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News and weather just winding up on BBC1 now. The forecast is fake tan and twinkly toes, with a chance of two left feet in places.
Just five minutes to wait now…
ShareMale celebs tipped for early exit
Poor old Ross King is bookies’ favourite for the first elimination. Just behind is Chris Robshaw, followed by Thomas Skinner. In fact, the five top tips for the wooden spoon are all male celebs.
Not long now until showtime…
I hope you’ve stocked up on snacks and fluids. Running time tonight is an epic 150 minutes – even longer than last year’s inaugural live show.
A real test of our Saturday night stamina. It’s 10 minutes until choreographic kick-off…
ShareOn your dance cards
Tonight’s 15 routines include four cha-cha-chas, two jives, two sambas and two American smooths. Overall we’ll see nine different dance styles, with more Latin than ballroom.
It’s a mere 15 minutes until the glittery curtain comes up…
ShareLet’s play Strictly bingo!
Eyes down for the first time this year. Here’s your traditional spotter’s guide to on-screen happenings each week. Tick them off when you spy them! Take a drink for each! End up in bed fully clothed by 9.30pm! Here are tonight’s 10 predictions:
A couple high-fives or does double finger guns on the new-look opening titles
Overly literal song choice to hammer home what the celeb is famous for
New Aussie pro Julian Caillon makes Claudia come over all funny
Shirley Ballas thanks the first couple to perform for “opening our show and our season”
Ginger Neil hogs the camera up on the Clauditorium
Anton Du Beke pronounces the Rio carnival dance as the “saaarm-bar”
Celeb mentions Epsom salts/ice baths/blisters/sweat patches
Craig’s first critique of the year gets booed, so he tells the studio audience to pipe down
Everyone sings along to the Neighbours theme song, despite not quite knowing the words
Alex Kingston speaks German to judge Motsi Mabuse. Thomas Skinner definitely doesn’t
ShareNo elimination this weekend
Just a reminder of the form for tonight. The couples will be critiqued and marked by the judging panel for the first time but there’s no public vote yet. Instead the judges’ scores will be carried over to next week, when us viewers can vote for our favourites for the first time, it’s all combined and the bottom two will be consigned to the dreaded dance-off.
So our courageous couples get two chances to impress before anyone is packed off home. Any predictions on who it might be? *cough* Thomas Skinner or Ross King *splutter*
ShareDani out, Amber in
There was high drama before the contest had even begun this week. On Wednesday, Dani Dyer announced her withdrawal after breaking her ankle during rehearsals. She had a fall and initially thought she’d just rolled her foot but it began to swell before an MRI scan confirmed she had fractured her ankle.
In a statement, Dani said: “Apparently doing the quickstep on a fracture is not advisable and the doctors have said I’m not allowed to dance, so l’ve had to pull out of the show. To say I’m heartbroken is the biggest understatement. I am so going to miss dancing with Nikita but will of course be watching closely and cheering all the couples on.”
By Thursday, her replacement was announced – and it was another former Love Island winner. Welsh wonder Amber Davies won the ITV2 dating contest in 2017 alongside her ex Kem Cetinay. Since then, she’s pursued a professional acting career, with lead roles in several West End musicals.
There are already grumbles that she’s got too much dance experience and she instantly became the joint female favourite alongside Vicki Pattison. She’s only had two days’ training with partner Nikita Kuzmin but we’ll get our first sight of her in a waltz tonight. That brings you up to speed on the sick bay latest.
ShareStrictly 2025 goes live!
Ballroom butterflies in your stomach? First night nerves? Toes tingling with anticipation and adrenaline coursing through your jazz hands? Don’t blame you. Yes, Strictly Come Dancing 2025 gets properly underway tonight as our couples hit the floor for their first full routines.
Evening all and welcome to the first live show of this year’s contest. I’m Michael, your virtual dance partner for series 23 (I know, right?) of the BBC ballroom behemoth. I hope you’ll watch along with me as this year’s sequin-spangled action kicks off in earnest.
After last week’s pre-recorded launch show, our 15 newly formed pro-celebrity pairings now ake to the Elstree Studios ballroom for their first proper numbers together. Well, 14 of them do. There was another dropout this week, with a late replacement parachuted in just 48 hours ago. More on that shortly. Our celebs been toiling away in the training rooms, breaking in their dance shoes and nursing their sore feet. Now we get to see the results and rate their potential.
It’s showtime at 6.55pm on BBC One. I’ll be liveblogging from 6.25pm, providing build-up, rolling coverage, analysis, reaction and sideways looks to camera. So slip into your legwarmers, slather on some fake tan and see you on the sofa.
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 back open for cha-cha-chat. I’ll shoulder-shimmy down every now and again to gauge your reaction to the show, so please do share your thoughts.
The scoring paddles have been buffed. The glitterball is about to spin again. Nearly time to, yep, staaaaaart dancing!