wait to see their creative process and what they’re gonna come up with for their partners.”

Read the full story here:

See the full list of pairings below. Remember, it takes two to tango…

• Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu
• • Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby
• • Chris Appleton and Amy Dowden
• • Dani Dyer and Nikita Kuzmin
• • Delta Goodrem and Kai Widdrington
• • Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley
• • Jaime Winstone and Carlos Gu
• • John Nellis and Katya Jones
• • Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola
• • Lawrence Robb and Jowita Przystał
• • Melanie Walters and Aljaž Škorjanec
• • Dame Sarah Storey and Julian Caillon
• • Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr
• • Tabby Stoecker and Mark Karmalita
• • Will Best and Dianne Buswell

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live blog for tonight’s episode of Strictly Come Dancing. Amid all the recent changes to the show’s line-up and the format, you’d be right to double check the episode’s start time.

Viewers can tune into Strictly on BBC One at 6.15pm, with an earlier than usual Movie Week, that’ll see cinematic performances from all of this year’s couples.