'Strictly Come Dancing' confirmed to return this year with a shorter series

It has now been confirmed that Strictly Come Dancing will go ahead this year but the series will be "slightly shorter" than usual.

It comes amid ongoing speculation as to whether the show would be able to take place this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A spokesperson shared in a statement: "The Strictly Come Dancing team are doing everything they can to bring the nation plenty of Strictly magic later this year.

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"To ensure we deliver the high standards audiences know and love, and in light of the ongoing considerations around COVID-19, this year’s series of Strictly will have a slightly shorter run than usual.

"The safety of our cast and crew is of the utmost importance to us and further updates will be made in due course."

The dancing competition has lasted for 13 weeks for the past six seasons but it isn’t yet clear how many weeks the 2020 edition will run for.

A start date and line-up for the show, which typically commences in September, is also yet to be confirmed.

The judges and professional dancers have given insights over the past few months into what the show could look like when it returns.

Strictly stalwart Anton du Beke recently opened up on the possibility of professional dancers and celebrity contestants isolating in a household together.

He told Hello! Magazine: "Potentially, we will end up in a hotel for a couple of weeks or a month. That’s what has been spoken about and has been provisionally pencilled in.

“Everything else is contingencies but we’re waiting for instructions and the situation is massively fluid at the moment so we will see what happens."

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Meanwhile, judging mainstay Craig Revel Horwood said in an appearance on Loose Women on Tuesday that the situation would give the team "a chance to look at the show in a new creative light".

Back in May, the 55-year-old highlighted that there are “a lot of dances” that don’t require partners to be touching one another as he spoke of how keen bosses were to get the show on air.