Strictly Come Dancing staged its annual Halloween Week special on BBC One on Saturday night. The live show aired on 31 October itself, with every remaining couple performing a horror-themed routine at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. The BBC confirmed the scheduling in its weekend listings.

The themed week is one of the most anticipated fixtures in the series calendar. Couples traditionally perform costumed routines drawn from horror films, gothic musicals and Halloween anthems. The BBC's wardrobe, make-up and set design teams typically spend weeks preparing prosthetics, staging and costumes.

The broadcast fell in the run-up to the show's annual trip to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, which the BBC traditionally stages in mid-November. Couples who survive the coming weeks secure a place at that televised milestone. The judges' scores from Saturday were combined with the public vote to set up Sunday's results programme and dance-off.

The Halloween special arrived in a crowded weekend for British Saturday-night television. ITV and the BBC have both leaned heavily on live entertainment formats this autumn. The BBC's Celebrity Traitors has drawn strong audiences, alongside public calls for the return of Miranda Hart's sitcom, which she addressed this week.

Strictly remains one of the BBC's most-watched entertainment brands, and Halloween Week routinely produces some of the series' most-shared clips online. Broadcast industry figures for the episode were expected from the audience measurement body Barb in the following days. The bottom two couples were due to face the judges in Sunday's dance-off.