Taboola today published readership figures showing that news stories about Strictly Come Dancing generated 2.2 million page views across its publisher network over seven days, as the BBC One programme returned for its 24th series with a new presenting trio and a smaller live television audience than a year earlier.

In Short

Taboola, a company whose technology runs on many news websites, counted how often people opened articles about Strictly Come Dancing and found 2.2 million page views in the week the show came back. That matters to publishers and advertisers because the first live show averaged 4.8 million television viewers this year, down from 6.2 million for last year's opener, while stories about the show kept being opened for days afterwards. The numbers only cover websites that use Taboola, so they describe reading on that network rather than how closely the whole of the UK followed the programme online.

What the figures cover

The 24th series opened with a launch show on 19 September, according to Taboola, and the first live show followed on Saturday 26 September. Across the week the company measured, Strictly-related news stories on publisher sites carrying its technology reached 2.2 million page views. Reading peaked on Monday 28 September, two days after the live broadcast, at 680,000 page views.

That one Monday accounts for roughly 31% of the weekly total. Spread evenly, 2.2 million page views would come to about 314,000 a day; the Monday figure is a little over twice that level. The release gives no daily breakdown for the other six days. Nor does it specify the exact seven days measured, which leaves open whether the window began with the launch show, with the live show, or ran back from the date of publication.

Emmerdale, the ITV soap, was the second most-read-about television programme over the past week, at 527,000 page views, according to Taboola. Strictly's total was more than quadruple that. The comparison carries a caveat the company does not address: a soap that airs most weeknights throughout the year and a Saturday-night series that has just returned with new presenters produce different kinds of coverage. The release also does not say how an article is assigned to a programme when it mentions more than one.

The company does not name the product behind the figures. Its earlier UK readership releases, including a May analysis of energy-crisis coverage, came from Taboola Newsroom, an editorial analytics product Taboola has operated since 2016 that aggregates page view data across its publisher network.

Fewer viewers on the opening night

The first live show peaked at 5 million television viewers and averaged 4.8 million, according to Taboola. The first show of last year's series attracted 6.2 million. Measured against that figure, this year's average is about 23% lower and its peak about 19% lower.

Those percentages are approximate for reasons beyond rounding. The release does not identify the source of the viewing data, whether the figures are overnight or consolidated audiences, or whether the 6.2 million describes last year's average or its peak. It is also unclear whether "the first show" of 2025 means a launch programme or the first live show. This year the two were a week apart, so the choice matters.

Taboola's reading of the gap is that "readership interest lingered days after the show aired." No readership figure for last year's opening week accompanies the claim, however, so the 2.2 million cannot be set against a 2025 equivalent. The subheading of the release states that the programme "retains its spot as the most read-about British TV show", a phrase that implies an earlier ranking. None is published alongside it.

Pairing the two sets of numbers is the core of the release: a smaller linear TV audience, it suggests, did not mean reduced attention elsewhere. Television viewers and page views are different units, though. One viewer can generate several page views across a week, and a reader may never have watched the programme at all. The release makes no attempt to link the two populations, and the data as published could not support such a link.

There is a smaller inconsistency too. Taboola describes Strictly as "now in its 22nd year". The first series aired on BBC One in May 2004, which places the 2026 series in the programme's 23rd calendar year of broadcasting. The series count in the same release, 24, does fit the programme's history, because two series aired in 2004.

The presenter effect

The departure of Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, and the arrival of Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe as the new presenting line-up, were among the main talking points, according to Taboola.

Page views for Willis reached 1.7 million over 90 days, a 7,302% increase on the previous 45 days. Over the same 90 days, Widdicombe-related news reached 680,000 page views, while stories about Radebe were read 121,000 times. Willis accounted for about 2.5 times the reading of Widdicombe and roughly 14 times that of Radebe.

Unequal windows

The 7,302% figure compares periods of different lengths. If 1.7 million page views represent an increase of 7,302%, the 45-day base works out at roughly 23,000 page views, or about 510 a day. The 90-day total averages close to 18,900 a day. Measured day for day, the increase is about 37-fold, or roughly 3,600% - large by any standard, but around half the headline percentage. The release does not explain why a 90-day window was set against a 45-day one, or whether the 45 days immediately preceded the 90.

The three presenter totals also cannot be added together. An article that names all three presenters would count towards each, and the 90-day window stretches far beyond the launch week. Their combined 2.5 million therefore says nothing about the 2.2 million weekly figure.

One more detail sits unexplained. Widdicombe's 90-day total of 680,000 page views is identical to the figure Taboola gives for the whole programme on 28 September. The release presents both numbers without comment, and the match may simply be coincidence.

Taboola's interpretation

Dave Struzzi, Communications Lead at Taboola, said: "These numbers prove once again that the popular dance show remains the nation's favourite fix for reality TV and the continued appetite for Strictly-related news."

He added: "The new mix of personalities continue to draw in viewers and readers, and this series opener offered not only a new line-up of celebrity dancers but a new presenting trio, whose own performances got people talking."

"Prove" is a strong verb for a dataset confined to one company's network. The viewing figures in the same release show fewer people watching the opening live show than a year ago, which sits awkwardly with the claim that the new personalities are attracting viewers.

