{"id":776088,"date":"2026-09-19T19:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/776088\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T19:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T19:40:20","slug":"new-strictly-hosts-make-debut-as-first-celebrity-pairings-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/776088\/","title":{"rendered":"New Strictly hosts make debut as first celebrity pairings revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Key moments from a sequin-filled 2025published at 18:51 BST<\/p>\n<p>18:51 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789846817_733_fd38c218-8299-43dd-a813-87b46b60630d.jpg.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Katie Williams<br \/>Live reporter<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fifteen celebs, 13 weeks of competition, countless fake tan sessions and too many sequins to count&#8230; 2025 was a riot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There were too many memorable moments to distil into one short post, but here are some highlights.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Karen Carney and Carlos Gu perform their week one Jive\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/f3b1be5e-143f-4bda-acb6-25c4e9a8dcd8.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Off to a roaring start: Karen Carney kicked things off in style in week one, scoring 31 for her Jive and becoming the first footballer to top the leaderboard in 18 years. She would go on to win 12 weeks later.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Katya Jones and Lewis Cope in Halloween week\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/f574530a-357e-40df-ac6b-dcd27d622e3a.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That &#8220;creepy&#8221; couple&#8217;s choice: Halloween is always a fan favourite with spooktacular music and costumes. Lewis Cope and his partner Katya also bagged the first perfect score of the season, earning 40 for their couple&#8217;s choice dance to Radiohead song Creep.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Photo showing inside of Blackpool Tower Ballroom\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4a529262-9a9f-4ce7-8dd3-3267c9f18df0.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1000\" height=\"562\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, PA MediaImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Everyone wants to make it to Blackpool<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A trip to the seaside: Blackpool (week nine) is the milestone every celeb wants to reach &#8211; and they rose to the occasion last year, with one perfect 40 score and two almost-perfect 39s. Must be that sprung dance floor&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Nikita Kuzmin (R) and Amber Davies perform during instant dance challenge\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1cd17300-82ad-4595-bc86-0b16a2fd02c4.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1000\" height=\"562\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">10 seconds to devise a routine<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A chaotic instant dance challenge: This was a new addition last year and tested our celebs like never before as they made it to week 10. Picture this: a dance style selected at random, 10 seconds on the clock to devise a routine, and a quick costume change to boot.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly pictured during Strictly 2025 final, with the words &quot;Keep dancing&quot; emblazoned on Winkleman's jacket\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c9bb38bc-903f-4d5f-b0c1-0426bca3a9bb.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An emotional farewell: Tributes poured in after the shock announcement in October that hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman would be stepping down after 21 and 11 years hosting the show respectively. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Both were overcome with emotion during last year&#8217;s final. And Queen Camilla even sent in a message calling them &#8220;the greatest Strictly partnership of all&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key moments from a sequin-filled 2025published at 18:51 BST 18:51 BST Katie WilliamsLive reporter Fifteen celebs, 13 weeks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-776088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}