Strictly Come Dancing Suffers Major Ratings Blow as ITV Drama and Bake Off Pull Ahead

Strictly Come Dancing is facing an early challenge in its new era, with falling viewing figures raising questions about whether the BBC’s long-running dance competition can win back its audience.

Strictly Come Dancing has returned to BBC screens with its trademark sequins, spectacular routines and ballroom glamour, but the series is already facing a significant setback just four weeks into its latest run.

The BBC favourite has suffered a noticeable decline in viewing figures, with rival programmes including The Celebrity Traitors, The Great British Bake Off and a new ITV drama attracting larger audiences. The figures come at a particularly sensitive time for Strictly, which is adjusting to a new presenting team following the departure of two of its most familiar faces.

The changes have prompted considerable discussion among viewers, with some questioning whether the show’s latest line-up has managed to capture the chemistry and familiarity that audiences came to expect from previous series.

Strictly’s Viewing Figures Take a Hit

The latest audience figures suggest that Strictly is struggling to maintain the momentum of previous years.

On October 10, the Saturday night show attracted 5 million viewers, representing a 44% audience share. That was down from 5.1 million the previous week during Movie Week and significantly below the 6.31 million who watched the corresponding programme in 2025.

The decline continued with the results show on Sunday, October 11, which drew approximately 4.5 million viewers. During the equivalent week in 2025, around 6.5 million people had tuned in.

Although Strictly remains one of the BBC’s best-known entertainment programmes, the latest numbers suggest that its position among the country’s most-watched shows is becoming less secure.

The competition is particularly tough this year, with several programmes drawing larger audiences and putting additional pressure on the long-running dance contest.

The Celebrity Traitors and Bake Off Pull Ahead

According to the latest broadcasting figures covering the previous seven days, The Celebrity Traitors emerged as the clear ratings leader.

The first episode attracted an impressive 15 million viewers, while the second followed closely with 14 million. The figures put the BBC reality competition comfortably ahead of its rivals.

The Great British Bake Off also performed strongly, attracting more than 7 million viewers. Meanwhile, ITV drama The Blame secured an audience of 6.3 million.

Strictly, by comparison, ranked fifth, with 6.2 million viewers watching its third week. The figure subsequently fell to 5.1 million for Saturday’s Icons Week episode.

For a programme that has been a fixture of British Saturday-night television for years, being overtaken by both a new drama and established entertainment rivals represents a worrying development for the BBC.

However, the figures do not necessarily mean that audiences have abandoned Strictly altogether. The BBC has pointed out that overnight ratings do not capture the full picture, as many viewers now watch programmes later through BBC iPlayer and other on-demand services.

Even so, the downward trend raises questions about whether the show needs to make further changes to maintain its appeal.

A New Presenting Team Under Scrutiny

The ratings decline comes as Strictly enters a new chapter following the departure of Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman last year.

The pair had enjoyed a long-running partnership on the programme, becoming familiar faces for generations of viewers. Their exit marked the end of an era and left the BBC with the challenge of finding a presenting arrangement capable of filling the gap.

The new team, featuring Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and professional dancer Johannes Radebe, has attracted considerable attention, although reactions have been mixed.

Some viewers have questioned the chemistry between the presenters, including whether Widdicombe has found his place alongside Willis and Radebe. The new format has consequently become a talking point among fans, adding to the pressure on the programme as it attempts to establish its new identity.

Replacing two presenters who had become so closely associated with Strictly was always likely to be a difficult task. The latest ratings, however, have intensified the scrutiny surrounding the changes.

Departures Among the Professional Dancers Add to the Challenge

The presenting changes are not the only significant departures to affect the programme.

Strictly has also said goodbye to several popular professional dancers, including Karen Hauer, Gorka Marquez and Nadiya Bychkova. Their exits have disappointed devoted fans who had grown attached to the dancers over multiple series.

The professional cast has always been an important part of Strictly’s appeal, with familiar personalities helping viewers build lasting connections with the competition beyond the celebrity contestants themselves.

Losing established dancers while introducing a new presenting team means the programme is asking its audience to adjust to several changes at once.

Whether those decisions will ultimately help Strictly evolve or weaken the connection it has built with loyal viewers remains an open question.

Can Strictly Win Back Its Audience?

Another source of frustration for some fans has been the circulation of Sunday results online before the programme airs, potentially reducing the suspense for viewers who prefer to watch the results show as broadcast.

Combined with the mixed response to the new presenting line-up and the departure of familiar professional dancers, the issue has contributed to wider discussion about the show’s direction.

Nevertheless, there is still room for Strictly to recover. Its established audience, recognisable format and reputation as one of British television’s biggest entertainment shows remain significant advantages.

The BBC has also stressed the limitations of conventional overnight ratings, noting that catch-up viewing through iPlayer and other on-demand platforms is not fully reflected in those initial figures.

The challenge for the show’s producers is to determine whether the decline reflects temporary uncertainty during a period of transition or a deeper change in audience interest.

Strictly Come Dancing has successfully entertained viewers for years, but its latest run suggests that its position at the top of the Saturday-night ratings is no longer guaranteed.

With rival programmes attracting millions of viewers, the coming weeks could prove important in determining whether the BBC can restore the show’s momentum or whether further changes will be needed to keep its loyal audience engaged.