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Strictly Come Dancing bosses made the rare move of trying something new on Saturday night - and it worked, writes Rachel McGrath
Saturday 29 November 2025 21:43 GMTComments
(BBC/Kieron McCarron)
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If you only tuned in to the final 15 minutes of Saturday night’s Strictly Come Dancing, you’d be forgiven for thinking the BBC had accidentally aired a somewhat chaotic dress rehearsal. But no – the frenzied challenge going out live was a new addition to this year’s series. And it was one that I hope stays for good.
Across its 23 series, Strictly bosses have mixed things up but they’ve never dared to attempt anything on this scale. In a handful of previous years, celebrities and their professional partners have competed in ‘Dance-a-Thons’, which have involved all remaining couples taking to the floor at the same time, performing the same style. These have had varying success (which is probably why the Dance-a-Thon has never become a regular feature).
On Saturday night though, bosses introduced the ‘Instant Dance’ challenge. Borrowed from US show Dancing with the Stars, the challenge is designed to mimic what the professionals face in competitive settings. After they’d opened an envelope to reveal the style they’d be performing - which was guaranteed to be one they’d learnt earlier in the series - the couples had mere seconds to pick outfits and head to the dressing rooms. Once back in the studio, the celebrities and their pro partners were made to wait on separate staircases. They were then given just 10 seconds to confer before the music kicked in.
It was, to put it mildly, chaotic. But in the best way. Tess Daly stood with each pair as they found out what they’d be performing while Claudia Winkleman helped the celebrities pick their outfits, which largely meant thrusting increasingly jumbled combinations of clothing into their hands.
On the floor, some pairs thrived: Balvinder Sopal and Julian pulled off a convincing paso doble while Lewis Cope and Katya Jones - who were crowned winners - were well-prepared for all eventualities, and even masterminded a spectacular ending for their mini-routine. Others didn’t do quite so well. Alex Kingston and Johannes Rabede played it too safe with their rumba before Karen Carney and Carlos Gu relied heavily on clapping and walking in a circle (it was giving 11pm at a wedding).
Before the Instant Dance challenge, this mood in the Strictly studio was tense. Kingston had kicked off the live show with a mistake-ridden cha cha, which went from bad to worse as she struggled to recover from early footwork errors. Next up was George Clarke, who openly admitted his mistakes to the judges (which he soon regretted as it turned out two of the panellists hadn’t spotted them). Later, Sopal struggled with her jive. “There must be something in the water tonight,” Anton du Beke quipped, though he wasn’t really joking.
Thankfully, Amber Davies and Karen Carney brought the mood up as their routines both landed perfect scores – but even that left the latter’s partner, Carlos Gu, in floods of tears.
The Instant Dance challenge was a much-needed mood booster. With a maximum of just six points up for grabs, the stakes were low (a fact I’m sure the most nervous celebrities were reminded of several times). And even the pairs who scored the lowest looked as though they were having fun. With adrenaline levels running high, it seemed as though the looming dance-off had briefly been forgotten. These final weeks of Strictly can be intense - anything that can inject some fun into the competition gets a 10 from me.
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