Music · 6 September 2026
Strictly Come Dancing 2026 Trailer Reveals New Hosts and Historic Pairing Change
The Strictly Come Dancing 2026 trailer introduces Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe and reveals a major change to the launch show.
The Strictly Come Dancing 2026 trailer has arrived, giving viewers their first proper look at the BBC ballroom’s new era with Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe as its presenting team — and revealing a significant change to the way this year’s celebrity partnerships will be formed.
Released on Saturday 5 September, the minute-long trailer brings together the new hosts, judges, professional dancers and celebrity contestants ahead of the launch show on Saturday 19 September. The BBC’s flagship entertainment series will return on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with the launch scheduled for 7.25pm.
The change in front of the camera is substantial. Willis, Widdicombe and Radebe take over following the departure of long-standing presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman at the end of the 2025 series. Radebe’s move is particularly unusual: after years as one of Strictly’s professional dancers, he is moving into the presenting team while still making his dance background part of the programme’s new identity.
A new way to reveal the Strictly couples
The biggest format development revealed alongside the Strictly Come Dancing 2026 trailer concerns the moment when celebrities discover their professional partners.
For the first time in the programme’s history, each celebrity and professional will learn who they have been paired with in front of the Strictly studio audience. Rather than relying on the familiar individual pairing reveals, the new partnerships will emerge through three specially choreographed group dance routines.
The approach means the launch programme should contain considerably more competitive dancing before the series proper begins. It also turns one of Strictly’s most anticipated early-season moments into part of the performance itself, with the celebrities being tested on the dancefloor while the pairings are revealed.
Independent reporting from The Independent confirms the revised format, describing it as a historic change for the long-running BBC programme.
Johannes Radebe is still dancing
The trailer also answers one obvious question about Radebe’s new role: presenting Strictly does not mean he has completely left the dancing behind.
The film-set-inspired sequence takes place around a studio backlot filled with props, vintage cars and the sort of deliberate excess that has become inseparable from Strictly. Judges Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood are all drawn into the action alongside the professional dancers.
Radebe joins the choreography before changing roles for the new presenting team’s entrance with Willis and Widdicombe. It creates a visual bridge between the programme he was part of as a professional and the one he will now help front.
The trailer also provides an early look at the expanded professional line-up. Five new dancers — Aleksandra Isaeva, Cristian Priori, Lethabo Monametsi, Maddie Ingoldsby and Mark Karmalita — are joining 14 returning professionals for the 2026 series.
Strictly’s new era begins on 19 September
The launch show will not only establish the new partnerships. It will also take viewers behind the scenes as the celebrities begin rehearsals, while 2025 champion Karen Carney is set to return to perform her football-themed jive with Carlos Gu.
The confirmed celebrity line-up includes Australian pop singer Delta Goodrem alongside familiar names from British television, sport and entertainment, giving the series the broad mix of backgrounds that has traditionally powered its autumn run.
What the trailer makes particularly clear, however, is that the BBC is not treating the presenter change as a quiet handover. New hosts, new professionals and a redesigned partnership reveal give the 2026 launch a distinct identity while retaining the judges, glitter, choreography and spectacle audiences expect.
After more than two decades on television, changing such a familiar format carries some risk. The Strictly Come Dancing 2026 trailer suggests the BBC’s answer is not to move away from the ballroom formula, but to put dancing even more firmly at the centre of introducing its next chapter.