Quick Answer
The list of winners Strictly Come Dancing has crowned runs to 23 series, from Natasha Kaplinsky and Brendan Cole in 2004 to Karen Carney and Carlos Gu in 2025. Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell won in 2024. Oti Mabuse and Aliona Vilani are the only professionals with two wins. Series 24 is on air now, so this year’s champions are not yet included.
Key Takeaways
- Only two professionals have won more than once: Aliona Vilani (2011 and 2015) and Oti Mabuse (2019 and 2020). Every other winning professional has one Glitterball.
- The last four series have each ended with a professional winning for the first time: Jowita Przystał, Vito Coppola, Dianne Buswell and Carlos Gu.
- We found no winning couple that included a replacement professional, and no official dataset of partner heights, so this guide does not make either up.
Full list of winners Strictly Come Dancing has had: series 1 to 23
Strictly Come Dancing is the BBC’s celebrity ballroom and Latin competition, in which each famous contestant is paired with a professional dancer. The trophy is the Glitterball. The table below gives every series winner, their professional partner and the runners-up named on Wikipedia.
Strictly Come Dancing winners list with professional partners
| Series | Year | Winning celebrity | Professional partner | Runners-up |
| 1 | 2004 | Natasha Kaplinsky | Brendan Cole | Christopher Parker and Hanna Karttunen |
| 2 | 2004 | Jill Halfpenny | Darren Bennett | Denise Lewis and Ian Waite |
| 3 | 2005 | Darren Gough | Lilia Kopylova | Colin Jackson and Erin Boag |
| 4 | 2006 | Mark Ramprakash | Karen Hardy | Matt Dawson and Lilia Kopylova |
| 5 | 2007 | Alesha Dixon | Matthew Cutler | Matt Di Angelo and Flavia Cacace |
| 6 | 2008 | Tom Chambers | Camilla Dallerup | Rachel Stevens and Vincent Simone |
| 7 | 2009 | Chris Hollins | Ola Jordan | Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe |
| 8 | 2010 | Kara Tointon | Artem Chigvintsev | Matt Baker and Aliona Vilani |
| 9 | 2011 | Harry Judd | Aliona Vilani | Chelsee Healey and Pasha Kovalev |
| 10 | 2012 | Louis Smith | Flavia Cacace | Denise van Outen and James Jordan |
| 11 | 2013 | Abbey Clancy | Aljaž Škorjanec | Natalie Gumede and Artem Chigvintsev |
| 12 | 2014 | Caroline Flack | Pasha Kovalev | Frankie Bridge and Kevin Clifton |
| 13 | 2015 | Jay McGuiness | Aliona Vilani | Georgia May Foote and Giovanni Pernice |
| 14 | 2016 | Ore Oduba | Joanne Clifton | Danny Mac and Oti Mabuse |
| 15 | 2017 | Joe McFadden | Katya Jones | Alexandra Burke and Gorka Márquez |
| 16 | 2018 | Stacey Dooley | Kevin Clifton | Ashley Roberts and Pasha Kovalev |
| 17 | 2019 | Kelvin Fletcher | Oti Mabuse | Emma Barton and Anton Du Beke |
| 18 | 2020 | Bill Bailey | Oti Mabuse | HRVY and Janette Manrara |
| 19 | 2021 | Rose Ayling-Ellis | Giovanni Pernice | John Whaite and Johannes Radebe |
| 20 | 2022 | Hamza Yassin | Jowita Przystał | Fleur East and Vito Coppola |
| 21 | 2023 | Ellie Leach | Vito Coppola | Bobby Brazier and Dianne Buswell |
| 22 | 2024 | Chris McCausland | Dianne Buswell | Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec |
| 23 | 2025 | Karen Carney | Carlos Gu | Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin |
Series 1 and series 2 both aired in 2004. For series 22 the table names the runners-up pairing shown in the main series table; the series page lists other finalists too.
Strictly Come Dancing winners 2025
Karen Carney and Carlos Gu won series 23. The launch show aired on BBC One on 20 September 2025, and the final on 20 December 2025, according to Wikipedia. The runners-up were Amber Davies with Nikita Kuzmin and George Clarke with Alexis Warr.
It was also the last series presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. The Scotsman reported the final as their last live show together, with a Christmas special still to come.
Who won Strictly Come Dancing 2024?
Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell won series 22 on 14 December 2024. HELLO! described McCausland as the first blind person to win the show. Series 22 ran from a launch show on 14 September 2024.
Records: what the winners’ list shows
These records come from counting the table above, so they are only as reliable as the table. Where a claim comes straight from Wikipedia, it says so.
Professional dancer Glitterball track records: who has won most
Two professionals have won twice. Aliona Vilani won in 2011 with Harry Judd and in 2015 with Jay McGuiness. Oti Mabuse won in 2019 with Kelvin Fletcher and in 2020 with Bill Bailey. Wikipedia says Mabuse was the first professional to win consecutively and the second to win the show twice.
Everyone else in the table has one win. By our count, 23 series have produced 21 different winning professionals.
Female professional dancers with multiple Strictly wins
Both professionals with more than one win are women: Aliona Vilani and Oti Mabuse. No male professional has a second win in the table above. That is a count of the list rather than an official BBC statistic.
First time pro dancer winners Strictly has had
“First time” can mean a professional’s first win or their first series. This section uses first win, because that is what the table can show.
