Strictly Come Dancing fans are overjoyed at the return of one very nostalgic judging feature due to be seen on our screens this upcoming season.
Last night (10 September) filming took place for the pre-recorded launch show, where we see the celebrity contestants matched up with the professional dance partners, which will air on 20 September.
There were a number of photos and videos shared from the set, including one video posted by the official Strictly Come Dancing Instagram account where the judges Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Howard, and presenters Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly celebrated their NTA win and thanked fans for voting for them for the award.
And in the video many eagle-eyed fans spotted that rather than sitting on individual desks separated from each other as has been the standard for the past few years, the judges were in fact all sat behind the same judging desk.
Yes that's right the one desk is back! And fans (us included) were very happy to see it's return.
One person commented underneath the Instagram post: "Yes the table is back not the individual desks, yay ❤️❤️", while another said: "They brought back the old judging table," and another added: "Also are the judges all back on one panel together this year?! Thank the heavens if so, they look much more like a team than four individuals this way."
And over on X, a fan shared a picture from Tess' Instagram which showed the OG desk returning, captioning the picture: "OMG it looks like the singular judges desk is finally back on this years series of #Strictly!"
Many fans happily reacted to the post, with one writing: "So glad it’s going back to the original."
Since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Strictly judges have sat at individual desks (as seen in the clip below), instead of sitting at their traditional one shared table, for health and safety purposes.
However, while many fans thought that after the pandemic the table would return to normal, in the past few seasons we've seen the judges remain separated.
Thankfully, it now seems the judges will be reunited once more, which all viewers are likely to agree will bring even more entertainment to the show. Just think of how much easier it'll be for Craig to squabble with the other three, or for Anton to quickly whisk Shirley into a dance move to show how it should be done, or for the judges to confer far more easily during the danceathon.
Ugh, we are so back!
Strictly Come Dancing begins on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday 20 September at 6:40pm.
