Strictly Come Dancing returned for its eighteenth series with a launch show on 17 October 2020 on BBC One, with the live shows starting on 24 October. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the series launched a month later than usual and ran for nine weeks instead of the usual thirteen. Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman returned as hosts, while Zoe Ball and Rylan Clark-Neal returned to host Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two. In four shows Clark-Neal was replaced by Gethin Jones after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.