Strictly 2026: What time does tonight's launch show start?

Read the original at Evening Standard ↗
Cite

Bishop, H. (2026, September 19). Strictly 2026: What time does tonight's launch show start? Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/strictly-2026-start-time-tonight-bbc-b1297521.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Evening Standard · collected 2026-09-19 · by Holly Bishop

Quick Summary

The new season of "Strictly Come Dancing" will debut tonight, featuring 15 celebrities paired with professional dancers during the show rather than in pre-recorded videos. The first live performance night is set for Saturday, September 26, where the celebrity-dancer pairs will perform and receive scores from judges Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse, and Craig Revel Horwood. New host Tess Daly, alongside former Strictly contestants Amy Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood, teased this new format as a return to pre-Covid show traditions during an appearance on The One Show.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-19, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

The articles discuss the 24th season launch of the British television dancing competition "Strictly Come Dancing." Here are key points from these articles:

This marks a significant change for Strictly as it introduces new hosts while maintaining its iconic format of pairing celebrities with professional dancers in ballroom dancing competitions.

Written for “Strictly 2026 Launch Show” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 9 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Strictly 2026 Launch Show
Entertainment · 10 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 24 📰 publisher trust 69
“Both articles describe the return of Strictly Come Dancing on September 19, 2026, with new hosts and celebrity pairings.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 20 📰 publisher trust 67
“While both articles discuss the upcoming Strictly Come Dancing show on September 26, Article A focuses on general information about the cast and premiere date, while Article B discusses Emma Willis's comments as a new host.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 2% hedged 1 of 52 📰 publisher trust 67
“The articles cover different aspects of Strictly's upcoming season, but not the exact same occurrence.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 8 📰 publisher trust 67
“Article A describes the schedule and setup for upcoming shows, while Article B appears to be a live update for the launch show on September 19th.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 17 📰 publisher trust 67
“Article A describes the schedule for upcoming Strictly shows, while Article B discusses the pairings revealed in a pre-recorded launch show that has already aired.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
8
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 8 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
67/100
Evening Standard's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
10
Entertainment
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-19 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Evening Standard · 5598 article(s) · 46 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 46 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Holly Bishop
68 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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Also by Holly Bishop
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 68 articles by Holly Bishop →

Topics

Australian Covid

Subjects

Willis PERSON · 2× Anton Du Beke PERSON · 1× Australian NORP · 1× Craig Revel Horwood PERSON · 1× Dani Dyer PERSON · 1× Danny Dyer PERSON · 1× Delta Goodrem PERSON · 1× Lacey Turner PERSON · 1× Motsi Mabuse PERSON · 1× Shirley Ballas PERSON · 1×

Narrative

- Lacey Turner - EastEnders star - Dani Dyer - Love Island winner and daughter of actor Danny Dyer - Delta Goodrem - Australian singer - Chris Appleton - Celebrity hairstylist - Cach Mercer - Love Island winner and content creator - Will Best - Presenter - Dame Sarah Storey - Paralympic cyclist and swimmer - Jaime Winstone - Actor and daughter of Ray Winstone - Bethany Antonia - House of the Dragon star - Shaun Wright-Phillips - Former footballer and pundit - Graeme Hall - Dogs Behaving Badly host - Lawrence Robb - Emmerdale star - Tabby Stoecker - Skeleton racer - John Nellis - YouTuber - Melanie Walters - Gavin and Stacey star And here are the professional dancers here to guide the stars to success. - Dianne Buswell - Julian Caillon - Amy Dowden - Katya Jones - Neil Jones - Nikita Kuzmin - Jowita Przystał - Aljaž Škorjanec - Alexis Warr - Kai Widdrington - Nancy Xu - Carlos Gu - Lauren Oakley - Vito Coppola - Aleksandra Isaeva - Cristian Priori - Lethabo Monametsi - Maddie Ingoldsby - Mark Karmalita
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-19
🔮 Saturday’s show will see the 15 celebrities paired up with 15 dancers, before they are sent off to rehearse ahead of the first live show on Saturday, September 26, ready to be judged by Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood and head judge Shirley Ballas.
2026-09-19 · Evening Standard
Strictly 2026: What time does tonight's launch show start? · assertive framing

Claims (8 extracted, 0 hedged)

Saturday’s show will see the 15 celebrities paired up with 15 dancers, before they are sent off to rehearse ahead of the first live show on Saturday, September 26, ready to be judged by Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood and head judge Shirley Ballas. asserted
they → see → Beke
This will then be followed by the first live show a week later on Saturday, September 26, which is the first time that the new couples will perform in front of the judges and be given scores. asserted
couples → follow → scores
During an appearance on The One Show on Thursday, September 17, Willis teased how “exciting” the first episode will be while appearing alongside her new co-hosts. asserted
episode → tease → hosts
The celebrities will meet their professional partners for the first time on the dance floor, rather than during a pre-recorded video, as the show returns to a format similar to how it operated before Covid. asserted
it → meet → Covid
“This is something that they’ve never done on the show before,” Willis said. asserted
Willis → do → show
“Everybody is paired during a dance,” she explained, likening the new format to “speed dating”. asserted
she → pair → dating
Here is the list of celebrities who will be hitting the dance floor for the first time tonight. asserted
who → hit → time
- Lacey Turner - EastEnders star - Dani Dyer - Love Island winner and daughter of actor Danny Dyer - Delta Goodrem - Australian singer - Chris Appleton - Celebrity hairstylist - Cach Mercer - Love Island winner and content creator - Will Best - Presenter - Dame Sarah Storey - Paralympic cyclist and swimmer - Jaime Winstone - Actor and daughter of Ray Winstone - Bethany Antonia - House of the Dragon star - Shaun Wright-Phillips - Former footballer and pundit - Graeme Hall - Dogs Behaving Badly host - Lawrence Robb - Emmerdale star - Tabby Stoecker - Skeleton racer - John Nellis - YouTuber - Melanie Walters - Gavin and Stacey star And here are the professional dancers here to guide the stars to success. - Dianne Buswell - Julian Caillon - Amy Dowden - Katya Jones - Neil Jones - Nikita Kuzmin - Jowita Przystał - Aljaž Škorjanec - Alexis Warr - Kai Widdrington - Nancy Xu - Carlos Gu - Lauren Oakley - Vito Coppola - Aleksandra Isaeva - Cristian Priori - Lethabo Monametsi - Maddie Ingoldsby - Mark Karmalita asserted
here → behave → success
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