'Strictly Come Dancing': Seann Walsh And Katya Jones' Return Pulls In 1 Million Extra Viewers

A peak of 11.9 million people tuned in to watch the live show.

The most recent instalment of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ pulled in around 1 million more viewers than the previous week’s episode, the BBC has revealed.

On Saturday, an average of 10.6 million tuned in to see the ‘Strictly’ contestants performing live, with a peak of 11.9 million.

These numbers are a big jump up from last week, which an average of 9.2 million watching live, and a peak figure of 10.4 million.

We’re sure this bump in viewing figures is in no small part thanks to last night’s live show featuring Seann Walsh and Katya Jones’ first performance together since they were caught on camera kissing last week.

The pair have dominated the headlines ever since their kiss was made public, and despite facing calls to pull out of the show altogether, when his now-ex released her own damning statement on the subject, it was later confirmed that they were going nowhere, and would be performing a Charleston together.

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Seann Walsh and Katya Jones on Saturday night
BBC

While many speculated on how the show would address the media furore, it turned out ‘Strictly’ almost glossed over the subject completely, apart from one off-hand comment from Claudia Winkleman about how a few “headlines” had disturbed an otherwise “quiet” week.

Despite having been named the bookies’ favourite for the chop, and Seann admitting that his “difficult week” had made rehearsing tougher than usual, he and Katya ended up coming fifth overall on the leaderboard, with the comedian coming in as the highest-scoring male contestant.

See whether Seann and Katya will live to fight another week in Sunday night’s results show, kicking off at 7.45pm on BBC One.