'I watched first episode of Strictly - BBC made huge mistake after change'

Strictly Come Dancing hit screens for the first time in 2004, and fans absolutely loved the concept. The series, unsurprisingly, kicked off to a fantastic start with a stellar line-up of celebrities, judges, and hosts. Bruno Tonioli, Arlene Phillips, Len Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood kicked off the orginal judging line-up, with Craig now the only judge still on the panel.

The hosts were a combination of the legendary Bruce Forsyth and current host Tess Daly. And if there's one thing I can recognise from watching the first episode, it's that there's a clear reason Bruce was deemed a Strictly legend.

Back-and-forth quips erupted between Bruce and Tess, along with the contestants, and while there are some things he would never be able to say now, it's definitely missed.

Now, don't get me wrong, Claudia Winkleman and Tess are a great hosting duo, but the on-screen chemistry is just not as natural.

What feels quite apparent to me, is that a male/female hosting duo is what the show thrived on; it promotes balance and equality amongst viewers and honestly, lots of successful shows have followed this model.

Strictly has had two female hosts since 2014 after Bruce Forsyth bowed out of the show. The concept works well, it does, but watching the first episode, it felt so much more enjoyable watching Bruce and Tess bounce off each other.

Not a single comment felt like it was read off a cue, it just felt fun. Don't get me wrong, there are quite a few things that Bruce said that he would not be allowed to say now.

One of which was telling contestant Natasha Kaplinsky that he thought she was going to strip and saying: "We were excited weren't we lads!", alongside asking Brendan Cole if she was "easy", before quipping "easy to train!"

Bruce died in 2017, but he was still referred to as a Strictly legend, he's gone down in history with the show, and from watching its debut it's really not hard to see why.

Another thing, the judges were far more brutal. Even Bruno, who was typically not quite as brutal as Craig, was rivalling Craig and even giving lower scores than him on some occasions. It's almost like they're now so scared of backlash that they don't want to say what they really think.

The first episode saw 2s, 4s and 5s pretty consistently, bar the odd 7, but in 2025, those kind of numbers would be incredibly harsh. Strictly has changed a lot over the years, and one thing that is exceptionally noticeable is that scoring and comments are a lot softer; more of the complaints from contestants seem to be focused on their partners.

If Strictly wants to resemble its former glory like its early noughties heyday, it needs to do two things: Have a host change-up, an ultimate dynamic duo who bounce off each other would be perfect. The other is we need to get a fresh judging panel, maybe it's time to move Janette Manrara from It Takes Two to the hot seat.