What the network sees, and what it misses

Taboola works with thousands of businesses that advertise directly on Realize, its advertising platform, reaching approximately 600 million daily active users across publishers including NBC News and Yahoo and device makers such as Samsung and Xiaomi, according to the company. The Strictly figures come from publisher pages carrying Taboola technology. In the UK, that footprint includes The Independent and the National World group, whose multi-year agreement from October 2024 covers more than 60 regional and national titles reaching 15 million monthly readers. Reach, publisher of Express and Daily Star, deployed Taboola's DeeperDive answer engine in February 2026, and HuffPost UK followed in April.

A page view records that a page loaded. It does not show that an article was read to the end, or why it was opened. Struzzi has acknowledged that page view data cannot distinguish a reader clicking through out of enthusiasm from one clicking through out of criticism, and the size of the UK subset behind Taboola's releases has not been disclosed. The sample reflects the editorial and audience mix of Taboola's partners rather than the UK market as a whole.

Taboola's previous UK releases provide a sense of scale. Post-match Super Bowl articles generated 2.6 million UK page views on Monday 9 February alone, a 63% increase on the 1.6 million recorded a year earlier. Fuel price stories passed 125,000 page views on 2 April, and Ryanair coverage reached 250,000 on 7 April. In June, the Ferrari Luce generated 158,000 UK page views in the week after its unveiling, and in August Tesco Clubcard articles rose to more than 335,000 page views over 30 days.

On those markers, a week of Strictly coverage sits about 14 times above the UK week Ferrari's car launch produced, and more than six times above a month of Clubcard stories. Its peak Monday, however, reached only about a quarter of the Monday after the Super Bowl. Which event, then, is larger? The answer depends heavily on the window chosen - a point that applies equally to the 90-day presenter figures.

Why the figures matter to publishers and advertisers

BBC One carries no advertising in the UK. The BBC does not raise advertising money for public service content within the UK, although it earns advertising revenue against programmes shown abroad. The commercial value of Strictly's audience inside the UK therefore accrues largely to the publishers writing about the programme, and to the advertising technology on their pages, rather than to the broadcaster.

Emmerdale's position is different. ITV sells advertising around the programme on linear television and on ITVX, its BVOD service. ITV reported first-half 2026 total advertising revenue of 850 million pounds, up 3%, and Sky and ITV confirmed on 6 July 2026 a transaction for ITV Media and Entertainment at up to 1.6 billion pounds, a deal that concentrates two of the UK's largest television advertising sales operations under common ownership. The second-ranked programme in Taboola's table can be monetised by its broadcaster. The first, in the UK, cannot.

For buyers who select placements by page content through contextual advertising, a weekly broadcast schedule produces a recurring and largely predictable shape: a launch, a Saturday live show and a reading peak the following Monday. Whether that shape repeats across later weeks of the series is a question today's release does not answer, since it covers only the opening.

Publishers have their own reasons to care about demand arriving on a timetable. Google Web Search fell from 51% to 27% of publisher referrals between 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2025, according to a Reuters Institute survey of media executives, and executives anticipated a further decline. Subjects with a known date attached - a live show, a deadline, a final - give editors a way to plan for traffic that does not depend on a search engine sending it.

Where the release sits in Taboola's year

Readership releases of this kind double as demonstrations of the reach Taboola sells to advertisers. The company's commercial year has been uneven. On 5 August, Taboola reported second-quarter revenue of $476.8 million, $15.2 million below the floor of its own guidance, after a Google spam policy ended Explore More, a session-extension product the company had expected to contribute more than $20 million of ex-TAC gross profit in the second half of 2026. Google had named back button hijacking a spam violation on 13 April, with enforcement from 15 June. Explore More had been part of the National World agreement.

Since then the company has pushed into formats beyond its recommendation widgets. On 19 August, Realize took over programmatic display on NBCNews.com and TODAY.com, extending Taboola into open-web display with a long-standing native partner. On 18 September it offered to acquire Dianomi, a finance-focused network serving more than 600 advertisers and publishers. Four days later it added an identity layer called Realize ID, citing an uplift of up to 2.4x without disclosing methodology.

Against that backdrop, a week of dance-show reading is a modest data point. It is one, though, that Taboola has chosen to publish with the full apparatus of a listed company: the release closes with a forward-looking statements disclaimer directing readers to the risk factors in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Taboola (Nasdaq: TBLA), the advertising technology company whose publisher network reaches approximately 600 million daily active users, published the figures. Dave Struzzi, Communications Lead at Taboola, commented. The subject is Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One and its presenters Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, who replaced Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly.

What: Strictly-related news stories generated 2.2 million page views in one week on Taboola's publisher network, peaking at 680,000 on 28 September. Emma Willis reached 1.7 million page views over 90 days, described as a 7,302% increase on the previous 45 days, a comparison of unequal windows that is closer to 3,600% on a daily basis. Emmerdale ranked second at 527,000. The first live show averaged 4.8 million television viewers, against 6.2 million for last year's first show.

When: Published today, 2 October 2026, covering a series that opened with a launch show on 19 September and a first live show on 26 September.

Where: UK publisher sites carrying Taboola technology, a sample that includes The Independent and National World's titles but whose overall size has not been disclosed.

Why: Taboola presents the data as evidence that interest in Strictly persisted despite a smaller opening television audience. For publishers and advertisers, the figures show where attention around a programme with no UK advertising of its own ends up - on third-party news pages - while the unequal comparison windows, undisclosed sample size and absence of a prior-year readership figure limit what the numbers can establish.