Strictly Come Dancing: the final – live

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Kaz Carney is red hot bookies’ favourite

The former Lioness is the odds-on with bookmakers to lift the twinkly trophy tonight. George Clarke is their second favourite, with Amber Davies as the rank outsider. But will voting viewers agree? We’ll get our first choreographic clues in 25 minutes…

Three couples, three chances to impress

Our finalists will perform three routines apiece tonight: their own favourite from the series, a dance chosen by the judges and, of course, the only one us viewers haven’t seen before: their anything-goes showdance.

It’s a chance to show off what they’ve learned over the past 13 weeks and for their pro partners to flex their choreography muscles. There are no rules and no limits on how many styles they can combine. Tricks, lifts and gimmicks are positively encouraged, so expect our pairings to throw everything at their last chance to wow.

Can. Not. Wait. But we must. It’s half-an-hour until the sparkly curtain comes up…

Who’ll get the glitterball trophy for a Christmas gift?

We started with 15 pro-celebrity pairs and now we’re down to just three. Over 13 weeks, 125 couple’s dances have lit up the BBC ballroom. Now the 23rd series draws to a close with three last dances apiece and only one glitterball winner. That’s a lot of numbers – and we’re about to see even more.

Good evening and welcome to the big one. Yes, it’s the grand finale of Strictly Come Dancing 2025. I’m Michael, your cyber dance partner for tonight’s showpiece occasion. I’d love you to watch along with me as our finalists pull out all the sparkly stops in their quest to lift that coveted, if slightly gaudy, trophy.

Last week’s semi-final saw record-breaking comeback queen Balvinder Sopal finally bite the dust, leaving us with our final three. Karen Carney is bookies’ favourite, followed by the popular George Clarke, with three-time dance-off survivor Amber Davies the outside bet. Yet the judging panel’s scores are purely for guidance and the result is solely down to the public vote, so anything could happen on the night. Who will succeed Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell as your champions?

Tonight’s epic live spectacular also sees boyband 5ive performing in the ballroom and the Strictly class of 2025 reuniting for one last razzle-dazzle number. It promises to be a rousing crescendo to another cracking series.

It’s showtime at 7pm on BBC One. I’ll be liveblogging from 6.30pm, providing build-up, rolling coverage, analysis, reaction, nerdy stats and ballroom backchat. So for the last Saturday night of the year, pour yourself a pre-festive libation, raid the Christmas snack cupboard and I’ll see you on the sofa.

As always, I’d love to hear from you too. You can tweet me @michaelhogan, contact me on Bluesky or Threads @michaelhogan100, email me [email protected] and the comments section below is open for grand final conflab. I’ll study it like Craig Revel Horwood looking for Charleston swivel and quote a selection of your comments up top.

It’s the ballroom’s big night and things could be tight. Nearly time to staaaaart glitterball-winning!