BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2022: Full list of celebrities and professional partners including two same-sex couples

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The wait was finally over and the latest series of Strictly Come Dancing finally burst back onto our screens. The brand new 20th series of the BBC dance contest launched on Friday night (September 23) bringing glitter, glamour and glorious dancing to homes across the nation once more.

Fans welcomed back our hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, along with judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke to the much-loved programme which will be filling out Saturday night's right up until Christmas (yes, we said it!)

As well as revealing who this year's 15 celebrities were paired with, the show opened with an eye-catching ballroom performance from the fabulous group of professional dancers which has increased in numbers this year. New pro dancers Lauren Oakley, Vito Coppola, Michelle Tsiakkas and Carlos Gu were finally introduced to viewers via a cinematic group number.

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Not only that, John Legend also performed his new single ‘All She Wanna Do’ and at the end of the show, we saw the celebrities and professional dancers perform their first group number to finish the launch show in style, giving us our first sneak peek at the celebrities’ dancing skills.

Didn't get to see who's with who or want a reminder? Here is the full list of your Strictly Come Dancing couples for 2022:

Firstly, five-time Paralympic gold medalist, Ellie Simmonds was introduced to the dancefloor. When asked by Tess about what it meant to her to be representing people with dwarfism on Strictly, she said: "It means everything, to represent not just dwarfism but disability in general, for me to go out of my