Strictly Come Dancing star Chris Robshaw has said “things just got real” in a pre-show update to fans. The former England rugby union player, partnered with professional dancer Nadiya Bychkova, became the first celebrity to perform during the debut of the 2025 live shows last Saturday, September 27.
Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Anton Du Beke and Shirley Ballas returned as judges to cast their eye over the contestants as they learn the art of ballroom dancing, while Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman hosted the programme. First up on the dancefloor, Chris and Nadiya performed a Samba to Unbelievable by EMF, sporting sparkly black and silver rugby-inspired outfits.
Excitement is building as week two of Strictly Come Dancing arrives on our screens tonight, October 4. The race for the Glitterball continues at 6.20pm on BBC One when the 15 celebrities will take to the dancefloor with their partners.
Ahead of the live show tonight, Chris, 39, took to Instagram to share an update to his 147K followers. On his Instagram stories, the dad-of-two shared a photo smiling, wearing something new he was given as a contestant on the hit BBC dance competition.
Wearing a navy blue dressing gown, with Strictly Come Dancing 2025 embroidered on the left side, he wrote: “Things just got real, the personalised dressing gowns (kimono emoji).”
Chris wasn’t the only Strictly contestant to show off their new robe. TV presenter and personality Ross King, partnered with professional Jowita Przystał, also shared a video of his dressing gown hung up backstage, with his name embroidered on the back.
In the video, he said: “Now this is know when you’ve arrived on Strictly. Your own personalised dressing gown – thankyou.”
When it was announced that Chris would be in the 2025 series, he said: “”This is about as far out of my comfort zone as it gets!
“I’m hoping to take my dad dancing to a whole new level, and my mum can’t wait to drag me along to her Zumba class. Let’s see if a rugby sidestep works in the Cha Cha Cha.”
Last week, the first live show was underway – but no contestant was eliminated. For week two, the scores will be carried over and combined with the previous week, with a change to the voting system.
The 23rd season of Strictly has brought about a major rule change as, for the first time, viewers will not be able to vote by calling premium-rate numbers. Nowadays, online voting has become much more popular and the majority of votes for the last Strictly series were cast online, according to the BBC.
BT announced it would stop offering phone votes for the BBC sometime in 2025. It has now been confirmed that voting for BBC shows will only be available online from now on.
Viewers must have a BBC account in order to vote, or you can sign up for one on the BBC website. The voting link will be available on the website when voting opens.