Yahoo News Strictly Come Dancing 2023 start date revealed: How to get tickets
Tickets are now available to be in the audience for the live recordings of the hit celebrity dance show.
Strictly Come Dancing 2023's start date for the live shows has been revealed as Saturday 23 September.
The hit celebrity dance show will return for its 21st series on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in September, with a special pre-recorded launch show due to be filmed at Elstree Studios in North London on Wednesday 6 September, 2023.
Fans can catch the launch show - where which celebrity has been paired with which pro dancer is revealed - on Saturday, 16 September from 6.35pm on BBC One.
Reigning champions Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal will also be back to show the new cast how it's done, while Jessie Ware is booked to perform in the ballroom.
The live heats will begin from Saturday 23 September. And the final will take place on the weekend of Saturday 16 December.
How to get tickets
Strictly fans can apply to be in the audience for all the live shows by signing up on the official BBC show website here.
Applicants are then entered into a random draw to be selected for one pair of tickets to each live show they choose.
The ballot for tickets to see the 21st series of Strictly Come Dancing recorded live at Elstree Studios closes at 10pm on Tuesday 5 September.
Fans can apply for a maximum of one pair of tickets per show and they are permitted to apply for as many dates as they want. However, regardless of how many dates they apply for they will only be allocated once pair of tickets to one show in the series as part of the random draw.
Tickets tickets are non-transferable so if the named applicant cannot attend, they cannot be transferred to another person.
Read more:
Strictly Come Dancing 2023: Official line up, dancers and judges for new series
All the winners and finalists of Strictly
The Strictly Curse explained and all the contestant who have been struck by it
Audience members must be in their seats from 3pm on the day and recording of the show in front of the live audience takes place until around 11pm.
Though the elimination show of the BBC dance contest airs on a Sunday evening, it is filmed 'as live' straight after the Saturday episode.
Audience members consist of friends and families of those taking part, and members of the public who have entered a ballot to win tickets. They all have their mobile phones taken away during filming.
When Strictly began in 2004 it was aired live over two evenings. But the BBC began filming the dance-off episode on a Saturday in 2008 when filming live two nights in a row become too much for the late host Sir Bruce Forsyth, then aged 80.
Since 2012 superfan Dave Thorp has been leaking the result of the dance-off on a Saturday evening on his website Strictly Spoiler, with links on social media.
The show is now hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.
This year will see the return of judges Craig Revel Horwood, former Strictly pro Anton Du Beke and Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas, as the show’s head judge.
The celebrity contestants this year include former gameshow host Les Dennis, Sherlock star Amanda Abbington, veteran newsreader Angela Rippon - who famously danced with comedians Morecambe and Wise on their Christmas Show in 1976 - and Channel 4 news anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
Other celeb signings, soap star Adam Thomas and TV presenter Angela Scanlon have been hit by claims they are already trained dancers.
Watch: Les Dennis completes Strictly 2023 line-up
