Strictly Saturday and Sunday

BBC1 controller Peter Fincham is to move the Strictly Come Dancing results show to a slot on early Sunday evening.

In a clear bid to shore up the channel's Sunday night schedule, which is often hit hard by ITV1, the programme will be broadcast the day after the competition show and be extended by 15 minutes from 30 to 45 minutes.

The new series will also change the existing system, where viewers vote for the final winner following a dance-off, by giving the final decision to the panel of judges.

When the programme closes on Saturday night, viewers will continue to vote for their favourite couple for one hour following the end of the programme. The phone lines will then close and the votes will be counted and verified.

When the show returns on Sunday evening the results will be announced with the viewers' vote and the judges' scores combining to save the couples. The bottom two couples will then face a dance-off, leaving the judges to decide who should leave the programme.

The new series begins on BBC1 on October 6, with a behind-the-scenes documentary scheduled for this Saturday.

Any comments on this?

This is how the programme works in the America I think.

This could go two ways... it works like the BBC want it to. Or, people will just stop watching as they will forget to watch the results show and not know who's gone out. They then lose interest in who's still in and then just stop watching.

Don't watching it either way so no idea how additive this show may be for some!

Sounds like the Sunday show will be pre-recorded so the result will already be known by time it is shown.

It's a bad, risky move and highlights the paucity of entertainment on the BBC, and TV in general, these days.

It really was far better with just three channels in the sixties and seventies.

Oh God no, then they'd be "faking" the whole show!

It would seem it'll be pre recorded, as surely live would be a LOT of money wasted. Studio costs, staff costs, another audience? etc. Seems odd to me to move it anyway, hope they don't lose too many viewers from doing this.

I take it that they won't be going to the bother of all returning on the Sunday to do the results show, so it will be a pre-record from the night before ?

Seems pointless, all it would take it one person from the audience to come on to the internet and leak the result, and then the surprise element is lost. A pre-recorded results show wouldn't have the same feeling about it, the spontaneity would be lost.

The judge thing seems a bit of an X-Factor style set-up.

Strictly Come Dancing was one of the few (if not the only) decent dance programme on telly, and I don't like the sound of the new format. It might just ruin the programme.

Yet another fabulous idea from Peter Fincham.

They are just milking the format as much as they can in the style of commercial channels. I hope they don't order extra episodes of Casualty this Autumn or Sundays will be almost the same as Saturdays!

The X Factor is now being shown on Saturday and Sundays for at least a week - with the Rugby World Cup on Saturday the excuse for moving the second show to Sunday.


ITV are also said to have been considering moving the Dancing on Ice results show to Sunday too.

Won't work. Saturdays is when you're at least a bit likely to get people in front of their tellys, but Sunday's the day before back to work happens.

ITV were considering it before the BBC announced that. The X Factor is only on on Sunday for one week which is Sunday, 6th October. I think it will work in X Factor's favour and there will be a significant ratings drop in Strictly as more people will be forgetting the results are on, so will find it pointless to watch the main show etc, and see the highlights in the Sunday show.