What time is the Strictly Come Dancing Final on tonight and how to vote for who wins the BBC show
Everything comes down to this!Strictly Come Dancing 2025 will reach its highly-anticipated conclusion tonight when one lucky couple gets to lift the Glitterball Trophy – but what time is the final on?
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will present the BBC show for one last time as this year’s remaining contestants battle it out in the ballroom.
Tonight’s final is a bumper-long episode and each pair will perform three routines. You can also expect to see the return of a few familiar faces.
Read on to find out everything you need to know about tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing Final, including who is left in the show and what time it is on.
Strictly Come Dancing: The Final
There are three couples left in Strictly Come Dancing 2025. The pairs competing in the Final are Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin, George Clarke and Alexis Warr, and Karen Carney and Carlos Gu.
They will all perform three routines tonight. They are Favourite Dance, Judges’ Pick and Show Dance.
The couples have each chosen their fave routine from the series, then Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Hoorwood have selected their favourites for Judges’ Pick.
In the couples’ Show Dances, the rule book will go out of the window. The celebrities and their pros can choose any discipline and any song before putting on a mind-blowing performance.
You can find out all of the Strictly finalists’ dances and the songs they will be performing them to tonight here.
This year’s contestants will also be returning to the ballroom for tonight’s Final, but with one exception. Thomas Skinner has reportedly pulled out due to prior commitments.
The class of 2025 will be joining together for one last group routine. It has been three months since Strictly 2025 started, so it will be good to see everyone reunited again!
How to vote in the Strictly Final
It is all down to you tonight. Shirley, Anton, Motsi and Craig will still be critiquing the finalists’ dances but their scores will be purely for guidance only.
The marks they award each couple will not bear any reference to who will win. That comes entirely down to viewers and the public vote.
The vote will open as soon as the three couples have each performed their first dance of the night. Just like in all of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing series, fans can only vote online. This will not change tonight.
To vote, you will need to log onto the official Strictly Come Dancing website when Claudia officially gives you the green light. The couple that receives the most public votes before the lines close later in the evening will be declared this year’s winners.
The BBC doesn’t usually rank the celebrities in first, second and third place. Those who came second and third are deemed this year’s runners up.
The Strictly Come Dancing 2025 Champions will get to lift the Glitterball Trophy. Last year’s celebrity winner, Chris McCausland, and his pro partner Dianne Buswell, will be returning the Trophy during tonight’s Final, ready to hand over.
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s last Strictly show
It will be a show of mixed emotions tonight. As one celebrity and their pro are declared this year’s champs, we will be saying goodbye to Tess and Claudia.
The presenting duo will be bowing out of Strictly Come Dancing, almost two months after they confirmed they had quit. Tess has hosted Strictly since its launch in 2004. Claudia joined her in 2014 following the now late Bruce Forsyth’s retirement.
Last week, Tess and Claudia were presented with their own gold Glitterball Trophies by judge Craig. Plans for how the BBC will mark their departure tonight are being kept closely under wraps, but they will not leave without a fanfare.
It was previously reported that Tess and Claud will perform a dance routine during tonight’s Final.
A source told The Sun earlier this month: “Both hosts are the first to admit they’re not natural movers, certainly not compared to the pros they’re surrounded by every week.
“But they know this is a special occasion and this special routine is as much an opportunity for everyone on the show to say goodbye to Tess and Claudia as it is for the viewers at home.”
We will have to tune in tonight to see what happens, as the BBC won’t spill.
Tess and Claudia will host this year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special. However, this is a pre-recorded episode that airs on Christmas Day.
What time is Strictly Come Dancing: The Final on tonight?
Strictly Come Dancing: The Final starts at 7pm tonight (Saturday December 20, 2025). You can watch it at that time on BBC One and iPlayer.
The last show of the series is a movie-length one, so stock up on the snacks and drinks. It will run for two hours and 10 minutes, with an end time of 9.10pm.
And with that, another year will be done. We will know who has won this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, but we won’t know much more about the future of the show.
Tess and Claudia’s replacements are yet to be confirmed by the BBC – and there is even suggestion the show could be paused for a year. All the more reason to sit back and enjoy every minute of tonight’s live Final, right?!
