Strictly Come Dancing’s official companion podcast will be coming back for a new season on 16 September, BBC Studios has announced, coinciding with the premiere of the TV dancing competition’s 21st season.
Strictly Come Dancing: The Official Podcast is hosted by former contestant and YouTuber Joe Sugg, and presenter and producer Kim Winston, reflecting on highlights from the main show as well as conducting interviews with contestants, professional dancers, judges, and crew backstage.
“As summer draws to an end we look forward to the return of the dancefloor,” said Winston. “It's a huge pleasure to be back for another year to host the podcast alongside Joe. I'm really looking forward to the excitement we'll be sharing with the listeners once again."
The official podcast has been running since 2017, alongside a number of other companion podcasts on BBC Sounds, including Obsessed With… Happy Valley and Eurovisioncast. The podcast will continue running on a weekly basis after the Strictly results show on Sundays starting 1 October, with two additional episodes coming out on 14 December before the final, and another Christmas special on 25 December.
Sugg told PodPod that the podcast’s audience has expanded from die-hard fans in the past few years to reach a much bigger part of the Strictly audience as podcasting continues to become more mainstream. Companion and TV rewatch podcasts have become a larger trend since the pandemic, with many celebrities using the platform to grow their audiences - although a number of those have paused production during the Hollywood strikes.
Sugg also added that while the producers have no current plans to start filming the podcast, he’s keen to experiment with different formats, including the addition of video content, as it continues to grow. He also added that he’d like to try creating his own podcast in the future.
“I feel like podcasts are sort of having a similar sort of arc to what YouTube had in that digital world,” said Sugg. “I feel like I've sort of missed that initial wave, but if you've got a good enough idea and you've got the right chemistry, there's always space for some really good podcasts. I would love to come up with a good podcast, whether I'm presenting that or whether I'm just producing it. It's such an exciting space.”
