Strictly Come Dancing has made a big change to its voting system – so how do you vote for your favourite? 

Fifteen new celebrities and their pro partners will be taking to the ballroom when the 2025 series kicks off later this month.

But a new shake up at the BBC means there has been a change in how you can vote for who you want to save each week. It also affects the Strictly Live Final and how to pick this year’s winners.

Read on to find out what’s changed and how to vote during the new series.

Strictly Come Dancing: Phone votes scrapped

The BBC‘s change affects the way viewers vote for any of its shows that require fan participation. These include The Eurovision Song Contest, BBC Sports Personality of the Year and – importantly – Strictly Come Dancing.

So what’s new? The change affects premium-rate phone voting. In recent years, viewers have been given the chance to cast their Strictly Come Dancing votes both online and via a phone number.

When it comes to Strictly, the phone vote is a major part of its history. Each Saturday night, a star announcer reads out the terms and conditions for voting. This includes the details of the telephone votes, including the cost of the call.

Each celebrity and their pro dancer are assigned both a ‘long number’ for landlines and ‘short number’ for mobile votes. Last year, calls to both numbers cost 15 pence each.

Once all the couples have performed, the Strictly stars – including the judges and presenters – don wigs and props to celebrate the opening of the phone lines. “The phone lines are now open!” host Claudia Winkleman would shout, as everyone cheered.

Fans usually have less than two hours to cast their vote. But his segment will now be slightly different.

Why has it changed?

The BBC has ditched telephone voting due to costs, explaining in a statement: “For years, shows like Strictly Come Dancing, BBC Sports Personality of the Year and Eurovision let viewers vote by calling premium-rate numbers. However, this is now an outdated system and also expensive to run.

“Online voting has become the go-to choice for most viewers. In fact, the overwhelming majority of votes for the last Strictly series were cast online.”

The phone voting service was provided by BT. The BBC also said BT announced it would not longer be offering it in 2025.

Strictly: How to vote now

When the new series of Strictly Come Dancing gets underway, fans will only be able to vote online. And this might not be easy for everyone.

To be able to vote online, viewers must have an account set up with the BBC. This is the same account you need to watch shows on BBC iPlayer.

When voting opens, fans can log onto the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing website and click on a photo of which couple they want to vote for. They will be prompted to sign in.

It will be a similar process when voting for other BBC shows going forward, such as next year’s Eurovision.

“We know this is a change for some viewers, so we’ll be sharing clear instructions during shows like Strictly to explain how to get set up and vote,” the BBC insisted in its statement.

Strictly’s celebrity line-up

Last month, the BBC announced the full celebrity line-up for Strictly Come Dancing. Fans were drip-fed the names over the course of one week.

They include Gladiator Nitro – real name Harry Aikines-Aryeete, ER and Doctor Who actress Alex Kingston, Love Island star Dani Dyer and retired football Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

EastEnders actress Balvinder Sopal has also been confirmed, along with social media influencer George Clarke. Drag Race UK’s La Voix, rugby legend Chris Robshaw, and model and actress Ellie Goldstein are taking part.

They are joined by Apprentice star Thomas Skinner, reality star Vicky Pattison, Neighbours legend Stefan Dennis and TV showbiz journalist Ross King.

Footballer Karen Carney and soap star Lewis Cope complete the line-up. Lewis has replaced Game of Thrones actor Kristian Nairn, who pulled out of Strictly less than a week after the names were announced.

When does Strictly Come Dancing start?

The 2025 series of Strictly Come Dancing will start on Saturday September 20. The following week, viewers will be given their first chance of the series to vote for their favourites.

As usual, the Strictly live show will air on Saturday nights with the Results show on Sundays. The series will run right up until Christmas. Last year’s Strictly Live Final took place on Saturday December 14.

Read more: Strictly Come Dancing reveals two new professionals for 2025 series: Here are their names

Strictly Come Dancing returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Saturday September 20, 2025.