With this year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing plagued by controversies surrounding the presenting trio of Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, it’s hardly surprising that both the primary Saturday live show and Sunday results programme have experienced a significant decline in overnight viewing figures when compared to last year.
Average audiences for the opening Saturday live episode dropped to around 4.8 million viewers, down from 6.2 million during the corresponding broadcast in 2025. This represented the first time in seven years that the inaugural live instalment of the BBC programme recorded lower overnight figures than its pre-recorded launch episode.
Meanwhile, last week’s first Sunday results show took an even harder hit, plummeting to approximately 4.5 million viewers, compared to 6.5 million in 2025. A major contributing element continues to be the pre-recorded format, which allows the elimination result to be spoiled online before the Sunday transmission.
After the ratings data was shared on X, many Strictly fans found themselves split in their reactions.
Numerous viewers branded Sunday’s results programme as ‘pointless’, considering that the pre-recorded result often emerges online in advance.
One viewer commented: “The result had leaked out on Saturday night so I’m sure a lot of people didn’t watch because they knew Chris was voted out.”
Others echoed similar sentiments, with one viewer stating: “Results are most pointless show. It gets leaked. The show is dragged out with who cares it needs to go.”
Though one person offered a different perspective: “This can also be said for last year when 2 million more people still tuned in.”
Several observers noted they ‘weren’t surprised’ as Strictly had ‘been ruined’ or ‘wasn’t good TV anymore’.
“Full of non celebs plus two out of the three presenters can’t present. It’s a dance show with the majority of it not dancing and judges that have gone past their by date.”
Another person declared: “No surprise. Not vital TV anymore.”
BBC officials emphasise that standard overnight statistics don’t account for catch-up viewing through BBC iPlayer and on-demand platforms, where a growing proportion of viewers now watch the show.
Many people drew attention to this fact in their responses to the post, with one writing: “It’s not being remembered that people stream too, stop pulling our happy show down and talk positively or go off social media.”
A further comment read: “Didn’t this happen with I’m A Celebrity last year where every night was the LOWEST ever but once they added all the viewers who didn’t watch it live, it was still a healthy rating? It will be fine.”
Notwithstanding the drop in viewing numbers, Strictly Come Dancing continues to be the most-watched show of the weekend through conventional television viewing.
The Strictly Come Dancing results show for this week broadcasts on Sunday 11 October 2026, starting at 7:10pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
