The Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor is getting its annual spookification as the Halloween Special looms. With that, fans can anticipate some ghastly - but brilliant! - routines destined to make their presence felt in Strictly history.
Last week's shock Dance-Off saw Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin find themselves in the Dance-Off despite scoring as high as second on the Leaderboard. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Lauren Oakley also found themselves there despite being fourth on the Leaderboard, and they were sadly eliminated from the competition. And that has left fans unsure of what to expect this week as Halloween Week returns.
If you're ready to get your scary on and watch the spooky routines, here's when you can anticipate this week's episode of Strictly.
Strictly Week 6 start time (and how long the episode is)
Strictly Come Dancing's Halloween Special airs on BBC One on Saturday, November 1, at 6:35 pm BST. The Week 6 episode will see the 10 remaining couples take to the dancefloor to dance some deliciously spooky routines in what will undoubtedly be a memorable night of dancing.
The upcoming episode has the latest start time of the live shows thus far and that is reflected in the fact that there are now much less couples, so the show can begin to edge towards its typical 7:00 pm timeslot. And if 10 couples seems like a suddenly smaller group to you, that's because the competition unfortunately lost two couples last week as Jimmy and Lauren were eliminated and Stefan Dennis and Dianne Buswell had to pull out after Stefan suffered an injury.
This week's installment has a runtime of 1 hour and 43 minutes, with a scheduled finish time of 8:20 pm GMT to allow for any potential overruning. This is, after all, live entertainment, so a few moments have to be allowed for that.
Halloween's songs and dances promise some spooky bangers
Strictly Come Dancing always goes all out with Halloween song choices and you can rest assured that they have done it once again. We have a healthy mix of modern day earworms like Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra" for Ellie and Vito's as well an unexpected dose of WTF in "Horny" for Alex and Johannes' devil-inspired Salsa. Both of those dances promise to be must-see but for very different reasons.
Meanwhile, Amber and Nikita will look to bounce back from the Dance-Off with a haunting Viennese Waltz to "I See Red" by Everybody Loves An Outlaw while Balvinder and Julian will try something very different this week when they take on the Rumba to the ethereal "Stay" from Shakespear's Sister.
Needless to say, it's going to be an immersive experience that is destined to keep us in the Halloween spirit beyond the holiday itself. And with that, here are all of the songs and dances we can expect to see in Week 6:
- Alex and Johannes – Salsa to "Horny" by Mousse T. and Hot 'n' Juicy
- Amber and Nikita – Viennese Waltz to "I See Red" by Everybody Loves An Outlaw
- Balvinder and Julian – Rumba to "Stay" by Shakespears Sister
- Ellie and Vito – Tango to "Abracadabra" by Lady Gaga
- George and Alexis – Cha Cha to "Apple" by Charlie XCX
- Harry and Karen – American Smooth to "Mystical Magical" by Benson Boone
- Karen and Carlos – Argentine Tango to "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
- La Voix and Aljaž – Paso Doble to "The 5th" by Beethoven
- Lewis and Katya – Couple's Choice to "Creep" by Radiohead
- Vicky and Kai – American Smooth to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler
Lewis and Katya topped the Leaderboard last week with their Johnny Cash-inspired Quickstep while Amber and Nikita and Vicky and Kai came in at second and Alex and Johannes were right behind them in third. We're starting to see a number of regulars remain atop the Leaderboard while there are some dances really starting to blossom in the middle who could find themselves creeping up to the top too.
Will the Cha Cha suit George and Alexis after their unexpected arrival at the bottom of the Leaderboard last week? Can Karen and Carlos channel their show-stopping Jive's flicks and kicks into this week's Argentine Tango (and stage a comeback in the process)? We hope the answer to all of those questions is yes.
Buckle up, it's going to be one heck of a show!