A New Era Begins for BBC's Strictly Come Dancing With Fresh Hosting Trio

BBC One's long-running dance competition Strictly Come Dancing launched a new season on Saturday evening, billed as the start of a fresh era for the show. A new hosting trio takes over presenting duties: TV personality Emma Willis, comedian Josh Widdicombe and professional dancer Johannes Radebe, replacing the previous line-up of presenters.

In the opening episode, viewers are introduced to the 15 celebrities competing this season. The lineup includes EastEnders actress Lacey Turner, former footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips, Australian singer Delta Goodrem, Gavin and Stacey actress Melanie Walters, and Dani Dyer, who left the competition early in a previous series. The celebrities meet their professional dance partners for the first time in this launch episode, kicking off training for the weeks ahead.

While the hosts have changed, the judging panel remains the same, with all four returning judges back behind their scoring paddles for the new season.

Elsewhere on the schedule

Also airing on BBC One the same evening is a new game show called Wisdom of the Crowd, hosted by comedian John Bishop. The format is built around a century-old statistical theory developed by scientist Francis Galton, testing whether a crowd's collective judgement can outperform an individual contestant's guess. Winners can take home up to £30,000.

Meanwhile, ITV1 continues its singing competition The Voice UK the same night, also presented by Emma Willis, making it a busy evening of hosting duties for her across two channels.