What is the Strictly Come Dancing Sambathon? 'Chaotic' contest returns to live show

Strictly Come Dancing’s Sambathon week is finally upon us, which means we’re in for an evening of excitement, glitter, and a lot of bota fogos.

The remaining Strictly stars - Montell Douglas, Sarah Hadland, Pete Wicks, Tasha Ghouri, Chris McCausland, JB Gill and Jamie Borthwick - will take to the ballroom this Saturday (November 23) for the high-energy dance-off alongside their partners.

It’s the first time since 2018 that the Strictly producers have decided to bring back the often chaotic dance week.

After their main dance on the show, the couples will all perform simultaneously to impress the judges with their samba moves and get the most points.

It means the ballroom will be full, and the stars will need to pull out all the stops to make their samba skills stand out among the rest of the cast.

Dance-a-thons were a staple feature in past Strictly seasons, but they’ve not always gone to plan. For example, in 2018, during the Lindy Hop-a-thon, technical difficulties threw the judges off and led to them announcing the wrong results.

But it looks like this year, the team is ready. Here’s everything you need to know.

Strictly dance-a-thons are group challenges, where the couples all dance at the same time while trying to earn extra points from the judges.

It resembles what traditional ballroom and Latin dance competitions would look like, where there are often many participants on the floor at the same time.

Throughout the Strictly seasons, there have been many variations: like the Lindy hop-a-thon, the Quickstep-a-thon, and a Walz-a-thon. However, the competition was scrapped after Season 16.

As its name suggests, a Samba-thon involves all the remaining contestants dancing the samba, a high-energy Latin American dance that originated in Brazil.

Following their main performances, all the stars will come together to take part in the Samba-thon alongside the rest of the cast.