Strictly Come Dancing: week one – live

• 4m ago

  On your dance cards

• 6m ago

  Let’s play ballroom bingo!

• 9m ago

  No results show or elimination this weekend

• 13m ago

  Dave Arch, you are spoiling us

• 18m ago

  Mixed reception for last week’s launch show

• 22m ago

  Strictly 2026 goes live at last!

Tonight’s 15 routines include four cha cha chas, three sambas, three quicksteps and two tangos. Which means that a dozen of our 15 couples will be dancing one those four styles.

As usual with the first live show, there’s way more Latin than ballroom by a 10-5 ratio. A mere 15 minutes until spangly showtime…

Eyes down for this year’s first live bingo game. Here’s your spotter’s guide to tonight’s on-screen happenings. Tick them off when you see them! Take a drink for each! Hide the recycling out of shame! Tonight’s 10 predictions:

• A couple do the running man or Gangnam Style on the new-look opening titles

• Johannes calls his co-presenter “Joshy” rather adorably

• Overly literal song choice to hammer home what the celeb is famous for

• Shirley Ballas thanks the first couple to perform for “opening our show”

• Exhausted, sweating celeb can barely catch their breath during their post-dance interview

• You’re not sure if it’s a new professional or an old one with a new haircut

• Eternal bridesmaid Ginger Neil hogs the camera up on the balcony

• Anton du Beke pronounces the Rio carnival dance as the “saaarm-ba”

• Celeb mentions Epsom salts/ice baths/blisters/toenails/aches in muscles they didn’t know they had

• Craig’s first critique of the year gets booed and he tells the studio audience to button it

A quick reminder of the form for tonight. The couples will be critiqued and marked by the judging panel but there’s no public vote yet. Instead their scores will be carried over to next Saturday when us viewers can vote for our favourites for the first time.

Their two scores will then be combined with the public vote and the bottom two will be consigned to this year’s first dreaded dance-off. It means our plucky pairs get two chances to impress before anyone is packed off home.

Any predictions on who it might be? Feels like it’s all to dance for at his stage. Start some light stretching, it’s 20 minutes to curtain-up….

As often happens on the first live show, we’re bring “treated” to some clangingly literal song choices. Canine expert Graeme Hall will cha-cha to Hound Dog. Celebrity hairdresser Chris Appleton does a tango to No Roots. Radio presenter Will Best will dance a samba to Rock DJ.

See what they did there? Not much, to be honest.

The big talking point last Saturday, of course, was Strictly’s all-new presenting line-up. With the Tess ’n’ Claud double act replaced by the trio of Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe, was it a case of three’s a crowd?

Being prerecorded, the curtain-raiser was effectively a soft launch. Safe pair-of-hands Willis was a class act and Radebe proved a benevolent, poised presence but Widdicombe bore the brunt of the backlash. At times he looked terrified, while his loud guffaws too close to the microphone annoyed some viewers. This is surely fixable. Indeed, I’m surprised it wasn’t faded down in the edit.

Throw in an underpowered celebrity line-up plus a few format tweaks, and perhaps inevitably there was plenty to grumble about.

Yet there were promising signs too. The trio had good chemistry and grew in confidence as the show progressed. Claudia Winkleman, ever supportive, said Emma was “knockout.” Ratings were solid, peaking at 6.8m live viewers – slightly up on last year’s launch show.

Let’s hope they all settle in over the next few weeks. Widdicombe will hopefully come into his own when he gets the chance to gently rib the contestants and joust with the judges. Will the new regime work better tonight? Just half an hour until we find out…

Heart racing. Palms clammy. Stomach fluttering. And that’s just the three presenters. It’s opening night nerves all round as the live hosting and hoofing begins. Yes, Strictly Come Dancing 2026 gets fully underway as our new couples hit the floor for their first full routines.

Evening all and welcome to the inaugural live show of the year. I’m Michael, your cyber dance partner for series 24 (anyone else feeling very old?) of the BBC’s ballroom blockbuster. I hope you’ll watch along with me as this year’s twinkle-toed action kicks off in earnest.

Last week’s pre-recorded launch show saw them matched up, speed dating-style. Now our 15 freshly formed pro-celebrity pairs take to the Elstree Studios ballroom for their first proper numbers together. The celebs have been perspiring into their legwarmers, breaking in their dance shoes and nursing their sore tootsies. Now we’ll see the fruits of their labours. The judges also get to raise their scoring paddles for the first time, No pressure, pairings.

It’s showtime at 6.15pm on BBC One. I’ll be liveblogging from 5.45pm, providing build-up, rolling coverage, analysis, reaction and quickstepping quips. So stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone and I’ll see you on the sofa.

As always, I’d love to hear from you too. You can tweet me @michaelhogan, contact me on Bluesky or Threads @michaelhogan100, email me michael.hogan.freelance@guardian.co.uk and the comments section below is open for cha-cha-chat. I’ll promenade down there every now and again to gauge your reaction, so please do share your thoughts.

The glitterball is about to spin. So are 15 celebrities’ and three presenters’ heads. We’re live, we’re direct and it’s nearly time to staaaaaart dancing!