Strictly Come Dancing: Coping with change

As Strictly Come Dancing’s revamp divides viewers, Ivan Radford asks how we approach change.

‘Change partners!’ Those two words set the tone at the start of Series 24 of Strictly Come Dancing.

Strictly Come Dancing: What's changed?

BBC One’s dancing competition has undergone a chorus line of changes for 2026. Several professional dancers have departed, making way for five new additions to the line-up: Aleksandra, Cristian, Lethabo, Maddie and Mark. 

Most notably, the hosts are entirely different: Strictly Come Dancing is now presented by Emma Willis, professional dancer Johannes Radebe and comedian Josh Widdicombe, replacing hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, who departed the dance floor in 2025.

In the launch episode, even the way the celebrity contestants and the professional dancers were paired off for the tournament was new: each person had to dance with a randomly assigned partner, which the presenters instructed them to switch until revealing the confirmed combinations one at a time.

It was an energetic and chaotic display of how quickly things can alter, underscoring the fact that Saturday nights for Strictly fans don’t look the way they used to. The same is even true of Sunday nights – a results show in October 2026 saw the first ever dance-off featuring three couples, with the judges voting to eliminate contestants rather than to save them.

Reacting to change

Inevitably, all these differences mean the show has been under scrutiny every week, with some viewers embracing the revamp and others lamenting the shift – particularly the choice of the three presenters.

When change enters your own ballroom, which camp are you in? Humans have rarely lived in a time of such extreme change and at such rapid pace, largely thanks to technology, which also invites us to be more aware of every change happening everywhere at once. Right now, it might feel like the world is always changing, with nothing certain to hold on to.

That means it can be easy to be swept up in the tides of change, buffeted and distracted by each new development. In a society of instant reactions and a push to have the loudest opinion, how we respond can become shaped and influenced by the world and the voices around us.

For Christians, the only true constant is God, and his unwavering love for each of us. Psalm 46 reminds us that ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble’ (v1). In verse 10, after the psalm has painted a picture of chaos and change, it calls us to ‘be still, and know that I am God’. Even amid affliction, Lamentations 3:22 and 23 remind us: ‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’

It can be hard to grasp just how unchanging God is. Because God has never changed and will never change. That means God is still the same God who is ‘doing a new thing’ (Isaiah 43:19), if we look for it.

For Strictly fans looking ahead to the show’s future, there will be elements that remain the same – the week in Blackpool, familiar dancers such as Dianne Buswell and Kai Widdrington, and the weekly call to ‘keep dancing’.

Change in this world can be positive or negative, but is guaranteed to happen. Whatever it looks like, big or small, change can be an opportunity to see in a new light the one constant who will never change. It is an invitation to keep our eyes on God before all else – after all, he’s a partner who will never leave our sides.

Reflect and respond

• How do you face change?
• Read Psalm 46 and Lamentations 3. What anchors your hope and confidence every morning?
• How can you reflect God’s unwavering love and presence to people you know who are facing change?