The most recent four winners were all first-timers in that sense: Jowita Przystał (2022), Vito Coppola (2023), Dianne Buswell (2024) and Carlos Gu (2025). Buswell had been a runner-up in 2023 before her win. Gu joined as a professional in series 20, in 2022, and Wikipedia says his 2025 win was his first and that he is the first Chinese professional to win.
Replacement pro dancers who won the final
We found no winning couple that included a replacement professional. The nearest cases from recent series both ended without a win:
- In series 22, Lauren Oakley replaced the injured Amy Dowden as JB Gill’s partner for the rest of the series. Wikipedia lists the couple among the runners-up.
- In series 23, Amber Davies replaced Dani Dyer, who withdrew with an ankle injury, and reached the final with Nikita Kuzmin. That was a replacement celebrity, not a replacement professional.
We did not check earlier series for replacements one by one, so a winner in the early years could have changed partner without us seeing it.
Strictly champions partner height difference data: what is and is not available
We found no BBC or other primary source that publishes partner heights for Strictly couples, and unofficial figures differ from site to site. Without a reliable source, this guide does not compare champions by height difference. If a source does appear, it should state whose measurements it uses and when they were taken.
Memorable finals
Series 19 (2021): a first for the show
Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice won. Wikipedia describes the series as featuring the first couple with a deaf contestant, and it also included the show’s first all-male partnership, John Whaite and Johannes Radebe, who finished as runners-up.
Chris McCausland Strictly Come Dancing journey: from first blind contestant to Glitterball
McCausland was the first blind contestant to appear on the show, according to Wikipedia. Dianne Buswell was his professional partner throughout.
The final is the best-documented part of his run. HELLO! gave the judges’ scores as 38 for the Couple’s Choice, 38 for the Showdance and a 40 for the Waltz to “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, which was the couple’s first perfect score of the series. Their total of 116 put them fourth of the four finalists on the judges’ leaderboard, behind JB Gill and Lauren Oakley (119), Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec (119) and Sarah Hadland and Vito Coppola.
Strictly combines judges’ marks with the public vote, so the winner is not decided by the judges alone. HELLO! did not explain how the final result was reached, and we have not found the BBC’s vote breakdown. We have not built a week-by-week account of McCausland’s run for this guide.
Karen Carney Strictly Come Dancing winner: how she got there
Carney is a former England Lioness and now a broadcaster. Express and Star reported that she was the first footballer to reach the Strictly semi-finals, and that she scored 34 for a samba in semi-final week. A Peaky Blinders inspired Argentine tango was described as a turning point in her run.
She told the press that the show had rebuilt her confidence. The final drew 8.49 million viewers, the highest figure listed for series 23 on Wikipedia. The audience figure on that page may use a different measure from the BBC’s own.
Where they are now
Careers move quickly, so this section is dated. It reflects what we could find on 20 October 2026.
- Karen Carney: Express and Star described her in December 2025 as a broadcaster for TNT Sports and ITV Sport. We did not find a reported new show since.
- Chris McCausland: He is a stand-up comedian. A Chortle report from October 2024 said he added 100 dates to his “Yonks” tour, and a December 2024 report said he would not join the Strictly live tour because of the clash. We did not verify his 2026 diary.
- Dianne Buswell and Carlos Gu: Both are listed on Wikipedia among the professionals returning for series 24.
We did not research the whereabouts of earlier winners, and a reader seeking those should check each person’s own channels.
Facts: quick reference
- Series so far: 23 completed series, with series 24 under way. Wikipedia lists the series 24 hosts as Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe. The page gives no final date, and we found none.
- Winning professionals: 21 different people, two of whom have won twice.
- Winning celebrities: By our count, 13 men and 10 women.
- How scoring works: Judges score each dance out of ten. Their marks are combined with public votes, and the two couples with the fewest points face a dance-off. According to Wikipedia, series 22 gave Shirley Ballas the casting vote, and from series 23 the casting vote rotated between judges.
- Final audiences (Wikipedia): 9.94 million for series 22 and 8.49 million for series 23. These are as listed there, and the BBC may quote a different figure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has won Strictly Come Dancing the most times?
Among professional dancers, Aliona Vilani and Oti Mabuse have each won twice. Vilani won in 2011 and 2015, and Mabuse in 2019 and 2020. Every other winning professional has one Glitterball.
Who won Strictly in 2025?
Karen Carney and Carlos Gu won series 23. It was Carlos Gu’s first win. The runners-up were Amber Davies with Nikita Kuzmin and George Clarke with Alexis Warr, according to Wikipedia. The final aired on 20 December 2025.
Who won Strictly in 2024?
Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell won series 22 on 14 December 2024. McCausland was described as the first blind winner. Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec were listed as runners-up in the main series table.
Has a replacement professional ever won the Strictly final?
We found no case. In series 22, Lauren Oakley replaced Amy Dowden as JB Gill’s partner, and the couple were runners-up. We did not check every earlier series, so treat this as “none found” rather than a confirmed record.
Is there data on the height difference between Strictly champions and their partners?
We found no official source for partner heights, and unofficial figures vary. For that reason this guide does not compare champions by height. A reliable comparison would need a named source for each person’s height, and the date of measurement.
Has series 24 finished?
Not as of 20 October 2026. Series 24 is on air, and we found no confirmed final date. This page’s list ends at series 23 until the final has been shown and we have checked it against BBC sources.
